Florida Rep. Randy Fine owes Armenians an unequivocal apology

By William Paparian Special to The Sacramento Bee

Sen. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, attends the first day of the legislative session at the Florida State Capitol on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in Tallahassee, Fla. Rep. Randy Fine’s remark excluding Armenians from Congress echoed Fresno’s history of discrimination and demands an unequivocal apology from the congressman. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com

Last week, U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., appeared on The Jenny Beth Show and delivered a remark that should shock every American who believes in equality and public service. While attacking his Armenian-American primary challenger, Dan Bilzerian, Fine declared: “We don’t want Armenians to be able to serve in Congress. But I’m not gonna lose too much sleep about it.” The comment did not come in a vacuum. Fine, a vocal supporter of Israel, framed his attack as concern over antisemitism and dual citizenship. Yet by generalizing from one candidate to an entire ethnic community, he crossed into outright ethnic exclusion.

For Armenian Americans like me, the words landed like a gut punch. They echo a century of discrimination we were told America had outgrown, and they stand in stark contrast to the extraordinary loyalty our community has shown this nation in its hour of need. Consider Fresno, where my family and thousands of other Armenian Americans trace our roots. In 1922, my late mother, Serpouhi, arrived in Fresno at the age of 7 with her parents and older brother and sister — survivors seeking refuge after the Armenian Genocide.

William Paparian at five months old in September, 1949, being held by his grandfather, Mihrtad Dickranian. Paparian’s mother, Serpouhi, left, and father, William Joseph Paparian, wearing a tie. His grandmother, Hermine Dickranian, stands on the far right. The photo was taken shortly after William Paparian’s christening in the Holy Cross Armenian Apostolic Church in Los Angeles. William Paparian

My mother’s whole family worked in the canneries. They faced the same barriers so many others did: racially restrictive covenants in property deeds that explicitly barred “Armenian, Asiatic or native of the Turkish Empire” from owning or occupying homes in neighborhoods like Fig Garden. Businesses posted signs reading “no Armenians allowed,” and “no dogs or Armenians.”

This was not ancient history. Those covenants lingered into the 1950s. Yet just 22 years after my mother’s arrival, she was a Red Cross volunteer during World War II. While visiting a stateside military hospital to cheer up wounded servicemen, she met my late father, William Joseph Paparian, who had been wounded in action serving with the 22nd Marine Regiment in the Marshall Islands. Their meeting was only possible because of the war effort that brought so many Armenian Americans into uniform. They were far from alone: After Pearl Harbor, Armenian Americans answered the call in remarkable numbers. Out of a U.S. Armenian-American population of roughly 200,000 in the early 1940s, approximately 18,500 served in the armed forces.

Fresno’s own Victor “Transport” Maghakian reenlisted just weeks after the attack and became one of the most decorated marines of the war, earning the Navy Cross for heroism on Makin Island and fighting through seven major Pacific campaigns despite multiple wounds. These men and women did not serve to “prove” their Americanness to bigots. They served because it was their country, too. Their sacrifice helped erode the very barriers that had confined their parents and grandparents. By the postwar decades, the covenants were struck down, the signs came down and Fresno’s Armenian community moved from the margins into the mainstream of American life. That is why Fine’s remark strikes such a raw nerve today. It revives the language of exclusion — telling an entire ethnic group they are unwelcome in the institutions their parents fought to defend. America has never been perfect. We have confronted worse bigotry, including against interned Japanese Americans, against Black Americans denied the vote, and against every wave of immigrants told they didn’t belong. What defines us is the choice to reject that past, not repeat it. Fine owes the Armenian-American community an immediate and unqualified apology. More than that, he should reflect on the history he invoked, however unwittingly. The sons and daughters of Fresno’s canneries and raisin fields did not ask for permission to serve. They simply did — on the battlefields of the Pacific and Europe, and, later, in boardrooms, classrooms and public office. We will continue to do so. No single congressman’s rant will change that. The covenant of American citizenship is written in shared sacrifice, not in the prejudices of the past.

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Former Pasadena Mayor William Paparian, expressing here his personal views, served on active duty in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. He continues to serve as a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney and as a captain judge advocate with the California State Guard