How 'Replacement Theory' Became Prominent in Mainstream US Politics

June 6, 2022

Police sit in front of a Tops Grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 15, 2022, after a white gunman fatally shot 10 people at a grocery store in a racially-motivated rampage, on May 14, 2022.Larry Rosenthal, Chair of ISSI's Center for Right-Wing Studies, explained Great Replacement Theory on ABC News in the wake of the tragic shooting in Buffalo. "The magnitude of how much replacement theory has infiltrated [the] spectrum of the right in this country is something we haven't seen before," according to Rosenthal, though he explains that it is not a new ideology. It was prevalent in the U.S. in the 1920's on the far right and has persisted since then, becoming more mainstream in recent years.