How California popularized the Great Replacement
How the racist conspiracy has some roots right here in the Golden State of the 1990s.
Headlines From The Times · Ashlea Brown, Mike Heflin, Erika D. Smith, Gustavo Arellano, Shani O. Hilton, Kinsee Morlan, Shannon Lin, Mark Nieto, Jean Guerrero, Jazmín Aguilera, Mario Diaz, Carlos De Loera, Madalyn Amato, Angel Carreras, Kasia Broussalian, David Toledo, Denise Guerra
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Show Notes
On Saturday, a heavily armed 18-year-old white man rolled up to a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo, N.Y., and killed at least 10 people. The suspect is said to have committed the act to stop the so-called “Great Replacement,” a conspiracy theory that gained popularity among the far right across the world in recent years.
Its premise says that a secret cabal of elites are supposedly helping people of color take the place of white people. In the United States, the great replacement theory was turned into political strategy and policy long ago. And it started here, in California.
Today, we hear how the Golden State helped the fringe conspiracy go mainstream. Read the full transcript here.
Host: Gustavo Arellano
Guests: L.A. Times columnists Erika D. Smith and Jean Guerrero
More reading:
Column: I’m part of the ‘great replacement.’ It’s not what believers say it is
Column: Buffalo shooting is an ugly culmination of California’s ‘Great Replacement’ theory
Column: How the insurrection’s ideology came straight out of 1990s California politics