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 — and successful immigrants in general — 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:
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. It’s an important one — and it goes indirectly to Glenn’s 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., “an Asian woman”), does anyone else hear the tag on Stevie Wonder’s “Black Man”?
I just commented on an old podcast but, it is very important that you read it. I want to help. It was Race and Classics from 7 Months ago. I will pay the subscription if you like, but this is imperative.
It's tremendously satisfying that when you sort through all the extraneous stuff, George Lee. Heather MacDonald, Amy Wax and Glenn Loury are all pretty much on the same page.
I am gay and should be on alert if White supremicists are stalking the streets. So should African Americans and Jews. So - the newest wave of White Supremacists only hates Asians? BS. I was walking Polk Street (SF) in fear just 4 days after Trump got elected in 2016. And I was wearing the solitary safety pin. A young African American male, who would also be a target of White Supremacists, stopped me on Polk to ask what I thought of Trump winning. I said “He is a jerk. The stranger paused a very long time after I answered his question as he likely contemplated how to direct our discussion to a conflict location. Me: What do you want? I don’t have any money. Him as he is walking away: You are a racist. end.
Only science can lead us to the place where we need to be.
I mentioned the issue of Black on Asian crime in a monthly Q&A that Glenn and John graciously addressed a while back. My main point was that rather than lumping Black on Asian crime into one indiscriminate bucket, we should actually consider two distinct categories of such crimes. First there are Black on Asian robberies that I argued almost certainly have a utilitarian rationale on the part of the criminal. It's often said that crimes like homicide are intra-racial, i.e. people mostly kill and are killed by someone of their own ethnic group. One statistical indication of this is the fact that the racial distribution of victims roughly mirrors that of the racial distribution of perpetrators. However, when you look at crimes such as robbery in large cities like NYC, you can immediately see that in contrast to crimes like homicide or shootings, Asians generally make up a much larger percentage of victims as opposed to perpetrators while the opposite is true for Blacks. Clearly Blacks are targeting Asians for robberies in big cities and my own suspicion is that a major part of the reason is that Asians are being targeted because they happen to be of smaller stature on average relative to members of other ethnic groups and are perceived to be less likely to fight back. There's a reason why Black guys rob elderly Asian women. It's high reward low risk.
I'm not sure that I would describe this first category of Black on Asian crime as being motivated primarily by racism, although I certainly agree that it's highly problematic and in any case the mainstream media loves pretending that it doesn't exist which just makes the problem worse. That being said, there is a second category of Black on Asian crime that was really exemplified during the pandemic by random senseless assaults of Asians by Blacks with no property being taken from the victim in most cases. We've seen the videos of Black perps randomly coming up to Asian victims and sucker punching or assaulting them. I'm sure some of these incidents have a racial angle based on the rhetoric uttered by the perpetrators. In other cases it's certainly possible that the assailants may have mental health issues. I agree with John and Glenn from their monthly Q&A that we don't have great sociological insight into what this second category of Black on Asian crime is all about. Like John I agree that what's sorely needed are the journalist anthropologists who can help us make sense of these Black on Asian assaults. I also agree with George and Wai Wah that the mainstream media loves promoting the narrative that somehow Black on Asian crime is fundamentally about white supremacy, which when you think about it makes absolutely no fucking sense.
I think an honest discussion of the underlying phenomenon of Black on Asian crime is sorely needed in this country. I say this as someone who was personally a victim of Black on Asian crime himself. Shortly before relocating across the country a couple of years back, I walked past a group of male Black youths with my phone out. While I was preoccupied with doing something on my phone, one of the youths ran up from behind me, grabbed my phone out of my hand, punched me in the right eye and ran away. I suffered a black eye and apparently had a broken right orbital socket as well as a fractured nose. It took many weeks to recover and was not a pleasant experience. There was nothing remotely Trumpian or white supremacist about what I endured and now when I walk past groups of Black youths I'm almost certain to be more on guard. Stereotypes and perceptions unfortunately exist for a reason.
The perpetrators in my case and in many other cases of Black crime are often juveniles. We saw this in many of the videos of the lootings that took place in the aftermath of the George Floyd riots. I remember personally asking myself where the parents were in the lives of many of these youths when I saw footage of these crimes. I think Heather MacDonald's observations about the breakdown of the Black family in her conversation with Glenn are extremely apt.
The answer to black on Asian crime is the same as to all crime. A rapid armed response. Hopefully the upcoming SCOTUS decision on New York’s overly restrictive gun laws will enable its honest citizens to avail themselves of this remedy.
The numbers I saw showed that Asian males have the highest income in the US and Asian females tied White males for second ($50 under). Wondering if this is a a status/envy problem disguising itself as a race problem.
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 — and successful immigrants in general — 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. It’s an important one — and it goes indirectly to Glenn’s 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., “an Asian woman”), does anyone else hear the tag on Stevie Wonder’s “Black Man”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEoE2UQXduA
I just commented on an old podcast but, it is very important that you read it. I want to help. It was Race and Classics from 7 Months ago. I will pay the subscription if you like, but this is imperative.
Asians, you're on your own. No one is coming to help you.
You need to take the attitude of the "Rooftop Koreans."
It's tremendously satisfying that when you sort through all the extraneous stuff, George Lee. Heather MacDonald, Amy Wax and Glenn Loury are all pretty much on the same page.
I am gay and should be on alert if White supremicists are stalking the streets. So should African Americans and Jews. So - the newest wave of White Supremacists only hates Asians? BS. I was walking Polk Street (SF) in fear just 4 days after Trump got elected in 2016. And I was wearing the solitary safety pin. A young African American male, who would also be a target of White Supremacists, stopped me on Polk to ask what I thought of Trump winning. I said “He is a jerk. The stranger paused a very long time after I answered his question as he likely contemplated how to direct our discussion to a conflict location. Me: What do you want? I don’t have any money. Him as he is walking away: You are a racist. end.
Only science can lead us to the place where we need to be.
I mentioned the issue of Black on Asian crime in a monthly Q&A that Glenn and John graciously addressed a while back. My main point was that rather than lumping Black on Asian crime into one indiscriminate bucket, we should actually consider two distinct categories of such crimes. First there are Black on Asian robberies that I argued almost certainly have a utilitarian rationale on the part of the criminal. It's often said that crimes like homicide are intra-racial, i.e. people mostly kill and are killed by someone of their own ethnic group. One statistical indication of this is the fact that the racial distribution of victims roughly mirrors that of the racial distribution of perpetrators. However, when you look at crimes such as robbery in large cities like NYC, you can immediately see that in contrast to crimes like homicide or shootings, Asians generally make up a much larger percentage of victims as opposed to perpetrators while the opposite is true for Blacks. Clearly Blacks are targeting Asians for robberies in big cities and my own suspicion is that a major part of the reason is that Asians are being targeted because they happen to be of smaller stature on average relative to members of other ethnic groups and are perceived to be less likely to fight back. There's a reason why Black guys rob elderly Asian women. It's high reward low risk.
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_planning/year-end-2020-enforcement-report-20210721.pdf
I'm not sure that I would describe this first category of Black on Asian crime as being motivated primarily by racism, although I certainly agree that it's highly problematic and in any case the mainstream media loves pretending that it doesn't exist which just makes the problem worse. That being said, there is a second category of Black on Asian crime that was really exemplified during the pandemic by random senseless assaults of Asians by Blacks with no property being taken from the victim in most cases. We've seen the videos of Black perps randomly coming up to Asian victims and sucker punching or assaulting them. I'm sure some of these incidents have a racial angle based on the rhetoric uttered by the perpetrators. In other cases it's certainly possible that the assailants may have mental health issues. I agree with John and Glenn from their monthly Q&A that we don't have great sociological insight into what this second category of Black on Asian crime is all about. Like John I agree that what's sorely needed are the journalist anthropologists who can help us make sense of these Black on Asian assaults. I also agree with George and Wai Wah that the mainstream media loves promoting the narrative that somehow Black on Asian crime is fundamentally about white supremacy, which when you think about it makes absolutely no fucking sense.
I think an honest discussion of the underlying phenomenon of Black on Asian crime is sorely needed in this country. I say this as someone who was personally a victim of Black on Asian crime himself. Shortly before relocating across the country a couple of years back, I walked past a group of male Black youths with my phone out. While I was preoccupied with doing something on my phone, one of the youths ran up from behind me, grabbed my phone out of my hand, punched me in the right eye and ran away. I suffered a black eye and apparently had a broken right orbital socket as well as a fractured nose. It took many weeks to recover and was not a pleasant experience. There was nothing remotely Trumpian or white supremacist about what I endured and now when I walk past groups of Black youths I'm almost certain to be more on guard. Stereotypes and perceptions unfortunately exist for a reason.
The perpetrators in my case and in many other cases of Black crime are often juveniles. We saw this in many of the videos of the lootings that took place in the aftermath of the George Floyd riots. I remember personally asking myself where the parents were in the lives of many of these youths when I saw footage of these crimes. I think Heather MacDonald's observations about the breakdown of the Black family in her conversation with Glenn are extremely apt.
The answer to black on Asian crime is the same as to all crime. A rapid armed response. Hopefully the upcoming SCOTUS decision on New York’s overly restrictive gun laws will enable its honest citizens to avail themselves of this remedy.
The numbers I saw showed that Asian males have the highest income in the US and Asian females tied White males for second ($50 under). Wondering if this is a a status/envy problem disguising itself as a race problem.
Haven't read the piece yet, but I wanted to say I really appreciate these Sunday afternoon posts. They often lead to great discussion.