Authorities say the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday was racially motivated. The suspect is accused of writing a 180-page booklet full of racist comments and links to the “Great Replacement”. Here is everything you need to know about this Great Replacement conspiracy theory.
What does “Great Replacement” mean?
The “Great Replacement” is a conspiracy theory that claims that non-white people are being introduced into the United States and other Western countries to “replace” white voters to achieve a political objective. According to the National Immigration Forum, anti-immigration groups, white supremacists, and others frequently promote it.
White supremacists believe that the inflow of immigrants, particularly those of color, will result in the extinction of the white race.
Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old white male accused of killing ten people in Buffalo allegedly stated in his screed that the decline in white birth rates is equivalent to genocide.
Extremists, including the alleged supermarket gunman, argue that the United States must block its borders to immigrants.
According to the National Immigration Forum, the “Great Replacement” theory is sometimes visible in different forms, such as accusations of voter replacement and immigrants invading America. The first claim presupposes that immigrants and non-whites will vote in a certain way, effectively drowning out white Americans’ ballots.
White nationalist movements emerge when people of color are perceived as a threat in the political and economic worlds, according to Adolphus Belk Jr. He is a professor of political science and African American studies at Winthrop University.
White nationalists, according to Belk, are concerned that “whites will no longer be a majority of the general population, but a plurality, and see that as a threat to their own well-being and the well-being of the nation.”
Where did this theory originate?
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the “Great Replacement” theory has its origins in early 1900s French nationalism books.
However, Renaud Camus, a French writer, popularized the theory in his novel “Le Grand Remplacement” (“The Great Replacement”) in 2011.
Camus’ writing was influenced by another French author, Jean Raspail, whose 1973 novel, The Camp of the Saints, told a fictional tale of migrants banding together to take over France, the ADL said.
White supremacists, according to the ADL, blame Jews for non-white immigration to the United States. The replacement theory is also associated with antisemitism.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the 14-word motto “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children” is a basic concept of the white supremacist movement. David Lane, a member of the white supremacist group The Order, coined that motto.
The role of the “Great Replacement” in hate crimes
The Buffalo shooting is just one of many incidents related to the “Great Replacement.”
In April 2019, the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security held a hearing on hate crimes and white nationalism. Jerrold Nadler, a New York representative and chair of the Judiciary Committee described the situation as “an urgent crisis in our country.”
“Unfortunately, various statistics confirm what most of us have observed, that hate incidents are increasing in the United States,” Nadler said. “This increase has occurred during a disturbing rise of white nationalism in our country and across the globe.”
He cited several racially motivated attacks, including nine people killed in a South Carolina church in 2015; 11 at a Pennsylvania synagogue in 2018; 50 people shot and killed at a mosque in New Zealand in 2019.
Individual extremists and also white nationalist organizations, according to Belk, are dangerous. They will go to extremes to maintain their position in society.
“They are willing to use any means that are available to preserve and defend their position in society … it’s almost like a sort of holy war, a conflict, where they see themselves as taking the action directly to the offending culture and people by eliminating them,” Belk also said.
According to police, the suspect in custody for Buffalo’s most recent mass shooting traveled from Broome County, New York. It is almost 200 miles distant and was to only carry out his attack. The overwhelming majority of the victims were Black.