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 âhate crimes,â 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 âwhite supremacy.â He points readers toward Wai Wah Chinâs 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 Wahâs recent appearance on TGS here.)
I have a lot of sympathy for George and Wai Wahâs argument. You would think that politicians and activists who care about âpeople of colorâ 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 âWhich Black Lives Matter?â show, that some Asian Americans do push back against the Woke elite's âAsian hate crimesâ narrative.
Back in April 2021, Wai Wah Chin wrote an op-ed in the New York Post calling out this âAsian hate crimesâ 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 âAsian hate crimeâ 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 âhate crimeâ is a remote concern to you. The op-ed ends with the call: âIt 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.â First and foremost, we have a crime problem. Solve it! Don't pretend to pacify us by calling it âhateâ or âAsianâ 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 ârace problemâ 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
While it is great that people are paying more attention to hate crimes, it is disappointing that it is only now, when Asian's are being the victims, that there is a media outcry.
As I am sure Mr. Loury knows, Blacks are 5x more likely to be the victim of hate crimes. Jewish people, and LGBTQ+ people are even more likely and Trans people are the most likely.
Why is it that only now we are seeing stories in the media about this? I think you need to think a little bit harder and consider the extent that we are all awash in propaganda all the time that tells us what to think, how to act and what to feel. Who does this narrative serve and why are they pushing it? Billionaires don't buy money losing media properties because they are magnanimous. They want to control the narrative.
I was happy to read this well-articulated sentiment from someone in Glenn's Asian readership. In spite of Amy Wax's recent claims about Asians and their proclivity for wokeness, I have found that Asians as a group â and successful immigrants in general â typically take an agnostic approach to politics. I have interpreted the Asian Hate narrative as an attempt by the far left to indoctrinate Asians into the victimology cult, and I worry very much for the end game of such a venture. The crude and preposterous aggregation of Asian ethnicities aside, it can only serve to idly shift blame while pitting all groups against each other.
The narrative goes hand-in-hand with the deflection of realities around homelessness, mental illness, and drug addiction. Here is a perfect example from my local blotter:
http://nixle.us/CNL88
Why would anyone want to politicize a homeless man screaming obscenities as a hate crime? To cover your ass? To divert attention elsewhere?
I posed have this question to Glenn and John before. Itâs an important one â and it goes indirectly to Glennâs position on incarceration. What should one make of the current discourse on addiction and mental health with regard to policy that targets the escalating urban homeless crisis (particularly in cities with progressive politics and warm weather)? How does one square ones views with the likelihood that blacks are disproportionally represented among the mentally ill? Might this fact reasonably lead one to raise race-based objections to certain practical mitigation policies, especially those that involve limiting personal freedoms?
And by the way, as media outlets increasingly feel the need to use racial descriptors as appositives (e.g., âan Asian womanâ), does anyone else hear the tag on Stevie Wonderâs âBlack Manâ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEoE2UQXduA