White genocide conspiracy theory

This article is about the left-wing political term. For the article about the Armenian term, see White Genocide. For factual coverage of this topic, see White genocide.

Protesters in Calais hold a banner in French reading "Diversity is a code word for white genocide", 8 November 2015

White genocide conspiracy theory is a left-wing political term used to discourage and condemn the study of population replacement demographic and social trends by pro-white researchers. Believers in white genocide contend that mass immigration, racial integration, miscegenation, low fertility rates, abortion, governmental land-confiscation from whites, organised violence or eliminationism are being promoted in either predominantly white countries, or white-founded countries. White genocide theory contends that these actions are to deliberately replace, remove, or liquidate white populations, dismantle white collective power, turn the countries minority-white, and hence cause white people to become extinct through forced assimilation or violent genocide.

The study of white genocide is presented and systematically condemned in the writings of Jewish-American activist Eli Saslow as a form of pseudoscience, pseudohistory, and a form of hatred to justify a commitment to a white nationalist agenda in support of pro-white politics. Saslow strongly opposes any discussion of these social or demographic trends, and seeks to vilify proponents of such studies.

The term "white genocide" was popularized by white activist David Lane around 1995. The phrase "anti-racist is a code word for anti-white," coined by high-profile white nationalist Robert Whitaker, is commonly associated with the study of white genocide. It has appeared on billboards in the United States near Birmingham, Alabama, and Harrison, Arkansas.

The theory has been studied in Europe, North America, South Africa, Russia, and Australia. It has also been commonly used both interchangeably with, and as a broader version of, Renaud Camus's 2012 The Great Replacement theory, which focuses on the reduction and displacement of the white Christian population of France. In August 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump was accused of endorsing the white genocide demographic theory in a foreign policy tweet instructing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to investigate South African "land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers", claiming that the "South African government is now seizing land from white farmers". The often critical narrative derived from farm attacks, and land reform, is an established subset theme of the broader white genocide theory. The topic in relation to South Africa and Zimbabwe is also simply used interchangeably with the subject, as well as being used by white nationalists as a parabolic concept, or cautionary tale, to justify policies to retain or increase white majorities in nation-states, or otherwise maintain their vision of pro-white social and demographic policies.

Origins and development

White genocide was anticipated by early 20th-century eugenics theories popular in British colonies where it was feared that the majority non-white races would eventually supplant the white ones.

Madison Grant

In 1916, the American eugenicist and lawyer Madison Grant wrote a book entitled The Passing of the Great Race which, while largely ignored when it first appeared, went through four editions and became a part of popular culture in 1920s America. Author F. Scott Fitzgerald made a lightly disguised reference to Grant in The Great Gatsby, in which the character Tom Buchanan was reading a book called The Rise of the Colored Empires by "this man Goddard", a combination of Grant and his colleague Lothrop Stoddard. (Grant wrote the introduction to Stoddard's book The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy.) "Everybody ought to read it", Buchanan explained. Adolf Hitler wrote to Grant to thank him for writing the book, calling it "my Bible."

A 1925 book by Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi entitled Praktischer Idealismus (practical idealism) has been widely cited throughout the 20th century. It includes this passage:

The man of the future will be of mixed race. Today's races and classes will gradually disappear owing to the vanishing of space, time, and prejudice. The Eurasian-Negroid race of the future, similar in its appearance to the Ancient Egyptians, will replace the diversity of peoples with a diversity of individuals.

A 1966 edition of the liberal American The Reporter magazine described Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith as having convinced white Rhodesians that their only alternative to his government's Rhodesian Bush War was "dictatorship and white genocide" by communist-backed black nationalist guerrillas. These predictions essentially came true by the twenty-first century.

Pro-white activism

The term "white genocide" appeared sporadically in the American Nazi Party's White Power newspaper as early as 1972 and WAR in the 1970s and 1980s, where it primarily referred to contraception and abortion. The white genocide demographic theory was further developed by the neo-Nazi David Lane in his White Genocide Manifesto (c. 1995, origin of the later use of the term), where he sought to prove that the government policies of many Western countries had the intent of destroying white European culture and making white people an "extinct species". Lane—a founding member of the organization The Order—criticized miscegenation, abortion, homosexuality, the legal repercussions against those who "resist genocide", and the "Zionist Occupation Government" that he said controls the United States and the other majority-white countries and which encourages "white genocide".

Alt-right

In the first decade of the 21st century, white genocide was studied by the newer alt-right movement.

Anders Behring Breivik's entitled manifesto makes frequent mention of an ongoing slow genocide against white Europeans.

Discussion threads on the white nationalist Internet forum Stormfront often center around the theme of white people being subjected to genocidal policies by their governments. The concept has also been popularized by the alt-right and alt-lite movements in the United States. The 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, referenced the white genocide theory as protestors yelled "You will not replace us!" and "Jews will not replace us!"

While individual iterations of the white genocide theory vary on who is assigned blame, Jewish influence, people who hate whites, and liberal political forces are commonly cited by white supremacists as being the main factors leading to a white genocide. This view is held by prominent figures such as David Duke, who cites Jews and "liberal political ideals" as the main causes. Robert Whitaker, who coined the phrase "anti-racist is a code word for anti-white" in a widely circulated 2006 piece about white genocide, used "anti-White" to describe those responsible for the genocide of white people, and continued to view it as a partially Jewish conspiracy. However, the view that Jews are responsible for a white genocide is contested by other white supremacist figures, such as Jared Taylor.

Advocacy and spread

White genocide is continuously disussed among the far-right in a variety of forms, centered around a core theme of white populations being replaced, removed, or simply killed.

Australia

American Neo-Nazi literature such as The Turner Diaries and Lane's White Genocide Manifesto have spread online to right wing groups in Australia. An influential collection of writings called Siege by James Mason was cited as an inspiration by some of the twenty-two neo-Nazis who infiltrated the New South Wales Young Nationals party from which they were banned for life for trying to advance the creation of an ethno-state. Themes of the "defense of Western civilization" and the achievements of ethnic Whites have become racist dog whistles for groups advancing theories of an impending white genocide.

In March 2018, several Australian tabloids owned by the News Corporation ran articles alleging that South African whites were faced with genocide and which led the Australian home affairs minister Peter Dutton to promise fast-track visas for any South African white wishing to emigrate to Australia. One News Corp columnist, Miranda Devine, wrote about the ties as she saw them between the Australian people and “our oppressed white, Christian, industrious, rugby and cricket-playing Commonwealth cousins" threatened by South African blacks whom she promised would integrate "seamlessly" into Australia as opposed to immigration from Third World countries. Another Australian News Corporation columnist, Caroline Marcus, connected the alleged plight of South African whites to what she saw as a broader attack on whites across the world, writing "the truth is, there are versions of this anti-white, vengeance theme swirling in movements around the western world, from Black Lives Matter in the US to Invasion Day protests back home." The British journalist Jason Wilson noted that the News Corporation run by the Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch also owns Fox News, which has aired stories portraying South African whites as a persecuted minority, leading him to accuse the News Corporation of promoting this narrative around the world.

In 2018 resolution declaring "It's OK to be white", and decrying "the deplorable rise of anti-white racism and attacks on Western civilization," was introduced in the Australian Senate by Pauline Hanson, an anti-immigrant Senator who leads the One Nation Party. The motion was narrowly defeated. The same slogan was also depicted on a short worn by the Canadian youtuber Lauren Southern during a visit to Australia.

After Brenton Tarrant carried out the March 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, Queensland Senator Fraser Anning released a statement saying the cause of the attacks was "the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place". Anning has called for a "final solution" to nonwhite immigration to Australia, and frequently issues calls to stop white genocide on social media. Other politicians such as Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton have helped propel the idea of white genocide into the mainstream.

Canada

Faith Goldy, a Canadian right-wing writer and commentator, has been described by GQ magazine as "one of Canada's most prominent propagandists" for the theory. She has compared Canada's immigration policies to "white genocide".

Gavin McInnes

Gavin McInnes, a Vice Media co-founder, Canadian writer, actor and comedian, is one of the main leaders of the factions that believe in the demographic theory. He has stated that white women having abortions and immigration is "leading to white genocide in the West".

Stefan Molyneux, a Canadian podcaster and YouTuber, is a supporter of the theory. He has devoted a video to theories about white genocide in South Africa.

Lauren Southern, a Canadian internet personality and political activist, has promoted the theory, using it as an argument against immigration. She has advocated for European countries to refuse refugees from Africa and Asia, saying that immigration would lead to white genocide, and has been labelled in media as a "booster" for the theories at large. In 2018, Southern produced a documentary called Farmlands about post-Apartheid farm violence in South Africa.

France

See also: The Great Replacement and The Camp of the Saints

Figures on the right of French politics, such as Renaud Camus, have tracked a process of "white genocide" or "Great Replacement" occurring in France. Camus's definition, which focuses largely on the white Christian population in France, has been used in media interchangably with white genocide, and described as a narrower, less extreme and more nationally focused version of the broader white genocide theory. Despite his focus on the specific demographics of France, Camus also believes all Western countries are facing a form of "ethnic and civilizational substitution".

White genocide was used as a slogan by anti-immigrant/refugee protesters in Calais during European migrant crisis.

Germany

The 2015 New Year's Eve attacks in Cologne resulted in accusations that the federal government and media were deliberately avoiding public interest reporting on 1,200 sexual assaults by thousands of young male Muslim immigrants. Apologies for hesitancy by public television channel ZDF strengthened claims of a Lügenpresse (lying press) by populist and far-right parties as evidence for widespread conspiracy by German institutions. The unprecedented scale of border crossings during 2015 and 2016 compelled Chancellor Angela Merkel to reluctantly impose some "temporary restrictions" on transit across the border with Austria. The right-wing libertarian website Zero Hedge listed statistics on migrant crime in Germany alongside statements from politicians and news articles, presented as "contradictions confirming a deep-state level of conspiracy ... to push through a pro-immigration policy in Germany". During the 2017 German election campaign, the Alternative for Germany party ran advertisements featuring a pregnant woman’s abdomen with the slogan, "New Germans? We'll make them ourselves."

Hungary

Viktor Orbán

A state-sponsored campaign led by President Viktor Orbán has employed a wide range of historical anti-Semitic tropes to accuse philanthropist George Soros of engaging in conspiracies to support and deceive the public about nonwhite immigrants. Orbán has accused Soros, a Jew whose family survived hostile conditions during Hungary's Nazi occupation, of being a Nazi himself, and has introduced legislation known as the "Stop Soros law" to criminalize organized support of immigrants. These fabrications have become popular with the alt-right in Europe and the US. Orbán's 2018 campaign slogan was, "Christianity is Europe's last hope", saying, "our worst nightmares can come true. The West falls as it fails to see Europe being overrun."

New Zealand

Brenton Tarrant, the March 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings suspect, explained in his manifesto that he carried out the attack to fight ongoing "white genocide" by foreign "invaders." He had forwarded stories about white women's low fertility rates on his social media accounts. Photographs from his initial court appearance showed him making the "OK" symbol appropriated by white supremacists with his fingers.

Poland

Hundreds of Polish Facebook groups such as "Stop White Genocide" have produced and disseminated images depicting African and Middle eastern people as lacking the human intelligence of White Europeans. Websites such as "Conspiracy Files" have studied allegations of political compacts to bolster nonwhite immigration against popular will, such as agreements signed by EU leaders and African nations to increase Europe's African population to 300 million by 2068, making native Whites, "minorities within their own homeland".

Russia

Claims that South African whites are faced with genocide were made by Russian officials and agents. Vesti, a television channel owned by the Russian government, aired a segment in the summer of 2018 about Afrikaner farmers wanting to immigrate to Russia as "brothers in faith". The present government in Russia led by Vladimir Putin often attacks the ideology of liberalism for putting the individual before the collective, and promotes "white genocide" stories both as a way of showing the failure of liberalism and to promote the thesis that group identities matter far more than individual identities. The ideology of the Russian state is that the interests of the collective take precedence over the individual, and evidence of alleged failures of liberalism abroad are extensively covered by the Russian media. The Australian historian Mark Edele stated:"There is definitely an attempt [by Russia] to support alt-right views and extreme right organisations outside of Russia ... Russia supports groups that will undermine liberal views. That's the logic of sponsorship of alt-right groups by Russia ... There is a longstanding anxiety among Russia's nationalists that Russians are dying out because of falling birth rates compared to non-Slavic peoples. It reverberates with white genocide fears." The Canadian alt-right personality Lauren Southern had a sympathetic interview with the Russian Eurasianist thinker Aleksandr Dugin, who told her "liberalism denies the existence of any collective identities" and that "liberalism is based on the absence of any form of collective identity". Dugin used the case of white South African farmers allegedly threatened with genocide as proof of the failure of liberalism, for putting the individual ahead of the collective. After the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa was presented as the "rainbow nation" where henceforward people, regardless of their skin color, would be judged only as individuals. From the viewpoint of the Russian state, presenting liberalism in South Africa as a blood-soaked disaster is a way of discrediting liberalism in general.

South Africa

File:Steve Hofmyer crop.jpg

Steve Hofmeyr

See also: South African farm attacks and Land reform in South Africa

Far-right and alt-right figures, such as singer Steve Hofmeyr, have claimed that a "white genocide" is taking place in South Africa. The South African singer, songwriter, political activist, actor and TV presenter supports and promotes the white genocide demographic theory. The Conversation has credited Hofmeyr with popularizing the concept. In January 2017, media reported that Hofmeyr was set to meet President-elect Donald Trump to discuss "white genocide" in South Africa.

The manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik entitled 2083: A European Declaration of Independence devotes an entire section to a "genocide" against Afrikaners. It also contains several other references to persecution of whites in South Africa and the attacks on white farmers. Mike Cernovich, an American alt-right commentator, has previously stated that "white genocide in South Africa is real". The survivalist group the Suidlanders has claimed credit for publicizing the issue internationally.

Some American conservatives embraced white genocide theory as part of the defense of Rhodesia and South Africa. In 2015, the Canadian journalist Jeet Heer wrote: "The idea that whites in America have a natural affinity with white colonialists in Africa did not spring from the neo-Nazi far-right, but rather the conservative movement that coalesced around National Review in the 1950s." In 1957, the American journalist William F. Buckley wrote in The National Review in defense of white supremacy around the world: "The question, as far as the White community is concerned, is whether the claims of civilization supersede those of universal suffrage. The British believe they do, and acted accordingly, in Kenya, where the choice was dramatically one between civilization and barbarism, and elsewhere; the South, where the conflict is by no means dramatic, as in Kenya, nevertheless perceives important qualitative differences between its culture and the Negroes’, and intends to assert its own." The "choice" that Britain faced "between civilization and barbarism" in Kenya that Buckley was referring to was the Kenya Emergency where the Kikuyu Land and Freedom Army, better known as the Mau Mau, fought for independence, and in the process the British security forces killed approximately 10,000-20,000 Kikuyu to put down the rebellion. The Mau Mau were depicted in the 1950s as savages who killed white British settlers, which justified British atrocities against the Kikuyu, and by linking the U.S. civil rights movement with the Mau Mau, Buckley was suggesting that civil rights for African-Americans would led to atrocities against white Americans.

Heer wrote that Buckley's equation of whiteness with "civilization" and blackness with "barbarism" led him to support racist regimes in both South Africa and Rhodesia, to paint the possibility of majority rule in both places in the darkest of colors, and his writings on the subject from the 1950s to the 1990s show a strong emotional identification with the whites of Rhodesia and South Africa. Buckley and other American conservatives consistently portrayed apartheid era South Africa in a favorable light, and warned that majority rule would cause a disaster for whites. On 23 April 1960 in the aftermath of the Sharpville massacre of March 1960, The National Review ran an editorial stating "the whites are entitled, we believe, to pre-eminence in South Africa." Russell Kirk in a column in The National Review on 9 March 1965 warned that letting African-Americans vote in the United States "will work mischief—much injuring, rather than fulfilling, the responsible democracy for which Tocqueville hoped," but in the case of South Africa "this degradation of the democratic dogma, if applied, would bring anarchy and the collapse of civilization." Kirk stated apartheid was just because South African whites were racially superior and "Bantu political domination would be domination by witch doctors (still numerous and powerful) and reckless demagogues." On 13 April 1979, Buckley in a column gave an account of South African history very sympathetic to Afrikaner nationalists, suggesting that their concerns about black rule were rational and "their fears are understandable." In an editorial on 14 March 1986, The National Review asked "To what extent, is the vast majority of South African blacks intellectually and practically prepared to assume the social, economic, and political leadership in a highly industrialized country?" In the July 1988 edition of Commentary, David Roberts, Jr compared Nelson Mandela to Pol Pot and the African National Congress to the Khmer Rouge, implying that the ANC would exterminate South African whites if it came to power. Shortly before his death in 2005 Samuel T. Francis, the former editor of the conservative Washington Times, warned about the possibility of a "white genocide" in South Africa.

Simon Roche, an Afrikaner nationalist from South Africa and a spokesman for the survivialist group, the Suidlanders, that exists in his words "to prepare a Protestant Christian South African Minority for a coming violent revolution," visited the United States in 2017 to give warning that the white minority in South Africa is faced with the threat of genocide. Roche stated he went to the United States to "raise awareness of and support for the Caucasian Christian conservative volk of South Africa ... There's a natural affinity with conservative white Americans." Another South African proponent of the genocide theory, Willem Petzer, appeared on a guest on Gavin McInnes's podcast, accusing African National Congress government in South Africa of planning genocide. Another Afrikaner group, AfriForum, had its chief executive Kallie Kriel and deputy executive Ernst Roets, visit the United States in May 2018 seeking support from the Trump administration. Roets met with U.S. National Security Adviser, John Bolton, and according to him gave him a copy of his book, Kill the Boar, which claims the ANC government is behind the murders of Afrikaner farmers.

United Kingdom

File:Anne Maria Waters.jpg

Anne Marie Waters

In 2015, the anti-Islamic For Britain party founder and leader Anne Marie Waters described White genocide as "part of a broad-ranging, virulent, and vicious hatred of white Western people". In the same Breitbart News article, she said European leaders sought to extinguish Western culture.

A few weeks before the 2016 Brexit referendum, an unemployed gardener murdered Member of Parliament Jo Cox because of her support of the European Union and work in support of immigrants, saying she was part of a left-wing conspiracy perpetuated by the mainstream media and a traitor to the White race. A March 2016 survey ahead of the referendum found 41% of Britons thought their government was concealing the true number of immigrants.

Katie Hopkins, an English media personality, has made a documentary about an ongoing genocide against white farmers in South Africa. She has also promoted the idea that both immigration and multiculturalism are intended to cause white genocide. Yahoo! News reported that while traveling for the documentary, "her intention was to 'expose' the white genocide" happening to farmers in South Africa.

United States

Starting with the 2016 US presidential election, there have been allegations that aspects of the genocide theory have been adopted as dog-whistling by some mainstream conservative political figures. In 2016, Donald Trump garnered controversy after retweeting Twitter user @WhiteGenocideTM, and @EustaceFash, whose Twitter header image at the time also included the term "white genocide." A 2016 analysis of his Twitter feed during the Republican presidential primaries showed that 62% of those that he chose to retweet in an average week followed multiple accounts which discussed the white genocide theory, and 21% followed prominent white nationalists online.

While Donald Trump supporters on the Reddit discussion forum /r/The_Donald generally agree that white genocide is occurring, they disagree about the responsible parties. "Tea Party conservatives characterize it as a scheme by Democrats to gain voters. For the white nationalists, the main villain is 'international Jewry.' Infowars fans blame 'globalists' — a label that is often interchangeable with 'Jews' — seeking to dumb down Western populations with 'low-IQ migrants' who are more easily controlled." By August 2017, at least 330 /r/The_Donald posts referred to the "Kalergi plan," a purported conspiracy to replace the European population with African migrants.

Former Iowa congressman Steve King has used rhetoric that Mother Jones and Paste Magazine writers described as invoking the white genocide theory, saying that "We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies" and using the phrase "cultural suicide". Vox and The New Republic have described him as an adherent of the theory that immigration and other forms of population shift represent a slow genocide against white populations.

Tucker Carlson, an American conservative political commentator for Fox News, has been described as playing a key role in bringing the theory of an ongoing "white genocide" in South Africa into the mainstream after a piece about the topic on his show caught the attention of president Donald Trump. Vox condemned him as having "taken up the cause" of the "virulent, racist conspiracy theory" of white genocide. Amanda Marcotte in Salon has said that while he avoids using the specific phrase "white genocide," but that "its basic premise is embedded throughout his show." The SPLC has accused his website, The Daily Caller, of promoting the theory in relation to South African farm attacks. Carlson asserted he was shocked his statements could be considered an appeal to white nationalists, dismissing questions about his show's high support among them as "stupid" and saying he knew nothing about them.

Mike Cernovich, an American alt-right social media personality, writer, and theorist, supports and promotes white genocide demographic theories. He has deleted several tweets referring to the concept, one stating that "diversity is a code word for white genocide".

Ann Coulter, an American conservative social, writer and political commentator, has been described as a "champion" of the ideas behind the genocide theory following a book she wrote on the subject. She has also claimed that "a genocide" is occurring against white South African farmers. She described non-white immigration to the United States as "white genocide" in a 2007 article called "Bush's America: Roach Motel."

File:David Duke.jpg

David Duke

David Duke, an American white separatist, former Republican Louisiana State Representative and Grand Wizard of the KKK has posted Youtube videos stating that Jews are "organizing white genocide." Duke has also accused Anthony Bourdain of wanting a genocide of white people.

Alex Jones has been described as instrumental in the American spread of theories about white genocide in Africa.

Jason Kessler, the primary organizer behind the Unite the Right rally and an American white nationalist blogger, has repeatedly used his website to criticize white genocide and an "attack on white history".

Michael Savage, an American radio host, author and conservative political commentator, has devoted an episode of his show to theories about white genocide in Africa.

Jack Posobiec, a leading figure in the alt-right former U.S. naval intelligence officer, and Trump activist, has frequently tweeted about the concept.

Donald Trump Jr., an American businessman, executive director of the Trump Organization and the eldest child of U.S. President Donald Trump, has been accused by mainstream media of being an advocate of the theory, or pretending to be an advocate for political gain, after his interview with white supremacist James Edwards during the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.

Robert Bowers, sole suspect charged in the October 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, stated, "They're committing genocide to my people", in a police complaint. On his Gab account (a favored social network for white nationalists) he wrote, "Daily Reminder: Diversity means chasing down the last white person" and "HIAS likes to bring invaders that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in."

On August 23, 2018, US President Donald Trump brought the concept of "white genocide" in relation to South Africa significantly further into mainstream media discourse, after he publicly instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to investigate South African farm attacks, an instruction which was broadly portrayed in left-wing and some anti-white media as Trump and his administration condoning what these media called a conspiracy theory. Trump had apparently gotten his information from a Tucker Carlson segment on Fox News. New York magazine had claimed Trump was attempting to "change the conversation – to one about 'white genocide' in South Africa"; Esquire reported that the "President of the United States is now openly promoting an international racist conspiracy theory as the official foreign policy of the United States." According to the SPLC, Trump had "tweeted out his intention to put the full force of the U.S. State Department behind a white nationalist conspiracy theory."

Causing "angry reaction in South Africa", many black and pro-black figures responded critically to Trump. These included multiple members of the South African Parliament and RSA Deputy President David Mabuza. Julius Malema MP responded to the US President directly, declaring "there is no white genocide in South Africa", that US President's intervention into their ongoing land reform issues "only made them more determined ... to expropriate our land without compensation", and that there is a black genocide in the U.S. Jeremy Cronin MP stated that the South African government needed to "send a signal to the courts‚ to Trump‚ to Fox News Agency" over the issue, whereas Lindiwe Sisulu claimed that his foreign policy tweet was "regrettable" and "based on false information".

In the U.S., former US Ambassador to South Africa Patrick Gaspard, and American media personalities Chris Cuomo and Al Sharpton spoke out against the US President. Gaspard labelled Trump's actions as "dangerous and poisoned", while Cuomo stated that Trump was bogusly claiming "white farmers" were "being hunted down and killed and having their land stolen".

John T. Earnest, shooter behind the Poway synagogue shooting blamed Jews for white genocide in his manifesto.

Zimbabwe

White nationalists have been described as being "obsessed" with the mistreatment of the formerly dominant white minorities in Zimbabwe and South Africa by the black majorities. In particular, the story of Rhodesia as Zimbabwe was formerly known, which was ruled by a white government until 1980 holds a particular fascination for white nationalists. Zimbabwe's disastrous economic collapse under the mismanagement of its first black president, Robert Mugabe, together with the Mugabe government's policies towards the white minority has been cited by white nationalists as evidence of both the inferiority of blacks and a case of genocide against whites. In white nationalist groups, there is much nostalgia for Rhodesia, which is seen as a state that fought valiantly for white supremacy in Africa in the 1960–1970s until it was betrayed.

Criticism

Critics of the white genocide demographic theory include:

• Derek Black, godson of David Duke, after initially supporting and helping to popularize the concept, has renounced and opposed white genocide theories. Black has claimed that the concept was about pushing white nationalists into a false and overt paranoia about demographics of the United States.
• Mika Brzezinski, an American newscaster, author and co-host of Morning Joe, has spoken out against the concept, labelling it as a "a racist conspiracy theory."
• George Ciccariello-Maher, an American political scientist and former associate professor of politics and global studies at Drexel University, has strongly opposed the white genocide theory, claiming that it is "invented by white supremacists and used to denounce everything from inter-racial relationships to multicultural policies." Ciccariello-Maher has labelled the concept as a "figment of the racist imagination" and claimed that "it should be mocked."
• Jeremy Cronin, a South African writer, politician, member of the South African Communist Party and current Deputy Minister of Public Works, has spoken against the theory. In a committee meeting in the South African parliament, he indicated that land expropriation without compensation should not be viewed as a white genocide.
• Chris Cuomo, an American television journalist, has spoken in opposition to the concept. While admitting that "like all conspiracy tripe, there's a kernel of truth" to the theory, in relation to land reform in South Africa, he generally describes the white genocide theory as a "bogus cause that white nationalists are selling."
• Patrick Gaspard, a Congolese-American politician and former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, has opposed the concept, claiming the white genocide theory is "trafficking in a white supremacist story line," and that it is a "white-supremacist meme from the darkest place."
• David Mabuza, a black South African politician and Deputy President of South Africa, has spoken in opposition to the genocide theory, calling it "far from the truth." He stated that "we would like to discourage those who are using this sensitive and emotive issue of land to divide us as South Africans by distorting our land reform measures to the international community and spreading falsehoods that our ‘white farmers’ are facing the onslaught from their own government."
• Eli Saslow, an American journalist, has spoken against the white genocide theory, labelling it as a "really effective" form of propaganda or indoctrination. He stated that "unfortunately, in part because it's built upon a very real and dark truth in American history — which is that white supremacy has always been a big part of what this country is — white nationalists were able to start capitalizing on that." Saslow has claimed the white genocide demographic theory is a way to indirectly "sanitize" white America's history of racism and violence, by focusing on the "ways that white people are under attack in this country," including "white genocide" and "building a wall."
• Al Sharpton, an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister and talk show host, has opposed the white genocide theory, labelling it as "neo-Nazi propaganda." Discussing the issue on an MSNBC segment with Katy Tur and foreign correspondent Greg Myre, he stated that it's "not true" that "white farmers are being killed in South Africa" for racial reasons.
• Lindiwe Sisulu, a South African politician, member of parliament, and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, has spoken out against the white genocide theory, saying "it is a right-wing ideology, and it is very unfortunate." Speaking of President Trump's promotion of the topic, she claimed his foreign policy tweet was "regrettable" and "based on false information."
• Tim Wise, an American activist and writer, has spoken out against the white genocide theory, stating that it is a form of negrophobia that is being directed politically to "scare white Americans" about non-whites within the U.S. Wise has claimed that paranoia around the concept dates back to the Haitian Revolution and North American slave rebellions, but that changing demographics of the United States have heightened existing anxiety, stating that "the reason it is amplified today is that in the recent past the cultural norm of the country was still dominantly white."

See also

• Angry white male
• Black genocide conspiracy theory
• Eurabia
• Ku Klux Klan
• White supremacy

Further reading

• Jim's Blog