By David Bauder
Associated Press
A racist ideology is being investigated as a factor in the shooting at a supermarket that killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York, most of them black.
Ideas of the 'great replacement theory' filled a racist manifesto allegedly posted online by the 18-year-old white man accused of killing black people on Saturday.
Authorities are still working to confirm its authenticity.
There is no doubt about the racist intention of the attacker, but what is this theory?
The racist theory of the great replacement
In a nutshell, it says that there is a conspiracy afoot to diminish white influence.
Believers say this goal is being achieved both through non-white immigration into societies that have been largely white-dominated, as well as through simple demographics, since whites have higher birth rates. lower than others.
[A former police officer and a woman who fed the community among the victims of the shooting in Buffalo]
People hug outside a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, where a fatal shooting occurred, on Sunday, May 15, 2022. Matt Rourke / AP
The most racist followers of the theory believe that the Jews are behind the so-called great replacement conspiracy.
When white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, their chants included "they will not replace us" and "the Jews will not replace us."
A broader view in the United States suggests that Democrats are encouraging immigration from Latin America so that more like-minded potential voters will replace "traditional" Americans, according to Mark Pitcavage, a senior fellow at the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism.
What are its roots?
Since when does racism exist?
Generally speaking, its roots are that deep.
In the United States, efforts to intimidate and discourage blacks from voting—from replacing white voters at the polls—can be traced back to the post-Civil War era.
In the modern age, most experts point to two influential books.
The Turner Diaries
, a 1978 novel written by William Luther Pierce under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald, deals with a violent revolution in America with a race war leading to the extermination of non-whites.
[Biden condemns the racist shooting in Buffalo. The attacker left a chilling document]
The FBI called it a "bible of the racist right," according to Kurt Braddock, a professor at American University and a researcher at the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab.
A 2012 book by Frenchman Renaud Camus, about the invasion of Europe by black and brown immigrants from Africa, was called
Le Grand Remplacement
(
The Great Replacement
).
That's where the name was born.
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Who are your supporters?
For some of the most extreme believers, certain white supremacist mass murderers — in Norway in 2011, two New Zealand mosques in 2019, a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, a black church in South Carolina — are considered saints, Pitcavage said.
Those "accelerationist white supremacists" believe that small social changes will not achieve much, so the only option is to bring down society, he added.
[The shooter in the Buffalo shooting had been evaluated for mental health issues but was determined not to be a threat]
The Buffalo shooter's alleged tirade and some of his apparent methods indicate that he closely studied the New Zealand shooter, particularly the effort to livestream his rampage.
He apparently inscribed the number 14 on his gun, which Pitcavage says is short for a 14-word white supremacist slogan.
A “manifesto” from the New Zealand attacker was widely circulated on the internet.
If the Buffalo shooter's message is authentic, it seems designed to spread his philosophy and methods to a wide audience as well.
Although the most extreme forms of racism are clearly frowned upon, many experts are concerned about the generalization of some views.
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In a survey released last week, The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 1 in 3 Americans believe an effort is underway to replace American-born Americans with immigrants. for electoral purposes.
On a regular basis, many supporters of the more extreme versions of the 'grand replacement theory' converse through encrypted online applications and tend to be careful.
They know they are being watched.
"They're very clever," Braddock said, "they don't openly make calls to arms."
Who talks about replacement?
In particular, Tucker Carlson, Fox News's most popular personality, has pushed bogus but politically more palatable viewpoints that are viewed sympathetically by some whites who are worried about losing power.
“I know the left and all the Twitter watchdogs get literally hysterical if you use the term 'replacement,' if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters who are now voting, with new people, more compliant voters. from the Third World,” he said on his show last year.
“But they get hysterical because that's what's happening, actually, let's put it that way.
It is true,” she added.
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A study by The New York Times of five years of Carlson's show found 400 instances in which he spoke of Democratic politicians and others seeking to force demographic change through immigration.
Fox News noted the repeated statements Carlson has made denouncing political violence of all kinds.
The attention paid by many Republican politicians to what they see as a leaky southern border across the United States has been interpreted, by at least some, as a nod to whites' concern about being "replaced."
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik's campaign committee came under fire last year for an ad saying "Radical Democrats" were planning a "permanent electoral insurrection" by granting a amnesty for undocumented immigrants that would create a permanent liberal majority in Washington.
Pitcavage said he is concerned about the message Carlson and some who agree with him are sending.
“He actually introduces the great replacement theory to a conservative audience in an easier pill to swallow,” he warned.
