Florida has been full of Nazi news lately.
Neo-Nazi groups have staged demonstrations near Disney and in Altamonte Springs. They’ve blanketed neighborhoods with flyers, urging others to “protect the purity of the white Aryan woman.”
One neo-Nazi was arrested for criminal mischief Sunday. Another was arrested a few days earlier.
A man used a rifle with a swastika on it to slaughter three people in Jacksonville.
Rolling Stone assessed the stories, root causes and reactions, concluding: “Neo-Nazis Gloat as Florida Becomes a Magnet for Hate”
This may make you mad. Or sad. It should. But don’t you dare act surprised.
Because this is an ugly, natural extension of the divisive culture wars that have been celebrated in Florida in recent years. You can’t demonize gay people and Black people and then go: Gee, I wonder why some folks are also demonizing Jewish people?
Labor Day weekend neo-Nazi demonstrations near Disney, Altamonte Springs prompt outrage
Besides, neo-Nazi groups don’t just preach hate against Judaism. They also demonize people of color and different sexual orientation.
As Mike Igel, chairman of the Florida Holocaust Museum, said in a recent Sentinel story: “You don’t meet a bigot, a neo-Nazi who says, ‘I hate Jewish people but I sure do love the gay community or the Black community.’ ”
Hate doesn’t happen in a vacuum. If love is love is love, then hate breeds hate breeds hate.
So when you see a politician who responds to a group that targets black people, gay people and Jewish people by saying only: “But I love the Jewish people,” they’re showing themselves.
Experts: Hatred links Jacksonville shooting, antisemitic displays in Central Florida
I don’t lay this rise in extremism and extremist-related incidents — an 80% increase in Florida over the last two years, according to the Anti-Defamation League — at the feet of any single politician. Nor do I believe all members of any one party are to blame. I’ve found that neither bigotry nor compassion is limited to any one political party.
But there’s a growing segment of politicians on the right who’ve decided the easiest way to build a rabid following is by vilifying already marginalized communities. So they peddle a nonstop narrative of you-vs.-them:
THEY are coming for your job. Or your kid’s spot on the swim team. Or your freedom of religion.
THEY want to make you feel guilty about your past. And to recruit your children.
You are a victim, a target. Let us protect you … from them.
It’s all music to the ears of neo-Nazi recruiters.
Reasonable people can certainly have different opinions on sensitive topics, whether it’s affirmative action or transgender competitors in sports.
But too often, we don’t see reasonable. Instead, we see transgender people labeled as freaks, Black protestors labeled as animals and gay citizens and their allies being called “groomers.” Not by rogue, swastika-toting Nazis, but by top state officials, state legislators or even from inside the governor’s office.
Volusia County Republican Rep. Webster Barnaby referred to LGBTQ citizens who had testified against a proposed bill in Tallahassee as “demons” and “mutants.”
If you don’t understand why that’s not OK, listen to Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood, who said comments like that “put a target” on the backs of transgender citizens, adding: “It’s not OK to dehumanize people who aren’t hurting anyone.”
You think comments like Barnaby’s don’t embolden neo-Nazis?
Or from Rep. Randy Fine, a Brevard County Republican who is quick to decry antisemitism even as he disparages other marginalized groups.
Fine has targeted LGBTQ citizens with both legislation and rhetoric, accusing them of “grooming” children and mocking their requests for dignity. “I was just asked my pronouns,” Fine said on Facebook last year. “For future reference, they are: You / Are / A / Fu&$ng / Moron.”
This from a guy who claims he’s been approached about leading a state university.
A lot of people don’t understand why it’s OK to vilify one minority group but not others. I don’t. Neither do many kids.
So while there’s a surge in neo-Nazi incidents among in Florida, there shouldn’t be any surprise that we’re also seeing it among our youth — with swastikas showing up on bathroom and school walls at high schools in Orange and Volusia counties. Even at a K-8 school in Seminole.
The kids are watching the adults. And they’re learning — not only how to hate, but how to feel emboldened about doing so out loud.
So if you’re appalled by Hitler salutes and White supremacist talk, good. You should be.
But don’t you dare act surprised. Especially if you keep supporting the people serving up this divisive, toxic stew.
smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com
