Nazis in America: Richard Spencer's Visit to Florida Targets Jewish and Hispanic Students, Professors Say

Richard Spencer and a cadre of his white nationalist chums are dropping in for a speech at the University of Florida in Gainesville Thursday afternoon, and there is not much that students or faculty can do about it. ...

Faculty members, most notably some of the school’s history professors, have lobbied passionately to prevent the speaking engagement from happening, to no avail. Norman J.W. Goda, a professor of Holocaust studies at the University of Florida’s Center for Jewish Studies, tells Newsweek that when he listens to Spencer’s rhetoric and reads his writing, he finds similarities to the language used by Adolph Hitler in his autobiography, Mein Kampf.

“When I hear Spencer saying, ‘For us, it is to conquer or it is to die,’ I hear echoes of [Hitler],” Goda says, referring to words Spencer has used about the fate of the white race. “I’d rather he not be here.”

Goda, who calls Spencer a “Nazi,” argues that the public speaker is interested in “inciting violence,” even though he frequently claims to be peaceful.

“He’s arguing for a peaceful ethnic cleansing, but nothing like that could be achieved without incredible amounts of violence,” Goda says. “American Jews are not going to be sent to Israel without putting up a fight. The Latin people I know are not going to be sent out of the country without putting up a fight.”

“The women I know are not going to give up their right to vote without putting up a fight,” Goda adds, referring to a recent Newsweek story in which Spencer said he didn’t believe that a woman being allowed to vote was a “great thing.”