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CW: Racism, Mass Murder, Anti-Semitism -- The top of this week’s
Newsletter will be addressing the terror attack in Buffalo this week. To
bypass the majority of that content, head to the To Dos section. 

Indivisibles, 

[ [link removed] ]A white nationalist perpetrated a terror attack in a Tops grocery store
in Buffalo, NY on Saturday, murdering 10 people and leaving another 3
injured in his wake. The terrorist drove three hours to target a Black
neighborhood, where 11 of his 13 victims were Black shoppers. He
livestreamed the murders in real time, and other white supremacists shared
it. This was planned. This was orchestrated. This was a hate crime.

We want to be clear -- this was not solely a mass shooting. This was not
the isolated act of a disturbed individual. This was not simply America’s
lax gun laws coming back to harm its citizens again. This was a
continuation of pernicious white-supremacist conspiracy ideology: The
Great Replacement Theory (GRT).

Originally coined to stoke anti-Muslim fears in France, GRT was
immediately taken up by American white supremacists and adapted to our
country’s unique racial history in order to further feelings of white
superiority, invoking anti-Blackness and anti-Semitism to scare white
Americans into the arms of the Republican party.

GRT has roots in the racist idea of Black sexual promiscuity and
insatiable sexual appetite widely accepted in slavery-era America. When
white slave owners forced their slaves to produce as many offspring as
possible, while simultaneously stealing African peoples from their homes,
the population boom that it produced presented racist opportunity and
obstacle -- the opportunity became the three-fifths compromise, which
allowed enslaved peoples to be counted as part of the population for
purposes of representation (though not granted votes) and the obstacle was
in the shrinking ratio of white to Black people in the country. 

That fear, the looming concern of a Black population becoming so large
that they could wrest control of their own lives away from a white ruling
class, led to the KKK, to lynchings, and to preventative retaliation
against anything that white slave-owners believed could possibly be a
rebellion among other hyper-aggressive reponses. 

Manufactured fear leading to racial violence is the exact legacy that
brings us to GRT today.

When the 2000 census projected that white people would no longer be the
majority in this country by 2060, white nationalist groups began to stoke
the fire of losing “their” country. By 2012, we see the first instance of
the phrase “Great Replacement Theory” as it was coined by French author
Renaud Camus ([ [link removed] ]this NYT piece has a deeper look at Camus’ influence).
For the most part, the theory was relegated to white nationalist spaces,
slowly gaining momentum until a tipping point. 

When Donald Trump was elected president, as we know, the dam broke.
[ [link removed] ]White nationalists chanted, “Jews(you) will not replace us” in
Charlottesville, VA. Tucker Carlson [ [link removed] ]overtly broadcast far-right
rhetoric directly into millions of viewer’s homes. Mainstream Republicans
like [ [link removed] ]Elise Stefanik, [ [link removed] ]Blake Masters, [ [link removed] ]Ron Johnson, and more adopted
racist rhetoric from the dark corners of the internet and centered it in
their appeal to voters. The idea that whites were under threat of
“replacement” by People of Color, enabled by a global Jewish cabal, moved
from the fringe of the Republican party to its most popular stars, stoking
racial fears in an attempt to gain political power. As Rolling Stone put
it, [ [link removed] ]The Buffalo Shooter Isn't a 'Lone Wolf.' He's a Mainstream
Republican.

Stoking white fear of being replaced isn’t a new tactic. It was used
during the Red Scare. It was used against the Black Panther Party. It has
been used for years as an excuse to close our borders to immigrants who
would seek safety and opportunity in a new country.

You know who else used it? Adolf Hitler. It is no surprise that a movement
that finds its foundations in mass murder, eugenics, and genocide
specifically uses anti-Semetic rhetoric to promote the lie that Jewish
power brokers are trying to install Black and brown people in a new power
structure in the United States -- American white nationalism has a long
tradition of taking its lead from Nazi propoganda. 

As our country has grown more politically polarized and pundits like
Tucker Carlson explicitly stoke fears for ratings, some people internalize
these fears and use them as a call to arms -- mass murder becomes the only
solution to defend “their country.” (Our country certainly is in danger,
but that danger is coming from inside the house.) 

We must do everything that we can do to disrupt and discourage this
ideology. Ideas that we may have once believed to be so fringe that it was
best to ignore them we are now learning must be actively and aggressively
combatted.

We need to vote these politicians out of office -- GRT is not a mistake
that grew out of Republican ignorance. It is an active movement promoted
by popular Republicans with violent consequences that we are seeing play
out before our eyes. We cannot be timid. We need to actively speak out
when we hear whispers of these ideas passing amongst our associates and
families. Most importantly, we need to rededicate ourselves to being
strong allies to marginalized communities. Republicans are trying to grab
power by stoking fears that turn us against each other; we win by building
a community that chooses love and acceptance over hate and fear, and we
win by voting the Republican’s deadly extremism out. 

We have no choice but to win. 

Below, we’ve outlined our weekly to-dos. While they may feel somewhat
unrelated at first glance, at their core, these issues are intertwined:
the fight to save Roe is about abortion, yes, but it’s also about class.
The fight for gun legislation is about guns, yes, but it’s also about
structural racism. The fight against book banning is about books, yes, but
it’s also about making sure we’re teaching children the real history of
our nation. At Indivisible, right now, we think the best power we have to
fight for improvements right now is to expand our majories with Democrats
who will be fighters -- for democracy, against racism, against
antisemitism, against hate in all its forms. We need your help to do it.

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 Your 4 weekly to-dos 

 1. [ [link removed] ]Sign up here to get involved in our Give No Ground program to
defeat Republican extremism in November. We need to make every
Republican politician in this country pay for their complicity. If you
are not actively working against violence then you are tacitly
condoning it. That means doing everything in our power to elect more
progressive Democrats in November to ensure that we remove the stain
of far-right ideology from the halls of power in this country and
ensure we have the power to make real change. 
 2. [ [link removed] ]Click here to register for a Strategy Call & TX-28 Phonebank this
Wednesday, May 18 at 7:30 ET/4:30 PT. The time is now to ensure we are
electing a progressive majority in November. We need to not only,
ensure we’re winning against Republicans, but also that we are
electing Democrats who share our values and will fight for progress.
Henry Cuellar is the last anti-choice Democrat in the House. Let’s
elect Jessica Cisneros and make sure there are none.  
 3. Reply to this email with pictures and stories from your
#BansOffOurBodies actions this week. Not all of this weekend’s news
was heartbreaking. Let’s celebrate how we mobilized. Let’s remind each
other that Americans overwhelmingly believe abortion should be legal.
Lastly, let’s show each other what community coming together looks
like. We’d love to see what you saw! 
 4. [ [link removed] ]Click here to access a list of local abortion funds where you
should donate. When Roe falls, 26 states are in line to criminalize
abortion with 13 of those states already having laws on the books that
impose that change immediately. The demand on local abortion funds
will increase immediately with some Americans needing to travel
hundreds of miles in order to make a personal medical decision. Let’s
continue to make sure these funds are set up to support any and
everyone who needs an abortion.

We rely on your support to keep call pages up and running, fund ads to get
the word out, and continue all the work we do. If you want to help us keep
Republicans from gaining control of Congress, [ [link removed] ]click here to donate to
help fund our work.



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 Indivisible at #BansOffOurBodies 

 

[ [link removed] ]Bans Off Our Bodies Rally in Pennsylvania.
Indivisible Chesco shared from a Bans Off rally in
Pennsylvania.

 

[ [link removed] ]Bans Off Our Bodies rally in Arizona.
Indivisible of AZ in the crowd at a Bans Off rally in
Arizona.

 

[ [link removed] ]Bans Off Our Bodies rally in Massachusetts.
Indivisible Mass Coalition promoting a rally organized
by Indivisible-Rise Newburyport in Massachusetts.

 

[ [link removed] ]Bans Off Our Bodies rally in Chicago.
Indivisible Chicago putting in the work to help
organize at a Bans Off rally in Chicago.

 

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If this weekend shows us anything, it is that in the face of Republican
oppression, Indivisibles organize. Let’s keep it going. 

In solidarity,
Indivisible Team

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