The mass shooting in Buffalo that left 10 people dead and three injured, almost all of them Black, is one of the latest examples of racial hatred in the United States.
In a 180-page manifesto and an online diary he posted before the shooting, alleged shooter Payton Gendron referred to the “great replacement theory.” The far-right ideology states there is an organized effort to replace the white population with non-whites through migration, demographic growth and higher birth rates.
“It (the great replacement theory) has informed and motivated mass shooters, not just in Buffalo, but as the world now knows in Christchurch, in El Paso, Pittsburgh and Poway,” says Oren Segel, Vice President of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League. “It animates these extremist movements that have become popularized on fringe platforms. We’ve also seen the public discussion increasingly make use of this, it’s not always as explicitly antisemitic or racist.”
