Students who attend a high school where a teacher recently admitted to using the n-word and parents said of black football players: “Their kind doesn’t belong on the field,” appears to have continued the community’s longstanding tradition by filming a video featuring pro-Holocaust white kids spewing racist slurs against blacks, Jews, mixed-race students and—worst of all, Democrats.
“Without the Holocaust, what would the world be like?” asks one student in a video making its rounds on the internet. According to AL.com, the inquisitive history buffs are students enrolled at Spain Park High School in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover, Ala.
“We wouldn’t have white people still,” one girl responds authoritatively. “All the niggers would be not here.”
“Jews would run the world,” exclaims another aspiring Nazi. His cohort simply adds, “fuck niggers” while the girl explains: “Jews are fine because they were white.”
Before ranting about how white people “run niggers” because they play football and create rap music, the fair-haired maiden tells her fellow racists: “It’s fine. We just need niggers gone. The mixed Oreos, what are we going to do with them?” to which her friend suggests, “Stick them in concentration camps.”
The incident reportedly took place off campus, during what one could only assume was a junior Klansmen of America meeting. Spain Park is 61 percent white, 22 percent black and apparently offers an honors civics class that teaches that the solution to white people’s problem is to “take out all the Democrats” because they “wanna take white people’s money who don’t want to work for it.”
“Honestly, I am so sick and tired of going through this same routine at Spain Park High School,” said Unique Simpson, a black Spain Park student. “I’ve been through so many personal experiences ... This needs to stop.”
As the video went viral, district administrators sent a message to parents saying, “We have been made aware of a recently posted video that features Hoover School System students who appear to be engaged in disturbing conduct.” The statement noted that “The activity apparently took place this past weekend at a private residence.
“Although it was not part of any school function,” the email continued, “the conduct in question is in direct conflict with our school system’s values and its mission. Our school administrators are carefully investigating the situation in order to assess our options under the Code of Student Conduct. In the meantime, the Hoover school community may be assured that the Board, together with its administrative and instructional staff, remains steadfastly committed to maintaining and strengthening a school culture that encourages and embraces diversity, inclusiveness, and tolerance.”
On Tuesday, Spain Park teachers held assemblies with each grade group to discuss the ramifications of the video, AL.com reports. According to Spain Park Senior Connor Welch:
Welch said during the first assembly he attended, being held for sophomores, Principal Larry Giangrosso led the assembly. “He talked in code,” Welch said, not directly addressing the heart of the matter, and students listened quietly.
After the assembly, Welch said, “I told Mr. G[iangrosso] I think that was a failed opportunity to really address the issue, which was racism.”
During the senior assembly, Welch said Giangrosso “called it what is was: racism,” then turned the assembly over to African-American students to share their thoughts about the video.
Welch said students were in tears. “It was so powerful,” he said, to hear directly from students impacted by the video. “The mood of the room shifted. People really opened up.”
Gordon Stewart, whose daughter is one of the Holocaust advocates in the video, apologized profusely for his daughter’s hot takes. Stewart, who also owns one of the largest car dealerships in the area sent out this tweet:
How did I know her name would be McKenzie?
If I had to guess her name, McKenzie would have been on my top ten list of Holocaust-loving teenage girls, somewhere between Amber and Hailey.
But if McKenzie’s actions don’t “accurately reflect” her family’s true feelings and are also “in direct conflict” with the Hoover School District’s values, where the hell did all of that come from?
Maybe McKenzie is a talented racism prodigy. She might be the Doogie Howser of neo-Nazis. Perhaps, in the wee hours of the morning, the racism fairy sneaks into McKenzie’s room and leaves a little bit of bigotry under her pillow. You can’t blame McKKKenzie’s teachers or her parents. Maybe it’s just in the water in Hoover, Ala.
In 2018, a Hoover, Ala. teacher resigned after telling a student who was playing Tupac to “turn the nigger tunes off.” A few weeks later, a set of different Spain Park students appeared in two separate videos screaming the n-word.
You might recall the story about Hoover City Schools’ attempt to reduce its nonwhite population by charging students fees to ride school buses until former Attorney General Eric Holder and the NAACP stepped in.
Hoover is the same city where 21-year-old Emantic Bradford Jr. was shot and killed by a police officer on Thanksgiving day. After initially telling that world that Bradford was an active shooter, Alabama’s attorney general later cleared the Hoover cops of any wrongdoing.
I’m sure that made McKenzie smile.