A group of students at Princeton High School played a game of “Jews vs. Nazis” beer pong in the basement of a Princeton home recently, and pictures of the game have spread on social media. Some parents and students have expressed outrage over the game, and one student has written a blog post about it.
“Jews vs. Nazis beer pong” is the same as regular beer pong, except cups are arranged in the shape of a swastika and a Star of David. The “Jews” are allowed to hide one of their cups as the “Anne Frank” cup and the “Nazis” are allowed to “Auschwitz” their opponents, meaning that one of their players must temporarily sit out.
The photo of the Princeton High students playing the game, sent to Planet Princeton by a handful of upset parents Wednesday night, shows seven students standing around a table with the red cups and a few dozen cans of Coors Light. Parents and students have identified some of the students in the photo as athletes and Teen PEP peer leaders at the school. Planet Princeton has blurred the faces in the photo because the people pictured are minors. Students say the under-age drinking games are a common occurrence on weekends, sometimes without the knowledge of parents, but often with their knowledge and consent.
A fellow student who was not at the game, but knows the people in the photo and saw the picture on social media, wrote a blog post Wednesday that has spread on Facebook. Jamaica Ponder, a junior at the school, wrote a piece expressing her dismay about the game. Her post was shared more than 750 times on Facebook as of early Thursday morning.
Ponder told Planet Princeton Wednesday that she first saw the photo on Snapchat and said it was still up about 24 hours after it was posted.
“I thought it was something people should see,” she said. “People should know this is going on in Princeton. I’m appalled that something like this would happen in our town. We have a large and prominent Jewish community. We pride ourselves on being open-minded, yet people are playing this game in the basement of a Princeton house.”
Ponder said even if the game is a joke, the punchline isn’t funny.
“I guess the punchline would be: genocide. Pardon me if I don’t find that to be hilarious,” she wrote on her blog. “The real joke here is that these kids weren’t only insensitive enough to play the game, but also silly enough to post it on Snapchat…Putting the picture on social media means that someone was proud enough of the game to want to show it off. Meaning that they must be trapped in the delusional mindset that making a drinking game based off of the Holocaust is cool. Or funny. Or anything besides insane. Because that’s what this is: insanity.”
Ponder also expressed shock that Jewish students were playing the game. She said she has spoken to everyone pictured in the photo after she posted the story on her blog, and the Jewish students told her they were too afraid to speak up even though they felt uncomfortable with the game.
Superintendent of Schools Steve Cochrane and School Board President Andrea Spalla have not responded to an email from Planet Princeton yet regarding the incident.
At least one of the students in the picture is the son of an employee for the school district.
After the story was posted, an anonymous person posted in the comment section of the story a racial slur against Ponder, who is black. The comment was made from the school district’s IP address, and the comment was deleted by Planet Princeton because of its offensive nature.
The Jews vs. Nazis beer pong game started to become a trend at high schools and colleges across the country around 2013. In some versions of the game, the players are supposed to say as many racist things as possible while playing. The Anti-Defamation League has called the beer pong game “profoundly offensive,” and has written stories about the issue, saying said the game underscores the critical need for Holocaust education.