Recent statistics have shown that the United States is witnessing a disturbing trend. There has been a rise in hate crimes targeting various marginalized communities in the U.S. According to the latest report released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), there are no positive signs of stopping.
Some experts believe that the recent race-based attacks in the United States could be linked to the “Great Replacement Theory.” The “Great Replacement” is a conspiracy theory that claims that nonwhite people are deliberately brought into the United States to “replace” white voters and push a political agenda.
As reported by the National Immigration Forum, this theory is often promoted by anti-immigration groups, white supremacists, and others. According to white supremacists, increased immigration, especially by people of color, threatens the survival of the white population. Because of this, many extremists advocate for the United States to shut its borders to immigrants.
Payton Gendron, an 18-year-old white male accused of the 2022 Buffalo massacre, may have believed this theory. He reportedly claimed in his writings that the decline in white birth rates amounted to genocide.
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A professor of political science and African American studies at Winthrop University, Adolphus Belk Jr., explained what the white nationalist movements mean. He said it emerges when people of color are seen as challenging the status quo in both political and economic spheres.
According to Belk, white nationalists are worried that “whites will no longer be a majority of the general population, but a plurality, and see that as a threat to their well-being and the well-being of the nation.”
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The National Immigration Forum has suggested where this “Great Replacement” theory originates. The theory came from French nationalist literature from the early 1900s. However, its modern usage is credited to Renaud Camus, a French writer who penned “Le Grand Remplacement” (“The Great Replacement”) in 2011.
The theory draws on fears of immigration, globalization, and multiculturalism, often inciting racial tensions and xenophobia. In his book, Camus promotes the idea that white Europeans “are being reverse colonized by Black and Brown immigrants, who are flooding the Continent in what amounts to an extinction-level event.”
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Another French author, Jean Raspail, influenced Camus’ writing. Raspail’s 1973 novel, “The Camp of the Saints,” tells a fictional story about migrants joining forces to overrun France, as noted by the Anti-Defamation League.
The ADL reports that white supremacists often accuse Jewish people of being responsible for nonwhite immigration to the U.S. It is noted that the “replacement” theory has become linked with antisemitism.
The impact of the “Great Replacement” theory is evident in the United States today. In 2021, the FBI reported that hate crimes in the U.S. had reached their highest level in twelve years. According to the FBI, the crimes are primarily driven by a rise in assaults targeting Asian Americans and Black individuals.
President Joe Biden is bent on ending hate-fueled tourism in the United States. In his statement concerning the 2022 mass shooting in Buffalo, the president remarked, “Any act of domestic terrorism, including an act perpetrated in the name of a vile white nationalist ideology, is antithetical to everything we stand for in America. Hate must have no safe harbor. We must do everything in our power to end hate-fueled domestic terrorism.”
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