Vinícius Júnior was subjected to racist abuse yet again on Sunday with the Brazil star saying the Spanish league "now belongs to racists." The latest abuse against Vinícius came in Real Madrid's 1-0 loss at Valencia, a match that had to be temporarily stopped after the Brazil forward said he was insulted by a fan behind one of the goals at Mestalla Stadium. "It wasn't the first time, or the second or the third. Racism is normal in LaLiga. The competition thinks it's normal, as does the federation, and the opponents encourage it," Vinícius said on Instagram and Twitter. "The league that once belonged to Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cristiano (Ronaldo) and (Lionel) Messi now belongs to racists ... But I'm strong and I will fight until the end against the racists. Even if far from here." Also Read: Brazil’s president, players support Vinícius Júnior, criticize racism in Spanish league The 22-year-old Vinícius, who is is Black, has been subjected to racist abuse since moving to Spain five years ago. Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti considered replacing the star forward after Vinícius said fans at Mestalla chanted "monkey" toward him. He said Vinícius initially didn't want to continue playing. "What happened today shouldn't happen," Ancelotti said. "When a stadium yells 'monkey' to a player, and the coach considers taking him out of the field because of that, it means that there is something bad in this league." The veteran coach refused to talk about the game after what happened, saying his team's loss meant nothing. "The game should have been stopped," Ancelotti said. "This shouldn't happen. It wasn't only one person, as it has happened in several stadiums. Here, it was a stadium racially insulting a player, the game had to stop. I would have said the same thing if it was 3-0 for us. You have to stop the game, there was no way around it." Ancelotti said he asked the referee to stop the match, but was told that the protocol was to first make an announcement to fans, then take other action if the problem continued. Ancelotti said Vinícius didn't want to keep playing but he told the player that he wasn't guilty of anything and that he was the victim. Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said he would have left the field with Vinicius if his teammate had decided to stop playing. "Vinícius is upset, obviously, but more than upset, he is sad," Ancelotti said. According to Spanish media reports, Valencia has identified two fans who allegedly insulted Vinícius behind one of the goals. Some comments on social media claimed fans were saying the Spanish word "tonto" (silly) instead of "mono" (monkey). Valencia later said it expected Ancelotti to apologize to Valencia fans for accusing them of racism after misunderstanding what was said. The coach told a news conference that the referee wouldn't have started the racism protocol if he didn't think there was racism in the stadium. Vinícius was later sent off after an altercation with Valencia players, and gestured to home fans about their team's fight against relegation as he left the field. Valencia took a huge step toward avoiding the drop with the 1-0 victory opening a five-point gap to the bottom three teams entering the final three rounds. "The reward for the racists was my ejection!" Vinícius said on Instagram, along with the Spanish league's slogan "It's not soccer, it's LaLiga." Vinícius had called the referee around the 70th minute and started pointing to a person sitting among the Valencia supporters. The player went near the stands and confronted the fans while players from both teams tried to restore calm. Police eventually arrived in the stands to deal with the supporters. An announcement was made asking fans to behave. The match at Mestalla was stopped for about seven minutes, and not long after it resumed Vinícius clashed with Valencia players and was sent off for pushing one of his opponents away with a hand to his face. After the decision of his ejection was made following a video review, Vinícius started applauding ironically. As he was leaving the field, he made a "going down" gesture over relegation. That upset players on the Valencia bench and some charged toward Vinícius as he left the field, causing the game to be temporarily stopped again. Valencia coach Rubén Baraja condemned the behavior of Valencia fans but also criticized Vinícius, saying he should have respected the club and its supporters. Vinícius' teammate Dani Ceballos criticized the fans but said he also expected Vinícius to apologize for his gestures after being sent off. Ancelotti said Vinícius' reaction was normal considering what he had gone through moments earlier. The Spanish league said it has requested images from the game to investigate what happened. It will also probe possible insults against Vinícius outside Mestalla, when a large group of fans also allegedly called the player a monkey as the Madrid bus arrived. League president Javier Tebas criticized Vinícius for attacking the league without fully understanding what it has done recently to combat racism, and saying the player didn't show up for talks on the subject that he had requested himself. The league has made nine formal complaints over racist abuse against Vinícius over the last two seasons, with many of the cases being shelved. A Mallorca fan may end up going on trial after allegedly racially insulting the Brazilian during a game. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva joined a wave of Brazilian politicians, players and clubs coming out to support Vinícius and criticize racism in the Spanish league. Lula told a news conference in Japan on the sidelines of a G7 meeting that he hopes FIFA, the Spanish League and other soccer bodies "take measures so we don't allow racism and fascism to take over" in the sport. The first trial against a fan accused of racial abuse in Spanish professional soccer is expected to happen at some point this year in a case involving Athletic Bilbao forward Iñaki Williams, who was insulted by an Espanyol supporter in a match in 2020.  

The white gunman who massacred 10 Black shoppers and workers at a Buffalo supermarket pleaded guilty Monday to murder and hate-motivated terrorism charges, guaranteeing he will spend the rest of his life in prison. Payton Gendron, 19, entered the plea Monday in a courthouse roughly two miles from the grocery store where he used a semiautomatic rifle and body armor to carry out a racist assault he hoped would help preserve white power in the U.S. Gendron, who was handcuffed and wore an orange jumpsuit, occasionally licked and clenched his lips as he pleaded guilty to all of the most serious charges in the grand jury indictment, including murder, murder as a hate crime and hate-motivated domestic terrorism, which carries an automatic sentence of life without parole. He answered “yes” and “guilty" as Judge Susan Eagan referred to each victim by name and asked whether he killed them because of their race. Gendron also pleaded guilty to wounding three people who survived the May attack. Many of the relatives of those victims sat and watched, some dabbing their eyes and sniffling. Speaking to reporters later, several said the plea left them cold. It didn’t address the bigger problem, which they said is racism in America. Read more: Youngest of 10 Buffalo shooting victims being laid to rest “His voice made me feel sick, but it showed me I was right,” said Zeneta Everhart, whose 20-year-old son was shot in the neck but survived. “This country has a problem. This country is inherently violent. It is racist. And his voice showed that to me.” After the roughly 45-minute proceeding ended, Gendron's lawyers suggested that he now regrets his crimes, but they didn't elaborate or take questions. “This critical step represents a condemnation of the racist ideology that fueled his horrific actions on May 14,” said Gendron’s lawyer, Brian Parker. “It is our hope that a final resolution of the state charges will help in some small way to keep the focus on the needs of the victims and the community.” Gendron's parents, in their first public statement, said the guilty plea ensures their son will be held accountable. Paul and Pamela Gendron said they “pray for healing for everyone affected." They thanked law enforcement authorities who investigated the case, adding they will “continue to provide any assistance we can." “We remain shocked and shattered to learn that our son was responsible for the hideous attack at the Tops grocery store on May 14, 2022,” said the emailed statement, which was provided to The Associated Press by their attorney. Gendron has pleaded not guilty to separate federal hate crime charges that could result in a death sentence if he is convicted. The U.S. Justice Department has not said whether it will seek capital punishment. Acknowledgement of guilt and a claim of repentance could potentially help Gendron in a penalty phase of a death penalty trial. The plea comes at a time when many Americans have become nearly desensitized to mass shootings. In recent weeks, there have been deadly attacks at a Walmart in Virginia, at a gay club in Colorado and at the University of Virginia. Read more: Buffalo shooting latest example of targeted racial violence Just days after Gendron’s rampage in Buffalo, a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas. Gendron wore body armor and used a legally purchased AR-15 style rifle in his attack on the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo. Those killed ranged in age from 32 to 86 and included an armed security guard died trying to protect customers, a church deacon and the mother of a former Buffalo fire commissioner. Gendron surrendered when police confronted him as he emerged from the store. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, who was in the courtroom for Gendron’s guilty plea, told reporters afterwards that “It was important to hear why these precious lives were snatched from us for no other reason than the color of their skin.” The mayor, a Democrat, called for a ban on assault weapons, as did Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia. Relatives of the victims reiterated their calls for Congress and the FBI to address white supremacy and gun violence. "We are literally begging for those in power to do something about it," said Garnell Whitfield, whose 86-year-old mother, Ruth Whitfield, was killed." White supremacy was Gendron’s motive. He said in documents posted online just before the attack that he’d picked the store, about a three hour drive from his home in Conklin, New York, because it was in a predominantly Black neighborhood. He said he was motivated by a belief in a massive conspiracy to dilute the power of white people by “replacing” them in the U.S. with people of color. “Swift justice,” is how Erie County District Attorney John Flynn described Monday’s result, noting that it’s the first time anyone in the state of New York has been convicted of the hate-motivated terrorism charge. His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 15. Attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents several of the victims’ families, said they remain baffled that the gunman survived. They want harsh punishment, he said: “We want him to be treated as the heinous, cold blooded vicious murderer that he was for killing all these innocent Black people. It is emotional and we are angry.” Mark Talley, the son of Geraldine Talley, who was killed, called on authorities to incarcerate him in Erie County, in the same community where he caused so much pain, so that he might face the same horror experienced by his victims. “I want that pain to eat at him every second of every day for the rest of his life,” Talley said. Talley and Everhart said they were offended by Gendron's tone and cleaned-up appearance in court. They said a Black defendant would have been treated differently. Gendron is a “thug,” they said. “We show them in a way that doesn’t make them threatening, and it’s disgusting,” Everhart said. “Am I happy he’s gong to jail for life?" Talley said. “What would make me happy is if America acknowledged its history of racism.”

A racist ideology seeping from the internet’s fringes into the mainstream is being investigated as a motivating factor in the supermarket shooting that killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York. Most of the victims were Black. Ideas from the “great replacement theory” filled a racist screed supposedly posted online by the white 18-year-old accused of targeting Black people in Saturday’s rampage. Authorities were still working to confirm its authenticity. Certainly, there was no mistaking the racist intent of the shooter. WHAT IS THE ‘GREAT REPLACEMENT THEORY’? Simply put, the conspiracy theory says there’s a plot to diminish the influence of white people. Believers say this goal is being achieved both through the immigration of nonwhite people into societies that have largely been dominated by white people, as well as through simple demographics, with white people having lower birth rates than other populations. The conspiracy theory’s more racist adherents believe Jews are behind the so-called replacement plan: White nationalists marching at a Charlottesville, Virginia, rally that turned deadly in 2017 chanted “You will not replace us!” and “Jews will not replace us!” A more mainstream view in the U.S. baselessly suggests Democrats are encouraging immigration from Latin America so more like-minded potential voters replace “traditional” Americans, says Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism. How long has racism existed? Broadly speaking, the roots of this “theory” are that deep. In the U.S., you can point to efforts to intimidate and discourage Black people from voting — or, in antagonists’ view, “replacing” white voters at the polls — that date to the Reconstruction era, after the 15th Amendment made clear suffrage couldn’t be restricted on account of race. In the modern era, most experts point to two influential books. “The Turner Diaries,” a 1978 novel written by William Luther Pierce under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald, is about a violent revolution in the United States with a race war that leads to the extermination of nonwhites. The FBI called it a “bible of the racist right,” says Kurt Braddock, an American University professor and researcher at the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab. Renaud Camus, a French writer, published a 2011 book claiming that Europe was being invaded by Black and brown immigrants from Africa. He called the book “Le Grand Remplacement,” and a conspiracy’s name was born. WHO ARE ITS ADHERENTS? To some of the more extreme believers, certain white supremacist mass killers — at a Norway summer camp in 2011, two Christchurch, New Zealand, mosques in 2019, a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2017 — are considered saints, Pitcavage says. Those “accelerationist white supremacists” believe small societal changes won’t achieve much, so the only option is tearing down society, he says. The Buffalo shooter’s purported written diatribe and some of the methods indicate he closely studied the Christchurch shooter — particularly the effort to livestream his rampage. According to apparent screenshots from the Buffalo broadcast, the shooter inscribed the number 14 on his gun, which Pitcavage says is shorthand for a 14-word white supremacist slogan. A written declaration by the Christchurch shooter was widely spread online. If the message attributed to the Buffalo shooter proves authentic, it’s designed to also spread his philosophy and methods to a large audience. IS THE THEORY MAKING WIDER INROADS? While more virulent forms of racism are widely abhorred, experts are concerned about extreme views nonetheless becoming mainstream. In a poll released last week, The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 1 in 3 Americans believe an effort is underway to replace U.S.-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gain. Also Read: Vigil planned after 2 killed, 4 wounded in campus shooting On a regular basis, many adherents to the more extreme versions of the “great replacement” theory converse through encrypted apps online. They tend to be careful. They know they’re being watched. “They are very clever,” Braddock says. “They don’t make overt calls to arms.” WHO’S TALKING UP THIS THEORY? In particular, Tucker Carlson, Fox News’ most popular personality, has pushed false views that are more easily embraced by some white people who are concerned about a loss of their political and social power. “I know that the left and all the gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term ‘replacement,’ if you suggest the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World,” he said on his show last year. “But they become hysterical because that’s what’s happening, actually, let’s just say it. That’s true.” A study of five years’ worth of Carlson’s show by The New York Times found 400 instances where he talked about Democratic politicians and others seeking to force demographic change through immigration. Fox News defended the host, pointing to repeated statements that Carlson has made denouncing political violence of all kinds. The attention paid by many Republican politicians to what they see as a leaky southern border along the United States has been interpreted, at least by some, as a nod to the concern of white people who worry about being “replaced.” House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik’s campaign committee was criticized last year for an advertisement that said “radical Democrats” were planning a “permanent election insurrection” by granting amnesty to undocumented immigrants who would create a permanent liberal majority in Washington. Stefanik represents a New York district. Pitcavage says he’s concerned about the message Carlson and supporters are sending: “It actually introduces the ‘great replacement theory’ to a conservative audience in an easier-to-swallow pill.”    

Actor Jussie Smollett was indicted Tuesday for a second time on charges of lying to police about a racist and anti-gay attack he allegedly staged on himself in downtown Chicago, renewing a divisive criminal case that drew worldwide attention last year.