How California popularized the Great Replacement

On Saturday, a heavily armed 18-year-old white man rolled up to a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo, N.Y., and killed at least 10 people. The suspect is said to have committed the act to stop the so-called “Great Replacement,” a conspiracy theory that gained popularity among the far right across the world in recent years.

Its premise says that a secret cabal of elites are supposedly helping people of color take the place of white people. In the United States, the great replacement theory was turned into political strategy and policy long ago. And it started here, in California.

Today, we hear how the Golden State helped the fringe conspiracy go mainstream. Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times columnists Erika D. Smith and Jean Guerrero

More reading:

Column: I’m part of the ‘great replacement.’ It’s not what believers say it is

Column: Buffalo shooting is an ugly culmination of California’s ‘Great Replacement’ theory

Column: How the insurrection’s ideology came straight out of 1990s California politics