Calls for Punishing Shane Shuma ‘22 Grow After Anti-Semitic Video Surfaces
A screenshot of the video, which features Shuma the suit with a Carlisle High School Senior behind the camera, according to the video’s description.
The Dickinson Community has been calling for the punishment and expulsion of Shane Shuma ‘22 after a video surfaced from the YouTube account “Dson Action Now” on Friday, Feb. 19 of Shuma making antisemitic comments after starting the video by stating that he would be talking about “reasons why the Holocaust was a good thing.” Although the video was published on YouTube on Jan. 24 2021, the video was filmed in 2018 or early 2019 during Shuma’s first year at Dickinson.
“I was deeply disturbed and disappointed that a Dickinson student would participate in such an offensive video. I expect so much more from our students,” said President Margee Ensign. Ensign said that she was also horrified by the manner of the video “laughing and sharing untrue comments about the Holocaust, a genocide that has left its scar on humanity, is abhorrent.”
Ensign stressed the importance of supporting Dickinson’s Jewish community. “We need to support our Jewish community members and continue to work for a more just society,” said Enisng. She addressed the worries of Jewish students “I understand why Jewish students may feel unsafe, but I want to assure them that those involved in this video will be held accountable.”
“I am truly sorry if the jokes I made in that video hurt anyone’s feelings. That was never my intent,” said Shuma in an email to The Dickinsonian. “I was 16 years old, reading from a script I believed was for a film project.”
However, Shuma, who is now 19 years old, clarified that although he might have been young at the time, he objects to the notion that he put anyone in danger. “The video does not reflect who I am. But I also have to push back against the idea that telling jokes, even offensive jokes, poses a threat to anyone’s safety. We have to be able to distinguish satire from reality, and the idea that having told these jokes makes me a threat to anyone’s safety simply is not credible in any way,” said Shuma.
Ensign said that the college is investigating the situation and they are “making sure that all involved are held accountable.” According to Ensign, they will be sharing more information with the community as the situation progresses, but emphasized that the college cannot share the end result of the investigation due to FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) which protects student privacy.
“His comments are not just indicative of someone that this naive and bigoted but shows who he is as a student of this institution. And needs to receive consequences,” said Rachel Prince ‘21, president of Dickinson Hillel.
Shuma said that while he would not make the jokes again, they are not the only aspect of the video he would rethink. “The jokes I made in the video are definitely not jokes I would make again, even in a satirical context,” said Shuma. “But what is truly regrettable is that we now live in a climate so unforgiving that some bad jokes I told at age 16 have led to my home being vandalized, hate messages being sent to me personally, and everything I have at the College being taken away from me.”
“We now live in a climate where we are all judged, forever, on our worst moments or our dumbest decisions, regardless of our intent,” said Shuma. “And I ask, is this really the standard by which we all want to judge and be judged?”
Shuma was also terminated from his position as a writing tutor at the Norman M. Eberly Multilingual Writing Center as a result of this video.
Molly Gun ‘24 was startled when she first watched the video “what we saw in the video was a shocking display of apathy,” she said.
“To see someone so blatantly far removed from reality, and also from such a tragic event that countless people are still feeling the effects of, is striking,” Gun added.
“I was not surprised by these comments, antisemitism is engrained in cultural and political climates around the world, especially today in the US where antisemitic rhetoric and hate crimes are so prevalent due to widespread conspiracy and alt-right platforms,” said Sydney Lowey ‘24.
Additionally, Gun said that she feels his comments are “horribly offensive, and enough to scare any minority group,” and that she “feels unsafe,” knowing that some students feel free to speak that way on campus.
To stop future incidents from happening, “we as the student body can make the choice to be decent people by taking a proactive stance in calling out anti-Semitism and all forms of ignorance as soon as they come to our attention,” said Gun.
Gun is grateful to the many students and faculty who have called out his words but hopes that President Ensign words “not just for upfront appeasement, and will be rooted in action to make sure this incident is taken care of appropriately.”
“I believe that the best way to prevent anything like this incident from happening again is to hold accountability, educate our peers, and begin to include Jewish people in activism.” said Loewy.
President Ensign said that any Jewish students who need support should contact Rabbi Marley, who, “has been and will continue to be in regular communication with many of our [Dickinson’s] Jewish students.”
A petition to expel Shuma from Dickinson can be found here: https://www.change.org/p/dickinson-college-student-body-expel-shane-shuma?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_27522650_en-US%3A3&recruiter=1181627921&recruited_by_id=6357ec70-71e8-11eb-ad4b-210932e8fa15&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_abi&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial
Lawrence J Feldman • Feb 28, 2021 at 3:30 pm
Sorry, but there’s a huge difference between satire and hate. And this, despite one commenter, is not just an alt-right problem. Historical distortions, omission of inconvenient facts, and lack of context in Middle East discussion have filtered & fueled much anti-Semitism on the far Left, as evidenced clearly by BLM, the organization, and the vandalism with related hate graffitti at Jewish schools & houses of worship throughout this past year’s demonstrations.
Dalton • Feb 27, 2021 at 2:08 pm
Pretty disappointed in the amount of focus given in this article to Shane’s feaux apology and political posturing. This is exactly what he wanted to happen! Shane has made clear his position on “campus free speech” and was almost certainly looking for an opportunity to turn himself into one of the poor, oppressed, right-wing schmuck provocateurs he looks up to. And by featuring statements from him on that topic, you’ve played right into his hand. Nice going, Dickinsonian! How about we stop quoting the kids abhorrent views and instead focus on those affected? I know controversy is fun but you gotta stop giving him airtime. He’s made clear he doesn’t care about his impact on others.
Belinda S • Feb 27, 2021 at 9:31 am
Stop the cancel culture mob mentality. Learn how to deal with opposing viewpoints.
I might not agree with something but that doesn’t mean I eliminate that person. Look back on history and see where that gets us.
Brooks • Feb 27, 2021 at 8:54 am
Shane may have been 16 when he made the video, but he was a freshman in college – lets be clear, he was a young adult.
This is not some video that resurfaced from highschool. Hold him accountable for the actions & content he deliberately chose to take & produce.
There are no excuses for this kind of behavior.
Anonymous • Feb 26, 2021 at 9:43 pm
Firstly, I want to make it clear that I heavily, heavily condemn Shuma’s comments. My heart goes out to those particularly in the Jewish community who were hurt by this. They were incredibly offensive and even if he said that at 16, it shows a lot about his character. As the other two comments pretty much lay out, he is a reprehensible human being whose apology was insufficient. He is an insult to the College and should face some sort of punishment.
Nonetheless, I do not think he should be expelled from Dickinson and I urge people not to sign the petition. I will not blame anyone who ignores this and signs it, but I beg you to consider the issue.
Shuma made what was clearly an attempt at satire at the age of 16. Yes, it was very poor and incredibly offensive, but nonetheless it was made to be something one has to laugh at. He did not directly threaten one’s well-being or try to threaten the well-being of an entire community. He did not attempt to harass someone or an entire-community either. He made these comments many years ago now, and yes he should know better at 16 but he made this bad attempt at satire years before he even began attending this institution. This video, as far as I am aware, was not uploaded on Youtube or any social media site when it was made, and Shuma himself believed it was merely for a project.
Again, his comments were horrible, he is clearly a disgusting human being for making jokes over among the greatest genocides in history, but I find it difficult to see how this meets the threshold warranting an expulsion. He should definitely be punished, I agree that his work at the College should have been terminated and we should consider a suspension, but an expulsion is too much for a (disgusting, distasteful) attempt at satire meant to be completely private and made well before he was accepted at Dickinson. An expulsion from a university can be life-destructing, practically destroying one’s ability to attend another institution or attain any worthy occupation especially considering that he would be expelled for anti-semitism. Yes, he probably deserves this, but does this action warrant it? Martin Shkreli is a horrible person who deserves the worst, but he should not be jailed for merely raising the price of a pharma drug (they should be nationalized again, but nonetheless). Shuma might be a horrible person who did an incredibly offensive thing, I do not think so.
Dickinson should punish him and perhaps suspend him, they should provide classes on Holocaust-awareness or awareness of the harm of racism, etc, but expelling Shuma on this incident alone is not something I think we should get behind. I cannot in good conscious put my name on the petition even if he is a terrible person. If you do though, I do not blame you.
Mariah • Feb 26, 2021 at 2:25 pm
I’m a Dickinson alum. I’m a Jew. And I’m the grandchild and descendent of innumerable Holocaust victims and survivors. Nothing Shane has said/written constitutes a real apology, or any form of rehabilitation. He is more concerned to how his actions have been seen and reacted to, but how viscerally evil his “jokes” are. Not were, are. He has clearly not changed, he’s only gotten caught.
While he may believe that offensive jokes do not have real world consequences, he is objectively wrong, ignorant, and unspeakably privileged to truly believe this. An example of this is rape jokes. Yes, we all “know” rape is wrong. But do people understand why? Do they understand any of the nuance? How survivors feel and navigate the world after an attack? The real issue is that rape jokes enable rapists, regardless of who is telling them. Yes, the joker might believe everyone understands it’s a “joke,” but there will always be a fraction of listeners who are emboldened by hearing their thoughts said aloud by others. The same is true of antisemitic jokes. Shane might not believe them, but I’m positive he has countless friends and classmates who saw this video and said “finally, someone is saying it, someone is brave enough to joke about it.”
It’s not bravery. It’s not about asserting your right to free speech (which is completely irrelevant at a private institution). Shane decided he was not going to hide his nastiness because he did not foresee a response or threat. We need to make an example of him. White students should be AFRAID to be racist. Gentile students should be AFRAID to say something anti-semitic. We must recognize these occurrences are not happening on an individual level and that Shane is not the only bad apple. Dickinson must do better to ensure these things are unimaginable. Dickonson’s roots are rotted.
Sivan Komatsu • Feb 26, 2021 at 11:57 am
It’s despicable (and unsurprising) that Shane’s “apology” nearly entirely consists of deflecting the blame from himself to the “climate”, somehow insinuating that the fact that he’s facing consequences for his actions is worse than his disgusting anti-Semitism, making himself out to be the victim. We all knew that he was going to attempt to justify his actions by claiming they were satirical and blame everyone but himself for the consequences he is facing, with absolutely no regard for the safety and wellbeing of the Jewish community. The classic tactic of putting one’s bigoted actions up for debate as a tool of deflection from accountability is so tiredly predictable. Clearly, he doesn’t understand (or, more accurately, doesn’t care to understand) the progression of satire and hate speech to physical violence. Shane Shuma is an embarrassment to Dickinson College.