Local political leaders are urging elected officials to address “replacement theory,” a racist conspiracy hypothesis that is seeping into mainstream belief systems.
The Associated Press and the National Opinion Research Center for Public Affairs Research found that 1 in 3 Americans believe in some aspect of replacement theory. However, many have not heard of it, or are only now learning it after a shooter gunned down 13 Black people, killing 10, in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
Neither Rep. Bob Ed Culver, R-Tahlequah, nor State Sen. Dewayne Pemberton, R-Muskogee, had heard of replacement theory per se prior to this week, and both declined to comment on it. State Sen. Blake “Cowboy” Stevens, R-Tahlequah, did not return an email request for comment.
Yolette Ross, Cherokee County Democratic chair, explained that replacement is a conspiracy theory wherein believers are convinced there is a concerted effort to bring people of color to the United States to replace white people, including through reproduction. A number of news outlets have reported that Fox News’ Tucker Carlson has referred to replacement theory at least 400 times on his show.
“The theory has brought about some violent attacks, the most recent shooting in Buffalo. The night of the shooting, Tucker Carlson, he said the shooter was mentally ill and his actions were not politically motivated,” said Ross.
She said that in 2015, Payron S. Gendron, the Buffalo shooter, was 11 or 12 years old when former President Donald Trump started using white nationalist rhetoric, by calling Mexicans “rapists.”
“This kid was 18 years old when he did it, and he was indoctrinated in this thinking,” she said. “This kid was watching this on TV. Then you have the Charlottesville incident where white nationalists were marching through the streets, saying, ‘You will not replace us,’ followed by an innocent woman getting killed, having had a car driven at her as she was in a crowd.”
Ross said the shooter probably knew about different incidents of racially-motivated violence throughout the country.
“He had to have a screw loose, anyway, but it was politically-motivated. He felt like he had to do what he had to do to make things right, based on replacement theory.”
Ross believes Congress needs to overhaul its immigration system to normalize the existence of people of color. By accepting undocumented immigrants, including Mexicans, it will allow them to pay taxes and receive the same educational opportunities afforded to Americans.
Dell Barnes, vice chair of the Cherokee County Democratic Party, said the U.S. upholds a tradition of stigmatizing different demographics.
“Colonization, disease, and genocidal wars displaced most of the indigenous people of this continent,” said Barnes. “Chattel slavery removed an estimated 12 million Africans from their homes, and some portion of them became slaves here in the ‘new world.’”
He said U.S. immigration policy has often been used as a tool to craft the social makeup desired by the ruling majority, excluding and including ethnic groups at the whim of the power brokers of the economy and federal government. Despite changing demographics, the descendants of Europeans – especially male – still hold most positions of power, authority, and influence in private enterprise, institutions and governance. But in the future, white influence over these institutions isn’t certain.
“Replacement theory is the formulation of the fearful reaction that some members of a historic majority experience when faced with the fact that their majority is shrinking,” said Barnes. “The individuals pushing out these ideas usually harbor really unpalatable thoughts about race relations, and they fear a future wherein they will no longer enjoy political and social wins by mere virtue of belonging to the racial majority.”
Barnes thinks white people should not fear – even if at some point in the future, they are not the majority U.S. racial demographic.
“It is a wonder that these individuals, from the majority who collectively have benefited from these systems – access to cheap land/labor, expansion of industry, social/legal norms favoring their group – are threatened by the mere thought of their majority status shrinking,” said Barnes. “These trends have been in progress for some time now, and from the outside, it looks like the historic majority will maintain hold of the levers of power for a very long time to come.”
He believes replacement theory followers want to promulgate fear and join them, or become fatigued by the conversation, which further emboldens their agenda.
“The hate spreaders are feeding on the fears and ignorance of marginalized individuals to inspire violence and generate interest in the furtherance of their goals,” he said.
Barnes wants elected officials to serve as leaders in the community to dispel theories that hurt people living within the borders of the U.S.
Shannon Grimes, chair of the Cherokee County Libertarian Party, agrees with Barnes and Ross that the root of harmful conspiracy theories, like replacement theory, is fear.
“Some believe that our American way of life is being eroded away by other influences. It comes back to fear and presumes that change isn’t good or can’t be good,” said Grimes. “Replacement theory is a boogie man wherein many believe that ‘they’ are going to replace us because ‘our’ population is shrinking, and ‘theirs’ is growing.”
Emails and text messages were sent to the Cherokee Republican Party, but responses were not returned before press time.
