Now it is out in the open, but the media and other commentators are trying to downplay it.
White supremacy was on full display in Buffalo last Sunday when this 18-year-old White terrorist took a gun meant for killing people and did just that. But he was intentionally killing Black people to incite a war against Blacks, so they will not take over White folks’ country–replacement theory in action.
If you question my use of the term white supremacy, please note that many have called this crazed shooter a white nationalist, and please realize that white nationalism is just perhaps a nicer term for white supremacy. However, the ideology is the same and obvious.
The major problem with much of the commentary about the shooting in Buffalo is the consistent effort to treat the ideology guiding the shooter as a fringe idea. I beg to differ. The data say otherwise. The ideas propelling that young man are pretty widespread.
This racism elected Donald Trump, and it has become more emboldened since his election in 2016.
Trump ran a racist campaign in 2016, and he won based on racism, or what was called at the time “racial resentment,” a nicer term for replacement theory.” A study conducted at the time showed that the stronger the level of racial resentment, the stronger the support for candidate Trump in the Republican primary field.
The title of a report of another study of potential white voters published just before the November 2016 election says it all: “The threat of increasing diversity: Why many white Americans support Trump in 2016.” When interviewers told people in this study that nonwhite groups would outnumber White people in 2042, they became more likely to support Trump.
Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, the media continued to proclaim that Trump won because of the economic anxiety of the white working class. The media and other commentators said working-class voters feel left behind because of uncertainty about their financial future, as many have lost jobs or wages.
While economic insecurity played a small role in the attraction of Trump, racism was a much stronger reason. Further, people who expressed economic insecurity tended to vote for Hillary Clinton over Trump.
More studies were conducted after the 2016 presidential election. Most, if not all, pointed to the same conclusion: it was racism, not economic dissatisfaction. As a result, they created massive support for Trump. Scholars tend to call the issue “status threat,” which means the same thing as racial resentment and replacement theory, and they get the same result.
White nationalists/supremacists certainly thought they were connected to the White House. Neo-Nazi David Duke, the former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who endorsed Trump during the 2016 campaign, said this about the White supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017.
“This represents a turning point for the people of this country. We are determined to take our country back. We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That’s what we believed in. That’s why we voted for Donald Trump because he said he’s going to take our country back.”
Duke’s words reflect the views of a White supremacist movement that sees Donald Trump as its champion.
Further, while the media and commentators were bending over backward to avoid calling Trump a White nationalist, Trump proudly proclaimed that he was a nationalist. He did not include the word White because he did not need to do so. That was apparent.
The Buffalo shooter is not a fringe element. Instead, he is an activist part of a much larger movement. He is the tip of the iceberg.