Buffalo Shooting and America's History of White Supremacist Violence

In the wake of Buffalo's white supremacist terrorist shooting, you have likely heard the two phrases "lone wolf" and "Replacement Theory" ad nauseam. The reasons for this are relatively simple: 18-year-old Payton Gendron, the gunman, believes the Replacement Theory, no longer a fringe conspiracy, is true. "Lone wolf" is being used because it is easier to think that Gendron acted alone than to admit that we do not live in a vacuum and our actions, intentional or not, have consequences. 

Jesse Curtis' history of the Replacement Theory in The Washington Post traces how, since the 1800s, the Replacement Theory has been part of United States history. (Sign up to attend an AVC online webinar with Curtis, May 19, 1pm Eastern.) Curtis notes that many would like to call the Replacement Theory a conspiracy that is most comfortably found in fringe groups like the Ku Klux Klan. But the Klan was not around in 1845 when John O'Sullivan "described 'an irresistible army of Anglo-Saxon emigration' and proclaimed its 'manifest destiny to overspread the continent.'" Since O'Sullivan, the ideas behind the Replacement Theory can be found in the church, so-called "race science," and even the words of Teddy Roosevelt, who claimed "'the competition between the races' was a 'warfare of the cradle,' and 'no race has any chance to win a great place unless it consists of good breeders as well as of good fighters.'"

While all of those examples are in the past, the number three Republican in the House, Elise Stefanik, recently tweeted out a message that sounds a lot like a softened version of Replacement Theory. This tweet was posted mere days after Gendron took the lives of 10 Black people. And before we get too comfortable saying that Stefanik's comments are merely those of someone who has gone full-tilt into Trumpworld, Curtis' point that racist ideas are as American as apple pie. Writing for Time back in 2016, Sally Kohn notes that these sentiments did not start with Trump. Richard Nixon always had a "subliminal appeal to the anti-black voter was always present in Nixon's statements and speeches;" Ronald Reagan railed against "welfare queens;" and Bill Clinton used coded language to attack welfare and super predators. Not to mention that Joe Biden felt comfortable telling Black Americans, "you ain't Black" if they did not vote for him.

As for the idea that Gendron was a "lone wolf," Michael Gerson, also writing for The Washington Post, notes that America has a history of tolerating violence in the name of white supremacy. Gerson's article illustrates that Gendron did not act alone so much as he carried out an American tradition of violence against those seen as other. And he rightfully points out that "There is no moral world in which those who libel outsiders, justify rage, incite bigotry and allege that enemies have broken down the outer gate are innocent of the likely influence of their words." While there is no evidence that Stefanik, Trump, Tucker Carlson, or any other right-wing personalities directly influenced Gendron in Buffalo, their words have been consistent with views that led, at least in part, to his deplorable actions.

Cathy Young wrote for The Bulwark on Sunday about how Gendron fits in among the 2018 massacre in New Zealand, the 2019 shooting in El Paso, Texas, that targeted Hispanics shopping at Walmart, and the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue massacre. Each of these horrible acts of violence was committed by a "lone wolf" who promoted some part of the Replacement Theory as to why they felt the need to take the lives of other humans senselessly. These men are getting their material from somewhere. While some of it may be from fringe sites on the internet, Donald Trump and those who support him have helped make the fringe part of the mainstream in the Republican Party.

America's past is not yet entirely in the past. It is for this reason we should embrace AVC’s powerful call "to 1) firmly denounce Replacement Theory and white supremacy in all its forms, 2) disengage from any person or group who promotes or even toys with these beliefs, and 3) remove all of these influences from the groups and platforms where you have influence." While Americans from every side of the political spectrum should be standing up to denounce Replacement Theory and white supremacy, Republicans especially have a responsibility to be clear that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are for all Americans.