The “great replacement” is a conspiracy theory that states that people of color are trying to replace white populations. The conspiracy has been popular on the far right for some time, but now it’s making its way into mainstream GOP talking points. Nikki Ramirez is a researcher at Media Matters For America. This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author. The belief that immigrants arrive in the United States with the intent to “steal” has been ubiquitous in right-wing politics for decades: Immigrants have been accused of stealing jobs, stealing tax dollars, and stealing benefits. But lately, some of the GOP’s most stalwart voices have drummed up a more explicit accusation that immigrants are here to steal the very essence of America and replace it with something foreign — an idea plucked directly from far-right-wing media. The white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory was popularized by French writer Renaud Camus in his 2012 book Le Grand Remplacement. Often intermingled with a “white genocide” conspiracy theory, it proposes that a variety of factors, such as an influx of nonwhite immigrants, multiculturalism, and falling birthrates among white Europeans, will result in white populations losing their position as the dominant demographic. The conspiracy theory creates a dangerous dynamic in which believers view immigrants and non-white citizens as an existential threat to their communities. And the theory is not a purely academic endeavor; it seeks to mobilize believers into action against their supposed “replacement.” This mobilization manifests itself in various ways, including political activism against immigration, efforts to encourage white women to have more children to bolster demographic growth, and, in an extreme form, deadly violence against immigrants and communities of color. The theory has reared its head in violent outbursts such as the murder of 51 people at the Al Noor mosque and Linwood Islamic Center in Christchurch, New Zealand, the killing of more than 20 mostly Hispanic shoppers in El Paso, Texas, and the screams of angry young men who shouted “Jews will not replace us; you will not replace us” at the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where anti-racist demonstrator Heather Heyer was murdered by neo-Nazi James Fields Jr. Field’s online behavior before Unite the Right indicates support for Nazi ideology and white racial purity.
via businessinsider: A racist conspiracy theory called the ‘great replacement’ has made its way from far-right media to the GOP