By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
Guest Column
“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?…THE SHADOW DO!”
Remember hearing that somber and somewhat spooky phrase growing up? It was a cautionary line to inform you that what you see on the outside, does not necessarily show the real person but it is there in you, lurking and scheming to get out.
The SHADOW knows the evil and the good that people hide in their innermost thoughts but they are only revealed in the manifestations of their speech and action.
That is what you are experiencing with the current talk of the GREATVREPLACEMENT THEORY which is now being bandied about by the far-right white supremacy groups; and being echoed by certain GOP talking heads and elected officials, especially Tucker Carlson of Fox News fame.
Replacement theory is not without a prior lineage of
other writers producing such racist bilge for the explicit purpose of demonizing people of color and sending clear smoke signals to any anxious white person that they are dire danger of being “replaced” by those “others.”
Those “others” have historically been defined as Black, Brown, Asians, Native Americans, immigrants and people who go against the norm in their sexual orientation.
The replacement theory gets its vigor and sustenance from
white nationalist and white supremacy groups that believe that those others are reproducing at such a high rate of live births that it is only a matter of time before they reduce a majority ethnic grouping, White Americans, to that of a minority ethnic grouping.
It is fear-based mongering at its finest and espoused by
such persons as former president Donald Trump when he said that people who are touting the Nazi line of who is “pure” or not pure, are fine people. Remember his Charlottesville comments?
The replacement theory is a cover or a ruse for fearful
White Americans to rally around their guns and to ingest nonsensical conspiracy theories as to the “browning” of America.
Some of those fear mongers even go as far as to state that it is the Democratic Party (of course, along with an undefined
Jewish conspiracy) that is manipulating illegal immigration
to increase the number of democratic voters.
The replacement theory, both blatantly and subtlety, whispers into the ears of fearful people that through inter-marriage and integration and the accumulation of political power, that the white race will be a minority group in America by the year 2045.
Daresay that some of the fodder for those fears comes with a sense that if Black people get into power, they will try not only to get reparations for slavery but that they will exercise draconian authority over whites for revenge due to the ills and
outrages of slavery since 1619.
One of the biggest antidotes to this event happening is that the replacement theory drivers tell white people to increase their birth rate and to stop inter-marrying with people of color.
Tragically the white male shooter at the TOPS supermarket in Buffalo believed that by killing 10 Black people that he would either spark a “race” war or instill fear in the hearts of Black people that wherever they went, they could be subjected to being shot and killed.
Since America has never totally acknowledged its racial history of suppression nor made proper amends for it, this racial animus will continue until the hate stain that stamped America in the year 1619 to present date is resolved.
The replacement theory keeps the hate alive and well and when people do its obnoxious bidding, it simply revives racial wounds that have never healed.
Compounding the problem is that whenever there is a chance of a real dialogue around or about race, the fear mongers appear and denounce any such discussions as non-productive or attempts at shaming whites who still want to deny the real history of America.
When proponents of the replacement theory are not immediately debunked or censured, they feel emboldened to continue with spreading such rot and it has now infected the halls of Congress.
Even there, the comforters and supporters of that theory are not reined in or chastised for fear that their “base” will rise up, defend them and denounce any condemnation of that racial virus.
To say the least, we are living in interesting times.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com