White genocide conspiracy theory
The white genocide, white extinction,[1] or white replacement conspiracy theory[2][3][4] is a white nationalist[5][6][7] conspiracy theory that claims there is a deliberate plot (often blamed on Jews[5][8]) to cause the extinction of whites through forced assimilation,[9] mass immigration, and/or violent genocide.[10][11][12][13] It purports that this goal is advanced through the promotion of miscegenation,[14] interracial marriage, mass non-white immigration, racial integration, low fertility rates, abortion, pornography,[15] LGBT identities,[16][17] governmental land-confiscation from whites, organised violence,[9] and eliminationism in majority white countries.[5] Under some theories, Black people,[18] Hispanics,[19] and Muslims[20] are blamed for the secret plot, but usually as more fertile immigrants,[21] invaders,[22] or violent aggressors,[23] rather than as the masterminds.[24] A related, but distinct, conspiracy theory is the Great Replacement theory.
"White genocide" redirects here. For the term related to the Armenian diaspora, see White genocide (Armenians). For the mass killings under right-wing regimes, see White Terror.
White genocide is a political myth[25][26][18] based on pseudoscience, pseudohistory, and ethnic hatred,[27] and is driven by a psychological panic often termed "white extinction anxiety".[28] Objectively, white people are not dying out or facing extermination.[29][30][24] The purpose of the conspiracy theory is to justify a commitment to a white nationalist agenda[31] in support of calls to violence.[25][23][22]
The theory was popularized by white separatist neo-Nazi David Lane around 1995, and has been leveraged as propaganda in Europe, North America, South Africa, and Australia. Similar conspiracy theories were prevalent in Nazi Germany[32] and have been used in the present-day interchangeably with,[33] and as a broader and more extreme version of, Renaud Camus's 2011 The Great Replacement, focusing on the white population of France.[34][35] Since the 2019 Christchurch and El Paso shootings, of which the shooters' manifestos decried a "white replacement" and have referenced the concept of "Great Replacement", Camus's conspiracy theory (often called "replacement theory" or "population replacement"),[36] along with Bat Ye'or's 2002 Eurabia concept[37] and Gerd Honsik's resurgent 1970s myth of a Kalergi plan,[33] have all been used synonymously with "white genocide" and are increasingly referred to as variations of the conspiracy theory.
In August 2018, United States President Donald Trump was accused of endorsing the conspiracy 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",[38][39][40] claiming that the "South African government is now seizing land from white farmers".[41] Unsubstantiated claims that the South African farm attacks on farmers disproportionately target whites are a key element of the conspiracy theory,[42][43][44][45][46][47] portrayed in media as a form of gateway or proxy issue to "white genocide" within the wider context of the Western world.[48][41] The topic of farm seizures in South Africa and Zimbabwe has been a rallying cry of white nationalists and alt-right groups[49][50] who use it to justify their vision of white supremacy.[51][41]