Sen. Rick Scott stood beside a boxcar of the kind that once carried people to death camps and asked a question. “Many suffocated in boxcars like these before they even made it,” he said. “It all started with questions like the one before us today: Are we going to tolerate this?”
The Monday press conference took place at the Florida Holocaust Museum, where Scott spoke from a lectern marked “Don’t. Fund. Antisemitism.” Holocaust survivors and Jewish leaders stood with him, along with fellow Sen. Ashley Moody and Charlie Crist, the former Republican governor who is now a Democratic candidate for mayor of St. Petersburg.
The target was Ye, who used to be known as Kanye West. He has concerts booked at Raymond James Stadium on June 26 and 28. The Tampa Jewish Federation and the Florida chapter of the National Organization for Women have objected, and the museum said it would offer free admission that weekend.
The letter and the reply
On June 4, Scott sent a scathing open letter to the Tampa Sports Authority, which operates the stadium. His argument: taxpayer money should not fund events for an artist who sold swastika merchandise and posted a song called “Heil Hitler” last year.
“People say, ‘Oh, it’s just a concert. Oh, the Tampa Bay Sports Authority is going to make some money, let people have their fun,’” he said on Monday. “Some of the worst sins in human history begin with the words, ‘I was just.’”
After the event the Authority issued a statement. “We condemn antisemitism from any source. However, we also respect free speech rights guaranteed under the US Constitution, even when we disagree with that speech,” it said. It added that no taxpayer money is being used to stage the shows, and called any suggestion otherwise “false.”
Ye published an apology in the Wall Street Journal this spring, blaming his behavior on bipolar disorder and brain damage from a car accident. European officials still blocked him from entering the UK, which effectively canceled some of his concerts there.
Voices from the crowd
Toni Rinde, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor from Clearwater, came to speak. “Why is it that other countries can tell him no, and we don’t do that? We’ve accepted him,” she said.
Janet Hammer, a volunteer with the Jewish Federation of Florida’s Gulf Coast, had already addressed the Tampa City Council and written to her elected officials. She wants a ticket buyback program. “It’s like a done deal. That’s unacceptable in my eyes,” she said after the event. “I left there asking, ‘What more can I do?’”
Sources
- Holocaust survivors and senator criticize Kanye West's concerts | The Jerusalem Post
- Holocaust survivors, Rick Scott condemn Kanye West’s Florida concerts
