# What's literally meant by "Great White Replacement Theory"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 17, 2022, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553 "2022-05-17T14:54:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/41 "2022-05-17T19:00:32Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > If this is in IMHO, then how does knowing how many times some guy read _Mein Kampf,_ and in which edition, help understand how to prevent future mass murders? What the sweet Jesus are you getting at here? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/42 "2022-05-17T19:22:05Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > Others have also made the sage point that the majority fears that the minority – if and when the tables are turned – will treat them in much the same way as they were treated. > > Also see: comeuppance I don’t claim to say anything new about comeuppance. Though there was the funny Twitter post that captured it very well: “Why are white people afraid of being a minority in the US? Do we treat minorities badly or something?” The more interesting point is conservative media seems to have strategized that “White Replacement Theory” is a safe way to mobilize white supremacy without all the blowback that this normally entails. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/43 "2022-05-17T19:42:42Z")
I mean: even though almost everyone is familiar with the concept, I am not ruling out that it could be important to understand something about the underpinnings or background of a racist murderer, what organization he belongs to, what is their ideology, and so on. That is all up to the judgement of the journalist. However, what strikes me as questionable is bringing attention to old crazy books, manifesti, and screeds as “news”, or actually publishing them like they did the Unabomber Manifesto. Though, the OP clarified that CNN, the New York Times and Washington Post did not do so this time; they merely quoted the suspect’s own words mentioning a “great replacement” theory without (afaik) attempting to analyse what that might mean or suggesting a reading list. ---
**Author:** ![SpacemanSpiff\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e19adc/32.png) [@SpacemanSpiff\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpacemanSpiff_II)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/44 "2022-05-17T19:44:19Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > In the US, progressives generally support more immigration. Many conservative critics can’t imagine that anyone could possibly see immigration as a positive good (or alternately always try and put the worst possible spin on their ideological opponents motives), so the only possible explanation they can come up with for why progressives support immigration is that we think immigrants will support progressive politicians and thus support immigration to get more political power. > > What they don’t, and maybe can’t, see, is that most progressives support more immigration is that we think immigrants generally make great Americans and help make us as a country stronger and more affluent. Several points: 1. The thought process you describe seems strikingly similar to the thought process of left wingers who “_can’t imagine that anyone could possibly see immigration as [an overall negative] (or alternately always try and put the worst possible spin on their ideological opponents motives), so the only possible explanation they can come up with for why [conservatives oppose mass] immigration is that_” they are racists. But that thought process seems pretty widespread, AFAICT. 2. The replacement theory, like virtually all such theories, comes in many flavors, and the particular expression of it will depend on the worldview of the individual espousing it. At its most extreme form, and in the mind of someone who believes in a secret Jewish conspiracy to control the world, it would be a conspiracy by Jews to replace the white demographics with minorities, who the Jews can more easily control and use to their ends. [White Supremacists Adopt New Slogan: “You Will Not Replace Us” | Anti-Defamation League (adl.org)](https://www.adl.org/blog/white-supremacists-adopt-new-slogan-you-will-not-replace-us). But a far less extreme version would be that progressives have a _bias_ in favor of adopting policies which encourage mass immigration of people who would support them politically, and therefore are inclined to buy into the notion that immigrants “help make us as a country stronger and more affluent”. That’s a bit of a different flavor, I would think. 3. What feeds into the above is that you do see occasional chortling in LW circles - including on this MB, IIRC - about the notion that whites are soon going to be a minority in the US, and that this will spell doom for the Republican Party and its sympathizers. > [@DavidNRockies](#): > > Others have also made the sage point that the majority fears that the minority – if and when the tables are turned – will treat them in much the same way as they were treated. Or, they could believe that the majority dominating the minority derives from basic human nature, and is likely to happen in any situation regardless of who treated whom how. Conversely, the notion that minorities becoming the minority will have no negative impact on equity-accepting whites seems to be based on the notion that this type of majority behavior is unique to white people, which many don’t buy into. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/45 "2022-05-17T19:58:36Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I don’t claim to say anything new about comeuppance. Though there was the funny Twitter post that captured it very well: “Why are white people afraid of being a minority in the US? Do we treat minorities badly or something?” To the extent that this quip implies a logical proposition rather than a rant, it is false. A principle of liberalism is that everyone is basically the same underneath their skin. Watching oppression implies something about the human nature of what people tend to do when they have power. So it is logical to fear oppression, even if you want it to end yourself. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/46 "2022-05-17T20:02:06Z")
It was the direct cause of the buffalo shooting where some 18 yo youth was brainwashed by Tucker Carlson into shooting a bunch of people. > **[Fox News suddenly goes quiet on ‘great replacement’ theory after Buffalo...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/17/buffalo-shooting-fox-news-tucker-carlson-great-replacement-theory)** > > Suspect was allegedly motivated by the theory, but network has barely mentioned gunman’s reasoning, even after Tucker Carlson pushed the concept in more than 400 of his shows Carlson needs to be indicted for his part in those murders. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/47 "2022-05-17T21:07:13Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > To the extent that this quip implies a logical proposition rather than a rant, it is false. A principle of liberalism is that everyone is basically the same underneath their skin. Watching oppression implies something about the human nature of what people tend to do when they have power. So it is logical to fear oppression, even if you want it to end yourself. Then they need to buck up and find the courage that marginalized groups have needed as they lived under white supremacy since the founding. Fearing oppression is logical. It’s not logical to experience every loss of privilege as oppression. That’s just white supremacy. Assuming that all nonwhite people intend to oppress you also isn’t logical. You are assuming that everybody else shares your thirst for racial supremacy. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/48 "2022-05-17T21:13:25Z")
I’ll also add this pithy comment – seen elsewhere – that I’ve embraced: > When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality looks like oppression. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/49 "2022-05-17T21:15:40Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > Others have also made the sage point that the majority fears that the minority – if and when the tables are turned – will treat them in much the same way as they were treated. Before the Civil War, Southerners wrote millions of words warning that if slaves were allowed any freedoms, including learning to read, they would wreak vengeance on the whites for the way they had been oppressed. Somehow this is forgotten in the retelling of the wonderful antebellum South that treated the “darkies” like family. > [@SpacemanSpiff\_II](#): > > The replacement theory, like virtually all such theories, comes in many flavors, and the particular expression of it will depend on the worldview of the individual espousing it. Why don’t you quote some of the other flavors so we can see their expression and who said them and if they compare to the voices I quoted? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/50 "2022-05-17T21:35:52Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Yet conservatives are not just aiding and abetting the white supremacists among them but are actively engaged in a conspiracy to support the dissemination of the lie and to elect officeholders who support the theory. I should follow up that “conservative” is not the same as “White”. There are numerous Black, Hispanic, Asian, etc. conservatives in this country as well as White conservatives. Neither are all White conservatives White supremacists. Please stop conflating conservative and White supremacist. I agree there is considerable overlap but, again, they are not actually the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/51 "2022-05-17T21:36:29Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > I’ll also add this pithy comment – seen elsewhere – that I’ve embraced: > > > When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality looks like oppression. That can be used to reply to every objection, whether or not it is just, or whether people are unaware of the conditions that others have dubbed “privilege”. In addition, a lot of people wonder why, for instance, the Tops shooter was not roughed up or killed on the spot. However, if you achieved this equality by roughing up everybody equally in line with the worst treatment you mete out to people, that would be both equality and oppression. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/52 "2022-05-17T21:47:35Z")
I’ve often cited this relatively recent study: > **[Employers' Replies to Racial Names](https://www.nber.org/digest/sep03/employers-replies-racial-names)** It has its limitations, of course, but it’s _fairly_ directionally important. The goal, of course, is not to give the white applicants _fewer_ callbacks; it’s to give the apparently African-American people _more_ callbacks. Similarly, I’ve never seen anybody sincerely advocate that the Buffalo Tops shooter be executed because he blinked (or to shoot more white mass murderers, generally); rather, I’ve seen lots of people advocating that people of color _not_ be executed because _somebody says_ that _they_ blinked. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/53 "2022-05-17T21:52:35Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I agree there is considerable overlap but, again, they are not actually the same thing. I said that explicitly. I also believe that no longer matters. Those who are not actively working to cancel the extremists are complicit. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/54 "2022-05-17T21:54:54Z")
I vividly recall, after 9/11, the right wing saying the exact same thing about moderate Muslims. Though the percent of ‘radicalized Muslims’ was vanishingly low – particularly compared to a global Muslim population of a billion-ish – conservatives were apoplectic that moderate Muslims weren’t adequately cleaning house. I _am_ still waiting for their master class in how to deal with extremists in their ranks. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/55 "2022-05-17T22:07:51Z")
You elect them to office of course. Have you not been paying attention? ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/56 "2022-05-17T23:48:36Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > That’s ignoring the fact that no one is being replaced. Even if the Left was organizing those caravans, no one is replacing anyone. No one is being asked to leave the country and be replaced. It’s not a question of “being asked to leave the country.” Even in the CT realm, that’s not what’s happening. It’s a question of demographics and family size. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2022, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/57 "2022-05-18T09:30:08Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > I’ve often cited this relatively recent study: This is just one example of a type of study called “situation testing”. It’s been done many times, studying the effect of race, gender, and other demographic identifiers. One of the better metastudies pooling data from multiple situation testing studies, though a few years old now, is here: [https://www.cairn.info/revue-horizons-strategiques-2007-3-page-17.htm](https://www.cairn.info/revue-horizons-strategiques-2007-3-page-17.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2022, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/58 "2022-05-18T09:33:56Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Before the Civil War, Southerners wrote millions of words warning that if slaves were allowed any freedoms, including learning to read, they would wreak vengeance on the whites for the way they had been oppressed. Somehow this is forgotten in the retelling of the wonderful antebellum South that treated the “darkies” like family. This is very interesting! Can you give me a cite or two? I’m not challenging – I believe it! – I’d just like to learn more about this phenomenon. More and more, I’m making sense of my country by understanding the Confederacy, and its influence right down to the present and beyond. My biggest wish is that somehow the Union could have ended slavery while also not bringing the Confederacy back into the country. Today, I think, we actually have again become enemies, and not just political opponents. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2022, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/59 "2022-05-18T10:31:53Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > In addition, a lot of people wonder why, for instance, the Tops shooter was not roughed up or killed on the spot. However, if you achieved this equality by roughing up everybody equally in line with the worst treatment you mete out to people, that would be both equality and oppression. Did you wonder even for a minute whether that’s the only way to achieve equality in this situation, or whether that’s actually what people are suggesting? Like maybe, _maybe_ we look at white mass murderers being apprehended alive, and demand to know why that same restraint can’t be applied to Black people, whether it’s a law-abiding teenager holding a toy gun, or a mentally ill man sitting in the street, or an innocent woman asleep in her bed during a drug raid. It’s quite a tell that it never occurs to you… why can’t _they_ be taken alive, just as alive and whole as a white mass murderer? That the only way to achieve equality is to kill _everybody_ equally? ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2022, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553/60 "2022-05-18T10:49:20Z")
The scariest thing to me is that I have Asian ( both East Asian and South Asian) American and Hispanic members of my family who were Republicans before 2016, left the party then over the xenophobia and racism, but are now back in the party because they are convinced that they are the “good” immigrants/minorities that these white supremacists dominating the GOP agenda are going to accept as “honorary white people”. I think this is all a weird rationalization because ALL they care about in politics is getting lower top marginal income tax rates and the elimination of capital gains and estate taxes. And throw in demonization of workers and rights of any kind as a sweetener. Especially as where they live (Texas and California) the workers and tenants they have are predominantly of the undesirable race/ethnicity. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-literally-meant-by-great-white-replacement-theory/964553.md?page=4)