A high school freshman was furious after her teacher made an assumption about her ancestry and used her as an example to make a point while lecturing on a shameful chapter in world history.
Redditor Throwawaybecaucsea reacted out of indignation and visited the “Am I the A**hole” (AITA) subReddit where she asked strangers on the internet:
“AITA for reporting my teacher for practically implying that I’m a nazi?”
The Original Poster (OP) wrote:
“So (14 f[emale]) I’ve been going to school in person since August. I’m a high school freshman and one of my classes is world history.”
“Yesterday, we started on the holocaust. Before we started the unit, he explained to us that he is Jewish, and his great-grandpa was a victim of the holocaust and that he might get a bit emotional while teaching.”
“My teacher was explaining to us nazi standards, and he decided to use me as an example. I am a very pale, blue-eyed, blonde girl, but I have Jewish ancestors (i am not Jewish because I am atheist, but it is still my blood and my family that had to suffer.), which I guess he didn’t know.”
“He looked at me and said, ‘op, the nazis would’ve LOVED you. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if you had nazi blood in you.'”
“I was f’king appalled. I knew this teacher didn’t like me, but he crossed the line when he compared me to a f’king nazi.”
“I’m not going to lie, I lost my sh*t. I got up and walked out the door and called my mom to pick me up. (no I am not supposed to just leave, but I did it anyway.)”
“I told my mom what happened and she called the school and raised hell. She is friends with the principal and he insured her that he would either be reprimanded or released from his position. I think he’s getting what he deserves.”
“But my friend mia who actually really likes him, called me an overdramatic b*tch and that I just ruined someone’s livelihood which made me feel really guilty.”
“AITA?”
“(i forgot to mention the way he said it. He didn’t say it like a teacher making a connection or something to explain better, he said it aggressively and was pretty snarky about it. Which is one of the reasons I walked out.)”
Strangers on the internet were asked to declare one of the following:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
- NAH – No A**holes Here
A majority of Redditors shared the OP’s frustration and called NTA.
“NTA. So, here’s the deal: parents complain all the time. About almost anything; it just happens. When you’re dealing with about 500-1000 sets of parents, statistics almost guarantee there are a few sh*t-stirrers in the pot.”
“No principal is going to fire someone just because a parent complained about them unless they did something fireable.”
“Making a Jewish student so uncomfortable she had to leave the room because he associated her with Nazis? Definitely something a principal is going to look into.”
“And if he loses his job (unlikely, honestly, unless he has further strikes against him), it’s not because of anything you did. It’s because he made a bad choice and that bad choice has consequences.” – bethfromHR
“It’s also just kind of a terrible thing to say to ANY student, even one who isn’t Jewish.”
“I am mixed Native American/creole and a myriad of Mediterranean/Northern African cultures on my dad’s side, Irish and French on my mom’s. I look mixed. My name is a Creole/Native name.”
“My husband is dark-skinned Spanish on his dad’s side, first generation Irish and German on mom’s side. That German and Irish won our BIG with our first son. He’s blonde, blue-eyed, pale.”
“Our Jewish friend joked that he looks like Hitler’s dream while being Hitler’s nightmare – he looks aryan, but he has mixed blood and ‘bad genes’ in the nazi-verse.”
“My second son is brown. Our family picture looks like a billboard for fostering and adoption. Genes are weird.”
“Both of my sons are probably distantly related to Nazis from 1940 because their Great grandmother was a German immigrant. And I would still be f’king pissed if a teacher used them as an example of Nazi genes like being a nazi is a genetic disorder.”
“No one is born a f’king bigoted nazi. You become that. It doesn’t matter if OP’s Jewish ancestors had married German families that were related to Nazis. I’ve not studied the entire genome or anything, but I’m pretty sure no one has identified the ‘nazi’ gene.”
“Things can be true, and also totally inappropriate for a teacher to say about a child IN CLASS. so what if OP is actually distantly related to some Nazis? That doesn’t make it okay to use her as an example EVEN IF YOU KNEW IT WERE TRUE.”
“we’re not talking about calling out an actual nazi here, we’re taking about a teacher projected some negative feelings about blondes onto an actual student. And that is gross any way you slice it.” – Jade_Echo
“That is just so insensitive and rude. If there is anyone trying to remember what they did, and activly are still trying to take responsebility and learn from their mistakes, it’s the germans.”
“And to compare a modern german to the nazis, thinking about how mutch they do to never repeat it again. It’s just so dumb, they have gotten enough sh*t for it as it is.”
“It’s still new that they don’t get treated like shit for that anymore. Like probobly the last 20 years or so.” – sicca3
“The argument could be made that he just had a ‘unique’ teaching style that pushed students out of their comfort zone in an attempt to make them realize how close we all are to that behavior/ideology. (It’s a bullsh*t claim, but I’ve seen it work before.)”
“The fact that he is targeted one of a (presumably) few/the only Jewish student in class to make this point then makes a discrimination argument stronger.”
“He’s an a**hole and a terrible teacher regardless, but school boards will often look right over a**hole behavior in favor of test scores or some other matter, whereas discrimination claims could turn this from a reprimand to a suspension or termination.” – bethfromHR
“NTA!!! My great grandfather WAS a Nazi. He was an ss officer who worked in Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is a deep shame in my family and when I found out it kind of really f’ked me up and I became obsessed with learning everything I could about the holocaust.”
“Knowing that someone in your ancestry committed those types of horrors creates such shame and guilt inside you. I can’t imagine if a teacher would’ve said something so awful to me.”
“That teacher absolutely needs to be fired. He literally called a student a NAZI. I just cannot fathom how he could’ve thought that was even remotely acceptable.” – HailScones
When the OP was asked why the teacher didn’t like her, she explained:
“He just didn’t. Whenever I asked questions he’d either get snarky or roll his eyes, yell at me for not paying attention, and then not answer the questions.”
Overall, Redditors declared NTA and sympathized with the OP for what she went through in class.