Thread by @BuzzFeedNews

A photo of high schoolers giving Nazi salutes shook Baraboo, Wisconsin, but no one got the story right – not even the town itself.
buzzfeednews.com/article/joseph…

While students scrambled to explain the intent behind the photo, and town leaders rushed to defend them, Baraboo’s small Jewish community wanted answers, action, and most of all, apologies: “I was shocked by the silence,” one resident said. “And I still am.”

Social media’s hyperfocus on Baraboo as the “Nazi town” missed a broader point: The salute, or something like it, could have happened almost anywhere in the United States.

But it happened in Baraboo, and the town has struggled to reckon with the implications in months since.

While some of the boys have tried to make amends, the school district and local businesses have enacted a code of silence about the incident.

While the internet has changed the way teenagers test boundaries, it has also broadened the audience for these behaviors.

What’s clear: these images don’t, and can’t, exist within the simple context of boys being stupid in an anonymous town – not any longer.
buzzfeednews.com/article/joseph…