University of Michigan regent Jordan Acker will lead Donovan Edwards and the football team on a tour of the The Zekelman Holocaust Center

I surely hope they do think about it. The tweet was inappropriate whether it was unintended or not, and both his statement and the action by the University are necessary, as is any publicity that this gets on Saturday.

There is some pretty batshit antisemitic stuff out there in the mainstream and it takes assertive public action and commitment to stop it.

The fact that you think anger about player retweeting a grossly antisemitic tweet this is “ridiculous” says a lot about you. 

Did the whole team suddenly require a holocaust refresher?

YES.

Next stupid fucking question?

Jfc. Doing *nothing* is the only way to avoid the “it’s PR!” tag. Instead, they’re taking the opportunity to educate college kids.

Glad some of y’all aren’t in leadership positions at any institutions I give a shit about.

Maybe you'd appreciate this historical reminder and public relations heads-up. One of the heroes of the Holocaust is a Michigan graduate, Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg.  And this hero is remembered by name and memorial at the university and in the largest Holocaust Memorial Museum in America, in Washington, DC which is located on a street named after him. 

His role during the Holocaust was recently recounted as part of Ken Burns documentary, US and the Holocaust. Interestingly, Ken attended and graduated from Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor in 1971 while his father taught at Michigan. Burns made his first foray into the documentary film world using an 8 mm camera he got for his 17th birthday to film a documentary on an Ann Arbor factory. Burns eventually turned down a reduced tuition opportunity at Michigan to attend school at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. 

A Swedish architect, businessman and diplomat, Wallenberg helped save thousands of Jews in German occupied Hungary by issuing protective passports and documents and sheltered Jews in buildings designated in Swedish territory.

Wallenberg studied architecture at Michigan in 1931-1935. Upon returning to Sweden, he discovered that his American degree didn't permit him to practice as an architect in his home country. Wallenberg is believed to have died in a Russian prison at 39, five years after he initially disappeared on Jan. 17, 1945, and apparently picked up for suspicion of espionage by the Red Army, four months before the end of World War II. The circumstances and  details of his death in a Soviet prison remain speculative as do his alleged ties to US intelligence. 

Some have estimated that Wallenberg had a hand in rescuing some 100,000 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, although historians believe that number to be overly inflated and that he is likely responsible for the rescue of 4,500. Wallenberg has received numerous memorials, monuments and honors for his humanitarian efforts including being named an honorary citizen of Canada, Israel, Hungary, Australia and the United States, one of only two people ever accorded that honor in this country. 

Based on some of your responses, it seems like you could use a refresher

It probably depends on the school and class. The textbook we use in my class has one page of information about the holocaust.* That is not sufficient.  

I provide each student with a victim of the holocaust, made available online by the Holocaust Museum in DC. They all share out what is happening to their individual for 4 days, I lecture shortly, and then we watch a segment of the film The Pianist (recommended by my Holocaust professor although it does not involve the camps). It is probably the historical event I spend the most time and effort on but that is my choice to do so. Students also read Night the following year in English.

Michigan State Standards is as follows:

7.2.6 Case Studies of Genocide – analyze the development, enactment, and consequences of, as well as the international community’s responses to, the Holocaust (or Shoah), Armenian Genocide, and at least one other genocide.

There is also an obscure and unenforced law stating Michigan teachers must teach 6 hours of Genocide history.

*I do not use the textbook in my class

Just because someone taught it doesn't mean it was learned and understood. When you have loud prominent characters spouting out incoherent misinformation, someone who is young, idealistic, and in many ways still naive can easily make a mistake like this because they don't understand the full context. 

The offense is that he retweeted something from a (in)famous guy with a loud voice. Maybe he didn't fully understand it, maybe he didn't think enough about it before hitting retweet, maybe he thought he was retweeting something else. I don't know, but I also think we need to take things at face value and let the adults in the room do what they need to do without armchair quarterbacking this to death. 

I would also state that Jews (and really any minority group, including European immigrants) have had a difficult time in this country, some moreso than others. Jews have a long history in the US of facing discrimination. So do Asians. So do Latinos. Depending on where/when you lived, so did the Irish, Germans, Polish, and others. 

The bigger issue is with people like Kanye West, Alex Jones, etc. who know just enough to be dangerous, twist the truth with their skewed outlooks on the world, have an outsized platform from which to spew their nonsense, and the influence they have on those who don't (and maybe should) know better. 

I spent the Cuban Missile Crisis years in a small house directly under the flight path of the B52's leaving and returning from Tinker AFB, at the time the largest SAC Base in the world. I would sneak out of bed and hide around the corner listening to my dad and a few of the older NCO's he knew talk. I first heard of The Holocaust there. I don't recall learning anything about it in school. Of course, that was grade school in the southern part of Oklahoma. Maybe a change in locales was the answer.

Fast forward a few years - Jr. HIgh in Long Island. I think there might be a small Jewish population on LI I  knew more then, I was an avid reader and a history buff. My best friend had an aunt who had survived a camp as a young woman, she wore a tattoo. I still don't recall learning a lot about it in school.

OK, maybe high school. I graduated from Birmingham Seaholm, I believe there may have been a few Jewish people around, our running back being one of them. I had a fantastic history teacher and while we touched on it, we did not learn that much about the Holocaust.

I have to say I am impressed with your experience. It must have been one hell of a school.

Good points.  And education for the entire team and not just singling Donovan out is a great idea and stresses the team, the team, the team.  Also because the football players spend a lot of time with each and probably have a ton of conversations and they can also share similar beliefs as a result.  Nip the whole thing in the bud.

Antisemites and other bigots view empathy and critical thinking as weaknesses. They won't change until they have to or they're dead.

Preferably the latter.