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Old Tropes of Black-Asian Conflict Rear Up after NY Assault

Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on

Among those complaining about the widespread lack of candid talk about Black-Asian friction is the reliably provocative author and commentator Heather Mac Donald, a bestselling crime specialist at the conservative Manhattan Institute.

In her latest provocation, “Race and False Hate Narratives,” posted on Quillette, she argues that the media and “Democratic establishment” have slanted the national discussion to blame anti-Asian violence on white supremacy and brand “white Americans as the biggest threat facing the U.S.”

She cites New York Police Department data to write, “a black New Yorker is over six times as likely to commit a hate crime against an Asian as a white New Yorker.”

“In 2020,” she writes, “blacks made up 50 percent of all suspects in anti-Asian attacks in New York City, even though blacks are 24 percent of the city’s population. Whites made up 10 percent of all suspects in anti-Asian attacks in 2020 in New York City but account for 32 percent of the city’s population.”

So she doesn’t argue that Asians don’t have good reasons to worry about their families and communities. She only wants to make sure the left or “woke” don’t get to shift all of the blame to systemic white racism. Fair enough. Crime is a complex issue, regardless of the community.

But that doesn’t mean everyone should content themselves with dismissing the problem as simply business as usual. Crime and violence already plague too many Black communities. No one should be content with its boiling over to victimize other communities.

 

Fortunately, while some people point fingers of blame, others are reaching out. Some are working, for example, with alliances such as StopAAPIHate.org to learn “bystander intervention training” so that when they see someone getting attacked or harassed, they’ll have an idea of what to do, besides complain.

It’s not a miracle cure, but it’s a start.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)

©2021 Clarence Page. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


(c) 2021 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

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