As we celebrate Martin Luther King week, there is an added element of historical significance for the aspirations of African Americans in particular and people of color in general. It appears that the model for the movements to achieve civil rights for minorities has stimulated the development of a counter model that goes beyond an effort to maintain White privilege and targets the core of American traditional dynamism offered by immigrants.
On August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia a rally led by Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists that were protesting the dismantling of a Robert E. Lee monument clashed with counter protesters in a violent confrontation that led to the death of Heather Heyers after a car driven by a participant from one group plowed into the crowd of the other. President Trump was heavily criticized for not condemning the perpetrators of the racial violence.
During the rally and march the Neo-Nazi demonstrators repeated the slogan, “You Will Not Replace Us.” Knowing their identity, I at first assumed that these people were referring to Jews which seem rather strange.
Then I remembered Jean Raspail book, The Camp of the Saints (1973) that portrays “the destruction of Western Civilization through third world immigration to France” and the Western world. There is also the The Great Replacement (2011) by Jean Renaud Gabriel Camus that originates the far right “Great Replacement” theory which is now in vogue.
The “Great Replacement” theory holds that “global elite is colluding against the White population of Europe to replace them with non-European peoples.” When this theory is applied to the United States, it speaks to Latinos in a very real and immediate way since the immigrants are from that group.
Tucker Carlson, who used to be the most popular talk host on Fox News before being fired, talks extensively about the notion that immigration changes “the racial mix of the country.” He poses the Great Replacement concept in the United States as “the replacement of legacy Americans with more obedient people from faraway countries.”
It is this racist theory that comes from the fear of losing cultural and political control that is at the core of the divi- sions in our country and the rationale for many extremist turning their backs on democracy and accepting the idea of autocratic rule as a way of keeping things as they are.
“Legacy Americans” are willing to embrace democracy only as long as they are in the majority.
The irony is that studies have shown that in this country the birthrate can not produce even enough people to compensate for those that pass away. Unfortunately, the color of the new arrivals together with the general unwillingness of our leaders to frame comprehensive policies for an orderly immigration process makes the crisis on our border a political football played by leaders that seek to take advantage and curry favor.
America in particular and Western Civilization in general are being tested in ways that are unprecedented. The West’s international policies have been to teach and instill democratic values in the part of the world still in development. A major mark of progress has always been the relative distance away from dictatorship and the development of democratic institutions.
In many cases, these infant democracies are populated by people of color who look to the United States as the beacon of freedom and model to follow. Having extremist groups preach racial and ethnic preferences as the basis for inclusion shows a decadent nature that is no longer worthy of reverence.
The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of laVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to news@lavozcolorado.com.
