How to Protect Asian American Communities

An email from a reader

Violent crimes committed against people of Asian descent have reached worrying levels in cities like San Francisco and New York. Given the way the mainstream media often portrays racial division in this country, you could be forgiven for thinking the perpetrators are all Trump-loving white nationalists.

But this is not the case. In an email to me, George Lee takes issue with attempts to describe these terrible incidents as “hate crimes,” as though the worst thing about them was their prejudicial nature. For George and many others in the Asian American community, the primary issue is public safety, not “white supremacy.” He points readers toward Wai Wah Chin’s 2021 New York Post op-ed, which calls for more policing to protect vulnerable communities, rather than empty CRT-inspired rhetoric. (You can also watch Wai Wah’s recent appearance on TGS here.)

I have a lot of sympathy for George and Wai Wah’s argument. You would think that politicians and activists who care about “people of color” would do whatever it takes to protect them from bodily harm, including increasing the police presence in relevant neighborhoods. Unfortunately, this appears not to be the case, and Asian American communities are among those bearing the cost.

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Dear Glenn,

Thank you, Glenn, for pointing out, in your recent “Which Black Lives Matter?” show, that some Asian Americans do push back against the Woke elite's “Asian hate crimes” narrative.

Back in April 2021, Wai Wah Chin wrote an op-ed in the New York Post calling out this “Asian hate crimes” narrative. Anyone with eyes can see that the attackers in New York City are not MAGA-chanting, Trumpist white supremacists. The Woke elite's narrative is shamelessly fact-free partisan propaganda, lasting no longer than a photo-op, and more importantly, serving to deflect attention away from their racism-mongering, soft-on-crime policies that, inspired by critical race theory, gave us this crime wave in the first place.

The “Asian hate crime” term itself is manipulative and divisive. Wai Wah's op-ed points out that when you are being pushed onto the subway tracks or face a knife in a robbery, whether the expletive used by the attacker qualifies the attack as a “hate crime” is a remote concern to you. The op-ed ends with the call: “It is time to make New York City safe again, not just for Asians, but for all communities hurting from rising lawlessness and crime. With them we stand in solidarity.” First and foremost, we have a crime problem. Solve it!  Don't pretend to pacify us by calling it “hate” or “Asian” while actually pouring fuel on the fire by promoting CRT.

Heather Mac Donald is right that many Asian activists are tools of the Woke elite, on topics from street crimes to selective school admissions to critical race theory itself. For some, it is as Booker T. Washington said, that there's an easy living to be made from keeping the “race problem” alive and in the public eye. For others, it is as John McWhorter diagnosed, that a weak core falls easy prey to upwardly mobile and psychically addictive virtue signaling. Even without Amy Wax's thoughtful and provocative probe, we know these Asians to be the community's burden. We are excited, however, that a new, emergent generation of Asian activists and voters will turn the tide in New York City, like they did in Northern Virginia, California, and Washington State!

Thanks again, Glenn, for another great episode of The Glenn Show!

Best regards,

George Lee