More than two decades ago while visiting my hometown for a college football game, I was introduced to a mindset that was previously unknown to me. At the tailgate, an acquaintance was congratulating our mutual friend who had recently wed. He then stunned us both by saying, “I hope you have a big family. We need more white babies.”
We need more white babies???
He may or may not have been familiar with “Replacement Theory”, but he certainly was an advocate of increasing the production of white people.
“Replacement Theory” has been in the news in recent weeks. The shooter in the Buffalo, NY grocery store massacre was motivated by it. “The Great Replacement”, as it’s also known, is rooted in early 20th Century French nationalism and argues that liberal elites are trying to “replace” white people with darker-skinned, non-Christian ones. In the United States, the “elites” are often said to be Jewish. The “replacers”, as the theory goes, are like putty in the hands of woke, culture-destroying liberals, ripe for grooming into future Democrats.
The presumption of non-whites being malleable, lemming-like newcomers certainly smacks of racism. So does the use of words such as “infestation”, “invasion”, and “infiltration”. Using this type of language is an effective way of dehumanizing immigrants, refugees, and American-born people of color. Are we talking about insects? Aliens? Flesh-eating bacteria? It doesn’t sound as though we are talking about men and women–or boys and girls.
In 1973, Replacement Theory was the plot of the dystopian novel, The Camp of the Saints, by French author Jean Raspail. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the book “a racist fantasy about an invasion of France and the white Western world by a fleet of starving, dark-skinned refugees”. In the book, which its enthusiasts extol as being prescient, the demise of western civilization looms when swarms of desperate, animal-like invaders begin to outnumber white Europeans.
The novel’s popularity has had staying power. In 2011, almost 40 years after its initial publication, The Camp of the Saints returned to the bestseller list. Likewise, fear mongering about white people being “replaced” by dark-skinned immigrants and refugees has become commonplace in present-day conservative media. According to the New York Times, there are more than 400 episodes of Tucker Carlson’s wildly popular show in which he “has either amplified or promoted the theory that Democrats and other members of the liberal elite (like the billionaire philanthropist George Soros) are using immigration to replace the native-born majority with a new, foreign-born electorate.” It’s not just the natural progression of our country’s changing demographics that adherents to Replacement Theory fear. They allege the existence of an intentional political quest to outnumber white people in order to strengthen the Democrats’ voting bloc.
NAFC is not a political organization, so I won’t delve further into the Who’s Who of replacement conspiracists—you know how to google. I’ll leave it with this: Replacement Theory is scaring the bejeezus out of a lot of Americans. I would be willing to bet that we all know at least a handful of them.
It’s worth pointing out that they aren’t wrong about the changing demographics of our country. However, this has always been the case. Excepting the destruction of America’s indigenous people and their way of life, gradually changing demographics is what this country does—and has always done. It’s who we are. It happens naturally, not by an evil plot to destroy the white race, but by immigration, refugee resettlement, and interracial marriage, partnership, and reproduction. In fact, by the year 2050 it is predicted that there will be no ethnic majority in the United States.
Does that scare you?
Do you feel threatened?
I sure don’t.
Does America have to be white to be America? If so, does that mean that non-white Americans aren’t real Americans? The thought of an America without an ethnic majority sounds like a beautiful thing to me. Perhaps then our struggle to become that more perfect union will be over. Isn’t that what we want? It may be that 2050 will be the year we finally attain “liberty and justice for all.”
There are a whole lot of people who would rather not have to wait that long.
Including me.