Lay off comparisons to Nazis, Holocaust

As a member of the Jewish community in Chico, a board member for Chico Havurah, and the founder of COVID Responsible Places- Chico Facebook group, I am highly offended by Sean Morgan’s post comparing OSHA to Nazis, using Nazi imagery. Morgan seems unfit for the challenge of representing the public good of our city as he can neither grasp public safety, nor basic human dignity. Posting Nazi imagery is just as racist as posting Ku Klux Klan imagery. It is wholly hateful and inappropriate in nearly every context imaginable.

At a time when there are actual American Nazis, and incidents of antisemitism have been on the rise, his post is completely reprehensible. This is at least the second local incident of antisemetism in Chico in the past month. Please note that the Anti Defamation League has been included on copy of this email. They are already in possession of his post.

Beyond what I said to council, it’s important for people to understand that trite comparisons to the Holocaust are lazy, and minimize the horrors perpetrated by actual Nazis. We don’t have to borrow Germany’s shameful history to make a point. The USA has a lengthy history authoritarianism to draw from: Internment camps, McCarthyism, genocide of Native Americans, including the Yahi Tribe locally, separating children from parents at immigration detention centers, the recent use of military stormtroopers at Black Lives Matter protests, to name a few. The use of Holocaust imagery cannot be separated from the antisemetism at its core.

— Elizabeth Michelena, Chico