Concentration camps

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez grabbed headlines when she compared immigrant detention centers to concentration camps. A lot of people were offended that she would compare these facilities to those run by national socialists. Academic historians came to her rescue and insisted that the detention centers fit the historical classification. Some of them have even taken the time to explain what a concentration camp really is. Here is an example of a definition provided by someone defending the claim:

Concentration camps are any place where large numbers of people are held in poor conditions because of their nationality, ethnicity, religion or other characteristics rather than as individuals convicted of crimes.

Compare that definition to the American schooling system. One thing that I have noticed is that nothing in the definition insists that people must be held twenty-four hours a day. As long as that's not a defining characteristic, the schools more clearly fit the definition than the detention centers.

A lot of people include inhumane conditions as part of the requirements for classification as concentration camps. In schools, children are being deprived of fundamental human rights and freedoms such as the right to individuality and freedom of thought. Throughout this process, government workers bombard these children with emotional abuse. The negative consequences of schooling can and generally do linger into adulthood. In some cases, students have been known to resort to suicide. These conditions are legitimately resulting in loss of life.

Concentration camps are not facilities that people choose to join. The same could be said for our schools. Students have no say over whether or not they can attend.

Another big piece of concentration camps is that they target certain groups of people. In the case of schools, we are targeting American youth. These are not people who are being punished for any wrongdoing. The government is forcing them to suffer purely on the basis that they are in the wrong age range. All of this is without due process.

This is where schools fit the definition better than the migrant detention centers. Prisons are not considered to be concentration camps. Why? It's because they are being punished for crimes rather than for who they are. These detention centers exist for the purpose of detaining individuals who violate federal immigration law. In all fairness, a lot of this is prior to any trail. The important thing to realize is that they are not being punished for being a part of a certain group. They are being punished for their actions. Students, on the other hand, have done nothing to justify this sort of detainment.