It’s time to engage with vile ‘replacement theory’
The language of “replacement theory” is often leveled in verbal attacks against Latinos, immigrants like my father who came to this country as a child from Mexico City.
Calling it a “theory” makes it sound harmless, academic. But as more Americans are learning, when acted upon, it’s dangerous and volatile.
It’s an irrational thread in our wonderful, increasingly diverse nation. Those who adhere to nativism and xenophobia see the change differently, as the Buffalo mass shooter just horrifyingly showed.
During my entire working career, I’ve reported on many iterations of replacement theory. There have been taunts to U.s.-born Mexican-americans (myself included) and others to “go back where you came from,” nationwide campaigns for “English Only” laws accompanied by any number of factually incorrect rants about “amnesty.”
More recently, it’s become almost fashionable for flaying political campaigns to spin falsehoods about immigrants turning elections by illegally casting votes or the southern border being “swarmed” by black-haired undesirables who look suspiciously like my father.
And yet, the killings at a supermarket in Buffalo, once again, show that it is Black people who often become the targets, even when immigrants are the focus of the hysteria.
Ten people were shot and killed, three wounded by a gunman who specifically wanted to target Black people, singling out victims by the melanin in their skin.
Sit with that for a bit.
The gunman is believed to be the author of copious writings about replacement theory, which is deeply twisted around a hatred of immigrants and people of color. But 10 Black people were just murdered. And the gunman reportedly had plans to keep shooting, hopeful for at least triple that number of Black victims.
Admitting the reason — that Black people bear the weight of race heavier than any other identifiable group in this country — is a step America needs to take. It’s a step Latinos need to take.
A disregard for Black life is the bedrock upon which so many other irrational fears have sprung.
Note this please: It is more comforting for many is to dismiss the Buffalo killings as the doings of one evil, demented person. Legally, yes, that is true.
Payton S. Gendron now faces firstdegree murder charges as the lone gunman and, so far, no one else has been implicated.
But there is so much more here. By now, far wider recognition is coming to the once fringe idea of “replacement theory.” Gendron, 18, is also believed to be behind prolific writings espousing his belief in it. The evidence is so strong that law enforcement almost immediately said the murders were a hate crime. That rarely happens. Usually, it’s a far higher hurdle for prosecutors to believe that they can prove racial animus as intent.
For those of us who have long reported on immigration and hate groups, this is an old concept. It’s well-baked into the history of many extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, neo-nazis, skinheads and, more recently, the Proud Boys and militia groups. It is also a concept that has currency among some ultra-conservative evangelicals.
It’s a deeply held belief, yet a conspiracy theory, that a well-orchestrated plot is underway. Adherents believe that often nebulous “elites” (sometimes Jewish people are cast as the orchestrators) are systematically replacing the dominance of white people numerically and culturally with hordes of darkerskinned people.
Former President Donald Trump was a master at spinning the narrative, ratcheting up anger toward the foreignborn, trying to bar Muslims from entering the country, slashing the number of refugees who would be admitted and sparking the gullible to yearn for a lost version of America that felt “great” to them: A nation led by white, Christian men.
But remember, Trump began as a birther, bashing then-president Barack Obama by falsely claiming that the latter was foreign-born. That’s a doubledip on twisted messaging: Black and a foreigner.
Recent polling has found that about 1 in 3 Americans believe that organized forces are trying to replace native-born people with immigrant voters for political gain. False charges of voter fraud stem from that belief, along with support for unraveling many laws on voting rights.
Right wing media, notably some of the top performers at Fox News, are rightfully being called out for spreading a lot of this junk. Personality Tucker Carlson isn’t even deft about it anymore. A French writer named Renaud Camus is generally credited (although it hardly seems like an achievement) with cooking up the term “replacement theory” amid all the hand-wringing about the growing Islamic and African immigrant population in Europe.
But Camus may well have cribbed from earlier writings. And really, fearing immigrants, people of color, is nothing new.
“The Camp of the Saints” is a 1973 book, also by a Frenchman (Jean Raspail). It’s almost required reading for white supremacists.
Here is how one questionably far right publisher, who offered an Englishlanguage version, describes the plot: It’s “a racist fantasy about an invasion of France and the white Western world by a fleet of starving, dark-skinned refugees, a haunting and prophetic vision … of Western Civilization overrun by a burgeoning Third World population.”
Some will want to dismiss the gunman’s writings outright. They’d argue that to do otherwise is to give credit to a demented mindset.
This moment calls for engagement. It’s feasible to have honest, deep and factual conversations about migration, voting rights, assimilation and more, without wallowing in supremacy.
It’s a mistake to simply walk away, to refuse to admit to how the genesis of the gunman’s thoughts are reinforced and sprinkled throughout society, throughout our history.
And that this, like so much else that extremists believe, is irrevocably linked to anti-black sentiment. Here is where the responsibility sits, waiting for the nation to address. We need to see the connections and engage, not just dismiss them out of discomfort.
It starts with fear of immigrants and, consequently, rapidly changing demographics. We should also begin with all due reverence to Black America.
Readers can reach Mary Sanchez at msanchezcolumngmail.com and follow her on Twitter msanchezcolumn.
It’s feasible to have honest, deep and factual conversations about migration, voting rights, assimilation and more, without wallowing in supremacy. It’s a mistake to simply walk away, to refuse to admit to how the genesis of the gunman’s thoughts are reinforced and sprinkled throughout society, throughout our history.