Anti-Asian crime is awful, but 'white supremacy' isn't driving it
By: Rich Lowry (New York Post)
Cognitive dissonance can be so disconcerting. Democrats obviously want to use racial politics to obtain some sort of political benefit from attacks on Asian-Americans. Unfortunately the facts aren't fitting Democrat's phony spittle-spewing outrage.
Democrats are attempting to place the burden of crafting a convincing lie onto the FBI. That may have worked to politically attack Trump. But in this instance any lie created by the FBI won't change the facts.
Joe Biden can make all the hearts & prayers speeches he wants. And Democrats can put on a political empathy dog & pony show. But the facts are that Asian-Americans are being attacked mostly by other minority groups. Asian-Americans know who is attacking them. Asian-Americans aren't going to play Democrats' racial politics because that won't make the attacks stop.
There is also racism between minorities. Democrats must figure out how they can politically address their half-woke anti-racism. Obviously Democrats won't address the issue with honesty and openness.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
At least it's permissible to question the conclusions of federal law-enforcement officials again.
During the Russia investigation and afterward, officials like FBI Director Christopher Wray were put on a pedestal by Democrats and the media. Now, Wray has occasioned Democratic dissents with his assessment that the horrifying murder spree at Atlanta-area spas that killed six Asian-American women wasn't racially motivated.
Over the weekend, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), said in response to Wray that she wanted to see a deeper investigation: "It looks racially motivated to me." One of two new Democratic senators from Georgia, Raphael Warnock, agreed: "We all know hate when we see it."
These are evidence-free objections to an FBI evaluation that we have every reason to believe is based on the best available facts.
All indications so far, including the perpetrator's statement as related by the police and reporting about his background in the media, suggest that he was struggling with a sex addiction, visited massage parlors for sex and carried out his attacks as, by his perverse reasoning, vengeance against the parlors as the occasion for his temptation.
What he did is unforgivably awful, heartbreakingly destructive and, of course, profoundly hateful.
It's just not the right kind of hate to fit a woke narrative of white supremacists targeting Asian Americans in a frenzy of racism fueled by former President Donald Trump's use of terms like "the China virus" and "Kung Flu" during the pandemic.
There has been an ongoing effort to link the spa shootings to a trend of increasing hate crimes against Asian Americans. There is much still to learn about this phenomenon. It may have peaked last spring with the onset of the coronavirus and certainly appears to have driven by several big cities, especially New York City, Los Angeles and the Bay Area. But this broader trend doesn't appear to fit a neat woke narrative, either.
For one thing, many attacks against Asian Americans clearly aren't acts of white supremacism or even incidents of racial hatred.
It is an unfortunate feature of big American cities at the moment that not much explanation is needed for attacks against anyone other than a rising tide of lawlessness. That surely accounts for some significant percentage — if by no means all — of the attacks.
A high-profile stabbing of a Chinese man in Manhattan in February was carried out by a troubled 23-year-old man from Yemen. Despite pressure from Asian-American activists, prosecutors declined to charge the assault as a hate crime after they found no evidence that it was.
The suspect in the killing of Vicha Ratanapakdee — an elderly Thai American who died after being brutally pushed to the ground in broad daylight in San Francisco in January — is a 19-year-old black man.
Last March, an Asian-American woman was assailed on a bus in The Bronx by a group of black teenage girls, who accused her of spreading the coronavirus. There can be no doubt about the racial element of this assault, but the perpetrators belonged to one of the demographic groups in America least likely to be influenced by Trump or to favor white nationalism.
A New York Times story on attacks in New York referred to the awkwardness when the attackers are other minorities. It noted that some Asian-American community leaders "say tougher enforcement could end up pitting Asian Americans against black and Latino communities, inflaming racial tensions."
The head of a Chinese social-services agency told the paper that "many of his Asian colleagues were verbally harassed during the pandemic but chose not to alert law enforcement, because they worried the perpetrators, who were often people of color, could be mistreated by the police."
But none of these complications is allowed to interfere with a simplistic narrative of Asian Americans as the victims of white supremacy, no matter what the facts are, no matter what the hitherto unassailable FBI director says.
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Democrats' half-woke racial politics won't make this problem go away. Asian-Americans know who is attacking them. And it ain't white supremacists.
"A new study suggests that former President Donald Trump's inflammatory rhetoric around the coronavirus, which is believed to have originated in China, helped spark anti-Asian Twitter content and "likely perpetuated racist attitudes."
The Asian American community has experienced a striking rise in incidents of hate since the onset of COVID-19 , according to officials and advocates, and critics say the former president's repeated use of "China Virus" and other terms helped fuel an environment of hatred."
ABC News
WS's are a part of Trump's base who he supports.
"The Asian American community has experienced a striking rise in incidents of hate since the onset of COVID-19 , according to officials and advocates, and critics say the former president's repeated use of "China Virus" and other terms helped fuel an environment of hatred."
150% rise since the former occupant of the White House called it the Kung Flu.
China is a country and not a race. Wuhan is a city and not a race, too. And the attacks are not being directed toward only Chinese-Americans.
Asian-Americans know who is attacking them. And it's not white supremacists. Are you suggesting that minorities were encouraged to attack Asian-Americans by Trump's rhetoric? The issue demonstrates that Democrats racial politics hasn't been honest and open.
Attacks on Asians haven't only increased in the United States. Have you considered that China's attempts to politicize the pandemic and deflect blame may have influenced treatment of Asians around the world?
If white supremacists were attacking Asian-Americans then Asian-Americans would say so. Democrats may want to spin a political narrative blaming white supremacists but Asian-Americans know that won't stop the attacks.
Attackers cannot differentiate between different Asians, so to them any Asian qualifies as Chinese.
A point lost on most people.
This sorry piece of journalism cherry picks assaults perpetrated against Asian Americans in an attempt to prove that Trumps hateful rhetoric didn't actually incite his white supremacist base of supporters.
But the fact is that Asian Americans have of course been victims of crime and violence in America just as any other American has in the past for years. These examples cited by the extremely conservative NYPost are just examples of that but they do not in any way address the fact that attacks on Asian Americans did increase by 150% after Trump began calling it the "China Virus" or "Kung Flu" and the majority of the increase in violence against them is directly related to their being Asian Americans and being somehow connected to or blamed for the Corona virus. Just because there are still crimes of opportunity, muggings and assaults that have nothing to do with their race or Trumps words doesn't mean the increase over prior statistics isn't related to Trumps irresponsible rhetoric or racist hate inspired by his choice of words.
Are there white supremacists in America? Yes. Do many of those white supremacists listen to, support and admire Donald Trump? Yes. Have some apparent Trump supporters taken to calling the virus the "China Virus" or "Kung Flu"? Yes. Have some of those expressed their anger and hate toward Asian Americans either verbally or physically? Yes. Has the number of those attacks increased dramatically since Trump began using such irresponsible language in an apparent attempt to deflect any responsibility for his poor handling of the Corona Virus response? Yes, by 150%. Those trying to deflect from those facts are the ones who are deluded, not those of us who are willing to accept and try and address the fact that Trumps words did inspire many of these attacks, not all, but many, and a 150% increase is no small number that should be ignored or swept under the carpet just because some people feel uncomfortable about their bigotry being called out and brought into the spotlight.
So who woulda thunk that racists don't discriminate when they decide to assault/and/or kill 'Asians'
Can you support that the 150% figure?
It is appalling that the political left actually believes that Asian-Americans are too stupid to know who is attacking them. The political left thought they knew what was best for Vietnam, too.
Using dead Asian-Americans to politically attack Trump, Trump supporters, Republicans, or anyone else the political left wants to hate reveals quite a bit about Democrats' half-woke racial politics.
Yes, there are white supremacists in America. What the political left wants to sweep under the rug is that there are black supremacists in America, too.
The white population doesn't hold a trademark on racism. That's why Democrats' focus on the white population is only half-woke.
Except, I would have to admit, based purely on appearance, I would not be able to tell the difference either, with few exceptions.
Other than telling the difference between oriental and occidental eye folds, I would be lost on telling what nationality they are.
Bingo.
What they need to focus on is the white liberal part that many are truly racist. Many of them are the cancer of the democratic party.
Watch how they react when a black person dares to get off the liberal/progressive plantation.
Not pretty.
The only ones who are "too stupid" are those who continue to deny that there was any correlation between the anti-Asian rhetoric and the increase in assaults and attacks on Asian Americans.
And what the fuck is "the political left"? I see you use this phrase over and over again but it's just your own attempt to lump a bunch of different people you obviously hate into one basket. Progressives, liberals, independents and even some conservatives like Mitch McConnell's wife have acknowledged the rise in attacks on Asian Americans on our streets. The only ones who should be ashamed of themselves are the half asleep dumb shits who continue to defend the indefensible all because they are desperate to defend their supposed Lord and Savior Donald Trump.
But Asian-Americans can differentiate between who is attacking them. If white supremacists were responsible for the increased attacks then Asian-Americans would say so. When did New York City and San Francisco become centers of white supremacy?
Asian-Americans have now been forced into the position of competing with other minorities for political attention. Should we expect the attacks to decrease or increase?
President-elect Trump broke long standing policy by making an official call to President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan. Caused quite a furor. Was it the political right or political left that expressed concern?
President Trump buddied up to Kim Jong-un. Trump is the first US President to set foot in North Korea. The South Korean government even offered mild praise for Trump's less belligerent approach to North Korean diplomacy. Was it the political right or political left that expressed outrage over Trump's diplomacy?
China aggressively cracked down on Hong Kong. The protests played on the new cycle for quite a while, remember? Was it the political right or political left that used hateful rhetoric against China?
China is violating the human rights of the predominantly Muslim Uighurs. Think Muslims in the US might be a little upset? Are Muslims in the US Trump supporters?
Asian-Americans know who is attacking them. If Trump was responsible they would say so. Trump saying 'China virus' or 'Kung flu' is pretty mild compared to the rhetoric that the political left of the Democratic Party has been using.
Whaaat??????
How do you tell if a person is a racist or white supremacist, just by their appearance?
Are the following a pictures of racists, or someone else? Please explain what details in the pictures indicate your decision.
The question 'how do you know who is racist?' has been asked before. Those ascribing to left leaning politics claim to have highly sensitive, finely tuned racism radars. According to leftist activists, using their racism radar, all whites are racist and no one else from any other race can be racist. And it's impossible for there to be racism against white people.
Apparently that has not been the experience of Asian-Americans. The experience of Asian-Americans represent a threat to activists on the political left. So, activists on the political left are pushing a narrative that Asian-Americans don't understand racism and are too stupid to know who is attacking Asian-Americans.
Asian-Americans know who is attacking them. If white supremacists were attacking Asian-Americans then Asian-Americans would say so. Since Asian-Americans aren't conforming to the political narrative of leftist activists, Asian-Americans are worried they will experience more attacks to force conformity. Those ascribing to left leaning politics have demonstrated they will use violence to force consensus.
Is that how racism radar works? Don't give away the political left's secrets; they'll become violent.
Who cares what that rag, the NY Post, has to say?
Well it seems as though you care or you wouldn't be commenting on it. Hmmmm
Just needed to express the complete and utter bullshit that this is
You mean this one?
That this 'article' is
Then please do. I'd like to know your reasons why that you haven't taken the time to do yet. All you seem to have done is shoot the messenger so far. Please enlighten the readers Thank you.
I just did.
You're welcome
Journalists. The New York Post is part of the fourth estate, after all.
Funny how that 'freedom of the press' thing works, isn't it?
Never gonna happen
I'm sorry but you didn't define the complete and utter bullshit. All you did was proclaim that's what it was. Interested as why you think that. That's all. Thanks in advance
And she won't
Oh look, an article defending white supremacists, right here on NT.
Oh look, someone claiming they know more about it than do Asian-Americans. How liberal.
Do you snarl when you say 'woke'?
That qualifies as one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read. IMO the victims were most likely more concerned about becoming victims of retribution, and if they made the statements they did to the services agency it was so they would not appear to be racist themselves. Sorry, but I think I have reason to be a little more aware of what Chinese poeple are like than most.