US President Joe Biden and top White House officials spoke out Monday against white supremacists and called on Americans to unite against hate after the weekend in Florida killed three people in a massacre believed to have ended was motivated by racist reasons.
“We cannot allow the hate. And it’s growing,” Biden said at the White House, speaking to civil rights activists, including the family of Martin Luther King Jr., who gathered to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the reverend’s march through Washington.
A 21yearold white man killed three black men Saturday at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Fla. The perpetrator of the massacre, Ryan Christopher Palmer, subsequently committed suicide.
Local sheriff TK Waters said the act was racially motivated. According to authorities, the author left several manifestos to the media, his parents and law enforcement, detailing his hatred of black people.
According to the FBI, hate crimes in the US increased 12% in 2021, the latest year for which data is available.
Vice President Kamala Harris warned, “There are those who are deliberately trying to divide us as a nation.” Americans, she said, “have a duty not to allow factions to destroy our unity.”
Biden spoke to the Jacksonville mayor and the sheriff about the massacre, according to advisers. “There is a group of extremists who are trying to erase history,” the president said, citing attempts by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to change the way slavery is taught in schools.
Critics say the purpose of the measure is to alleviate the brutality slaves were subjected to at the time.