Alleged Dallas Koreatown hate crime by black suspect results from ‘white supremacy replacement theorist,’ congresswoman says
US Representative Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) is shown speaking on Capitol Hill on Thursday. © Getty Images / Anna Moneymaker
US Representative Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, is pointing to a recent shooting at a Korean-owned hair salon in Dallas as the latest example of terrorism motivated by “white supremacy replacement theory.” Her assertion might be problematic, inasmuch as the alleged shooter is a black man.
Beatty rolled out her theory about racially motivated violence on Thursday in a speech on Capitol Hill, suggesting that Republicans are inspiring mass shootings of non-whites and Jews with their racist rhetoric. She cited the so-called Great Replacement theory – the notion that non-white people are being brought into the US and other Western countries to disenfranchise white voters.
Democrats have pointed to a shooting last week that killed 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket as proof of how dangerous replacement theory is. The 18-year-old suspect ranted about the Great Replacement – among other beliefs similar to those of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi militias – before allegedly shooting 13 people, including 11 blacks.
“Republican leadership is not innocent, and whether they use a dog whistle or a bull horn, they do not get a pass,” Beatty said.
The congresswoman then turned to another example, saying, “On Monday, three people in a Korean-owned hair salon in Dallas were gunned by yet another white supremacy replacement theorist. We are seeing the pipeline from racist rhetoric to racist violence.”
The Dallas Koreatown shooting actually occurred on May 11, and the suspect, 36-year-old Jeremy Smith, was arrested earlier this week. The shooting wounded three Asian women, and Smith is suspected of being behind two other shootings at Asian-owned businesses in Dallas.
Smith, who is black, faces possible federal hate crime charges and has already been charged with three counts of aggravated assault. A police affidavit obtained by the Dallas Morning News indicated that Smith had anti-Asian delusions.
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“He begins having delusions that the Asian mob is after him or attempting to harm him,” Smith’s girlfriend told Dallas police, according to the affidavit. Smith was fired from his job for verbally attacking his boss, who was Asian, and he began suffering “panic attacks and delusions” after being involved in a car accident with an Asian motorist two years ago.
Nevertheless, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and other leading Democrat lawmakers standing behind her on the Capitol steps, Beatty pointed to the Koreatown shooting as another example of white supremacy in action. “Let’s hold people accountable,” she said. “Let’s hold the right people accountable, and that’s the Republican Party.”
