That he would shoot the security guard near the entrance before firing upon Black shoppers. We now know from that manifesto that Gendron traveled some 200 miles from his rural hometown to reach that supermarket in Buffalo because it was in a neighborhood with lots of Black people, authorities said.Īlongside racist, anti-immigrant rantings, the manifesto laid out how he planned to kill as many Black people as possible, authorities said. “Unity, purpose, trust, traditions, nationalism and racial nationalism is what provides strength.” “Diversity is not a strength,” Gendron wrote, according to snippets of the manifesto that authorities say he uploaded and are now floating around online. Never mind that Latino voters often sway conservative, as we saw in the 2020 presidential election, when Trump got a bigger share of that demographic’s electorate than he did in 2016. The version of the theory making the rounds now posits not just that America is becoming more diverse, which is absolutely true, but that some secret cabal of elite Democrats is conspiring to bring in immigrants in any and every way possible to “replace” white Christian people and reshape American politics into some sort of secular, multicultural liberal image. Hence, the chants of “Jews will not replace us” and “You will not replace us” by racists with tiki torches the night before the Unite the Right rally in Virginia in 2017.
Of course, the real origin of the “Great Replacement” theory is much older and inextricably linked to antisemitism, in that white supremacists blame Jews for nonwhite immigration. These were the formative years of Stephen Miller, the Santa Monica native who grew up to become President Trump’s repugnant, immigrant-hating senior advisor. That’s when Republicans, desperate to hold on to political power, were spreading fear and paranoia about millions of Mexican immigrants wanting - how dare them! - resources and rights, and the inevitable decline of the state’s white population. We grieve in solidarity and send our sincere condolences to the entire Buffalo, NY community.In many ways, this truly ugly conspiracy theory has some roots right here in the Golden State of the 1990s. Let us all take this opportunity to recommit to our shared responsibility to work toward justice and with it peace. Stopping the spread of white supremacist violence in our society will not bring this weekend’s victims back, but it can prevent future tragedies from occurring. GLAD will continue to join in fighting hateful rhetoric and theories that do nothing but divide us as Americans and target people of color and historically marginalized communities. Representative Elise Stefanik, who has echoed replacement theory conspiracy theories in campaign ads, and far-right pundits like Fox New host Tucker Carlson, who has made millions of dollars bringing dangerous and dark fringe movements into the mainstream. Those include elected officials like U.S. It is our moral responsibility that we are never silent in the face of hate.įinally, we can and we must hold accountable those who purvey hate for profit and political gain. For the families and friends of the 10 people who were shot and killed – parents, family members, a retired police officer, a devoted church parishioner – there is little we can do collectively to ease their suffering and loss, other than to bear witness to their pain and honor those killed.īut for all Americans, and especially Black Americans who have been targeted by racist violence in our country, we can and we must raise our collective voices to drown out the voices of hate. this year and joins the growing list of tragic and hate-based mass shootings in recent years.
This past weekend’s mass shooting targeting Black Americans at a grocery store in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo, NY marks the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S.
0 kommentar(er)
