Opinion: Nazis aren't funny and hate isn't news

It is not news that hateful people and organizations exist in the world. However, The Enquirer has twice in as many months uncritically gifted an elevated platform to violently anti-Semitic and racist members of hate groups, none of whom actually live in Cincinnati. Imagine what could have been covered, had The Enquirer’s leadership chosen to invest its resources into those movements in our city that are working to foster understanding, inclusion and celebrate our city’s diversity. 

Let us be direct. For Michelle and me, these editorial decisions triggered an emotional terror that reaches back to generations of religious and ethnic persecution. The reporting horrified us because it validated and normalized those people and efforts that actively seek to snuff out the existence of our children, our family and our home.

It’s inexcusable.

More:Neo-Nazis have set up shop here. This is why.

Throughout the most recent article, photos present Nazis as happy, unified, thoughtful and heroic. They could be cut and pasted into a 1930s Nazi propaganda portfolio. There are only two dissenting photos. One frames the senior historian of the Freedom Center as an angry black man – which demeans his integrity as a learned scholar – and the other shows disheveled protesters, one of whom is wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt. If the intention of reporting is to show a duality within the Nazi community (I.e. hate v. humanity), here it fails.

This article gives unquestionable prominence and respect to those people who want to eradicate Jewish Americans, while simultaneously sidelining the mainstream as the “other"; as aggressive and dissenting. The Enquirer frames and supports this story with imagery that could be taken as racist or anti-Semitic propaganda. 

While we appreciate the editor’s stated intent was to “expose” and remove “a cloak of anonymity” from white nationalists, the reality is that this piece – as written – paints Nazis as simple-minded and disorganized. The tone is clear: they’re a joke.

Here’s the rub: Nazis aren’t funny.

They actually murdered six million of our people inside the span of a few mid-20th century years. They gassed us, and when more convenient, they had us dig ditches, lined us up and peppered us with bullets until we fell into graves dug with our own hands. Nazis are not sideshows. They’re not clowns. Their history is dark and deadly, and if the opportunity presented itself, they would do it again today without a moment’s hesitation. So to treat these stories with such levity is to disregard the fact that many people who read them have family members who did not survive the above terrors inflicted on an entire people.

Finding the will to write how and why irresponsible journalism about Nazis impacts us has been an exercise in heartbreak. And what makes this entire experience all the more disappointing is that it feels to us that it has been met with unanimous silence throughout Southwest Ohio. What we need in moments like these are leaders who would stand with Cincinnati’s Jewish community and other targeted groups to speak out clearly and unabashedly against hatred. Otherwise, it is left to families such as ours to use what voice we have.

What we know is this: Hate and violence thrive in the vacuum of leadership. Unless those with power take a stand against violent factions who live among us, they will grow in strength. 

If our region’s current leadership is unwilling or ill-equipped to use their voices to protect, defend and celebrate difference, then we – and those like us – shall do so in their absence. Though we cannot do it alone, we will not yield one inch of this city’s greatness to the destructive and violent forces of hate that seek to inhabit and undermine it.

Northside residents Leo and Michelle D’Cruz are business partners, parents of two strong children, and will soon celebrate their 10th year together in an interfaith marriage.