Connie Ryan is Executive Director of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa and Action Fund.
Halloween is supposed to be light and fun. Whether kids are trick or treating or adults are hanging out together in costume. Ghosts and ghouls; villains and heroes; and everything in-between. Sometimes the costumes—usually worn by adults—are a little questionable. Sometimes there is no question at all.
On this year’s Halloween night in the very pleasant and ordinary suburb of Clive, Iowa, a man walked into a bar dressed as a Nazi.
A man wearing a full-blown Nazi uniform with all the paraphernalia is not even close to questionable. So many other words come to mind. Gross. Offensive. Horrifying. At the very least, it was dismissive of the pain of the Jewish community and possibly even a thinly veiled attempt to normalize hate.
Through various posts on social media, it appears many people saw him. And at least some were offended. Someone told the owner of the bar, after a staff member initially dismissed the uniform as “just a costume.” Now, facing a firestorm on social media, the owner says he regrets not taking it more seriously.
At what point did it become OK for a man to walk into a bar—or any public space—dressed in a full Nazi, Hitler-inspired uniform?
Freedom of speech. That was some of the defense that quickly came the man’s way. As if free speech should ever be a line of defense for donning the clothing of hate, bigotry, violence, and evil.
There has been an undeniable increase in antisemitism bolstered by the rise in division and hate we have seen across our nation for the last 10 years. White and Christian nationalists have been emboldened by the ultra-conservative political leaders of our times and it is doing real harm to the Jewish community, as well as many other communities that have faced decades and centuries of discrimination and hate in our country. In addition to the Jewish community, the Muslim and Sikh communities, people of color, the LGBTQ community, and immigrants have been impacted. Hate, bigotry, and violence haunt and stalk each of those communities.
When did it become OK to laugh at or even avert one’s eyes from actions that celebrate and perpetuate bigotry and hate? Especially in a nation of immigrants built on religious freedom and the basic freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.
I shouldn’t have to say this, but I will. Wearing a Nazi uniform perpetuates bigotry. Wearing a Nazi uniform stokes fear. Wearing a Nazi uniform is hate incarnate.
A Nazi walks into a bar. In this time when many worry, if not fear, that our nation is headed full boar into the arms of authoritarianism and fascism, what if in the very near future the Nazi uniform (or some semblance thereof) is not really a costume at all?
Should the man have thought better of wearing a Nazi uniform? Most definitely. Should the bar owner have denied him or any person wearing symbols of hate entrance into their establishment? Most definitely. Do we each have a role in calling out antisemitism when it rears its ugly head? I hope your answer is an emphatic “most definitely.”
Normalizing a uniform of hate that exalts antisemitism and contributed to the genocide of millions of Jews during the Holocaust is never, ever funny and should never, ever be celebrated in the form of a Halloween costume—or in any other manner. History should be the most important lever for understanding and standing up for this basic lesson of humanity.
Will we ever learn how to treat one another with decency and respect? Will we ever learn how every person and every group of people deserve to be protected from the throes of hate and bigotry and violence? We should always lean toward hope but, even more important, we must act. Every time.
Editor’s note from Laura Belin: Donnie Gardner’s Instagram account is now private. Over the weekend he posted this photo, captioned “Happy Halloween snowflakes!” and “We def upset some feelings tonight”
