Florida Senate - 2020 (NP) SR 214 By Senator Rodriguez 37-00393-20 2020214__ 1 Senate Resolution 2 A resolution rejecting and condemning white 3 nationalism and white supremacy as hateful expressions 4 of intolerance which contradict the values that define 5 the people of Florida and the United States. 6 7 WHEREAS, in a 2006 assessment, the Federal Bureau of 8 Investigation (FBI) found that white supremacists believe that 9 the white race is superior to all other races, that nonwhites 10 are subhuman, and that the white race was created to rule over 11 other races, and 12 WHEREAS, in that assessment the FBI stated, “To be a white 13 nationalist is to be pro-white. The domestic white nationalist 14 movement seeks to promote, honor, and defend the white race. 15 They (White nationalists) believe the white race is under attack 16 from Jewish interests that dominate the government (referred to 17 as the Zionist Occupied Government, or ZOG), the media, banking, 18 and entertainment industries and act to the detriment of the 19 white race. White nationalists view multiculturalism, diversity, 20 and illegal immigration as direct assaults on the white race and 21 race-mixing as akin to white genocide. They hope to appeal to 22 mainstream whites, believing that the majority of white people 23 do not understand the imminent or long-term threat to their 24 race. Many contend that a race war, often referred to as RAHOWA, 25 or Racial Holy War, is a certainty,” and 26 WHEREAS, white supremacy and white nationalism are contrary 27 to the ideals of the United States, which was established 28 according to the principle stated in the Declaration of 29 Independence that all men are created equal, a principle that 30 was updated in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, to include women, 31 and 32 WHEREAS, white supremacy and white nationalism are contrary 33 to the ideals of the State of Florida as expressed in the State 34 Constitution, which declares that “all natural persons, female 35 and male alike, are equal before the law and have inalienable 36 rights, among which are the right to enjoy and defend life and 37 liberty, to pursue happiness, to be rewarded for industry, and 38 to acquire, possess and protect property. No person shall be 39 deprived of any right because of race, religion, national 40 origin, or physical disability,” and 41 WHEREAS, Abraham Lincoln, in an 1858 speech, said of the 42 founders of our nation, “Wise statesmen as they were, they knew 43 the tendency of prosperity to breed tyrants, and so they 44 established these great self-evident truths, that when in the 45 distant future some man, some faction, some interest, should set 46 up the doctrine that none but rich men, or none but white men, 47 were entitled to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, their 48 posterity might look up again to the Declaration of Independence 49 and take courage to renew the battle which their fathers began 50 so that truth, and justice, and mercy, and all the humane and 51 Christian virtues might not be extinguished from the land; so 52 that no man would hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the 53 great principles on which the temple of liberty was being 54 built,” and 55 WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., while recognizing 56 that “no other nation can mean to us what our nation means,” 57 condemned “nationalism perverted into chauvinism and 58 isolationism” as “preached by...the advocators of white 59 supremacy” and asked, “Will we continue to serve the false god 60 of racial prejudice or will we serve the God who made of one 61 blood all men to dwell upon the face of the earth?”, and 62 WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan observed in a 1988 speech, 63 “Anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in 64 America and become an American... This, I believe, is one of the 65 most important sources of America’s greatness. We lead the world 66 because, unique among nations, we draw our people— our strength 67 from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing 68 so we continuously renew and enrich our nation. While other 69 countries cling to the stale past, here in America we breathe 70 life into dreams. We create the future, and the world follows us 71 into tomorrow. Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land 72 of opportunity, we’re a nation forever young, forever bursting 73 with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, 74 always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is 75 vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to 76 new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost,” 77 and 78 WHEREAS, according to FBI statistics, hate crimes 79 nationwide increased in 2015, 2016, and 2017, the three most 80 recent years for which data is available, and 81 WHEREAS, the perpetrator of the shooting that killed nine 82 African-American worshippers at Emanuel African Methodist 83 Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, 84 2015, was motivated by white supremacy and white nationalism to 85 carry out this act of terrorism, and stated that he would “be 86 rescued by white nationalists after they took over the 87 government,” and 88 WHEREAS, the perpetrator of the shooting that killed 11 89 Jewish worshippers at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, 90 Pennsylvania, on October 27, 2018, accused Jewish people of 91 “waging a propaganda war against Western civilization” and 92 “committing genocide” against whites by promoting immigration 93 and refugee resettlement, and accused the President of being “a 94 globalist, not a nationalist” because of the “infestation” of 95 Jews, and 96 WHEREAS, the suspected perpetrator of the shooting that 97 killed at least 22 people in El Paso, Texas, on August 3, 2019, 98 is believed to have posted a document espousing white 99 nationalist views and expressing racist hatred toward immigrants 100 and Hispanics just minutes before the attack, NOW, THEREFORE, 101 102 Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida: 103 104 That white nationalism and white supremacy are rejected and 105 condemned as hateful expressions of intolerance which contradict 106 the values that define the people of Florida and the United 107 States.