Police in Newport Beach, Orange County, California, are investigating a tweet image-gone viral of teenagers at a party playing Beer pong with red cups arranged in the shape of a swastika and waving the Nazi salute.
Beer pong is a drinking game in which players throw a ping-pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer on the other end. Each team takes turns attempting to shoot ping-pong balls into the opponent’s cups. If a ball lands in a cup, the beer in that cup are consumed by the other team and the cup is removed from the table. The first team to eliminate all of the opponent’s cups is the winner.
Photos of a high school party shared all over social media showing red cups in a swastika shape all while doing the Nazi salute sparking outrage in the Orange County community. Students and parents spoke with tonight. pic.twitter.com/wSIW17O9j1
— Katherine Picazo (@KatPicazoo)
ABC News reported the image was snapped at a recent party, and it allegedly features students who attend Newport Harbor High School.
The OC Register quoted school board president Charlene Metoyer, who said: “I was simply devastated to see that…This is appalling to not just our Jewish student community, but to all of us who care about human rights.”
I condemn this display of a hateful, anti-semitic symbol and call on parents and community leaders to redouble our efforts to educate young people about the history of violence against Jewish people worldwide. This has no place in Orange County. https://t.co/Fo8FNrwJCV
— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter)
Rep. Katie Porter, first Democrat elected in California’s 45th congressional district, tweeted in response: “I condemn this display of a hateful, anti-Semitic symbol and call on parents and community leaders to redouble our efforts to educate young people about the history of violence against Jewish people worldwide. This has no place in Orange County.”
The OC Register also quoted director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, Brian Levin, who said: “This is the kind of image I’m used to seeing when I’m looking at gatherings of violent skinheads, not high school students in one of the most acclaimed school districts in the country.”
“This is not an accidental or impulsive expression of bigotry,” Levin said, adding, “This was premeditated based on the group of people, the Hitler salute and the carefully arranged cups. These folks knew there was a chance this image could get out. But, there is obviously no compunction whatsoever.”
According to OC Weekly, one of the students shared on social media: “To us it’s like the ‘n’ word, where it doesn’t mean slavery it’s a way to address people, and now the holocaust is the new ‘n’ word and it’s sad but it’s the truth.”
The same student also posted that “I’m deleting social media because I can’t take the criticism for posting one photo. I did not intend to make anyone upset. It got blown out of proportion.”
Another student apologized: “We thought of this as a joke because in our heads we don’t think of it as a big deal but when it gets blown up like this it makes us think and we realize it was terrible and we apologize.”