Why does it offend you so much, that a mass shooting correlated with a recent problem of racism against asians, sheds more light upon an uptick in racism against asians recently?
Maybe offend is the wrong word here. It seems like you take more issue with the semantics of the issue, than you do with the issue itself when semantics is what you would rather talk about as opposed to the issue the tragedy brought to the forefront.
Basically, it sounds like you are trying to minimize the recent uptick in racism against asians is a non issue because this specific incident may not have been 100% racially motivated. Thatās what gets (stable) peopleās hackles up- not the part where you question if the shooting was racially motivated.
I donāt believe in shoe horning a mass shooting into another issue. I think you have it reversed. Iām against the shoe horning of racism into a mass shooting tragedy.
Iām minimizing the racism that appears to be absent and maximizing the mass shooting that actually happened for whatever insane reasons it actually happened. Racism isnāt the end all be all sin root of all evil motivations. White perp or not.
Iām not saying you are (forgive me if it came off that way). Iām saying thatās what the undertone sounds like when the issue of racism against asians is brought up along with this shooting, and you make the main discussion point about a lack of evidence supporting the racial motivation of the shooter, as opposed to keeping the main point about the recent uptick in racism against asians. ie. Racism is the issue, the shooting is just one piece of supporting evidence.
FWIW, Iām not disagreeing with you about the shooting (I generally agree with you about itā¦ actually most of your analysis above). Just offering my thoughts as to how it comes off arguing the validity of a specific incident while not touching on the larger issue it was publicized to represent.
Is there ANY evidence of racial motivation? Everything Iāve seen suggests otherwise. Anything that lands this anywhere within āracism against Asians?ā
Iām not offended. Weāre very different at times, it seems, but I like you. Youāre intelligent and engaged with things you believe in. No forgiveness is necessary. Weāre just talking, working out some thoughts to kill the time.
Mostly correlation. A mass shooting at a mosque after 9/11 would sure stink like an islamaphobic attackā¦ But could just be a neighbor pissed off at the parking situation.
Itās violence against a group of asians, during a time that has seen a sharp rise of violence against asians. And, it was an event that brought the larger issue to the forefront of our collective news cycles. If the shooting wasnāt racially motivated, the larger issue still remains.
To be clear, I do hope any uptick is temporary. I just donāt like seeing this shooting being turned into something more (white supremacy) because it was a white shooter. Had it been an Asian shooter dealing with some odd sexual thingsā¦it would be a mass shooting story highlighting mental illness. We can admit this, right? But because it WAS a white shooterā¦is this not a form of prejudice (prejudging) based on color and stereotyping? But itās even worse because many now know the white supremacy isnāt even there.
Maybe thatās the difference. I see it being co-opted to highlight the issue of racism against asians (by not just white folks), you see it as co-opting the tragedy to highlight the issue of just white supremacy.
If someone marched into my church to kill people dressed up on Sundays, and weāre known to have people dressed up on Sundays, I would be just as bothered by the act being turned into a religious based hate crime. Even if there a couple hundred incidents of anti religious hate.
The entire thing bothers me. From the crime, to the misrepresentation. For a good or bad unrelated cause, it doesnāt matter. I think thereās now an alarming idea that it (what actually happened) no longer matters so long as different races or sexual orientations can be identified.
Further, and even narrower, a few of the recent actual anti Asian events captured on video donāt have a thing to do with white supremacy judging by the perpetratorsā¦ But white supremacy specifically, and in addition to anti Asian violence, is be focused on almost exclusively in numerous media sources.
It probably will not be prosecuted as a hate crime if there isnāt evidence directly tying it to being a hate crime. If the guyās social media has been anti Asian and suggestive of violence, then it will be prosecuted as a hate crime. It would be called circumstantial (successfully IMO) by the defense that they were all Asian if that is the only thing being asserted as evidence of a hate crime.
Firstly, Im not disagreeing with you about who is committing most of the crimes. I lived in and around the hood for a number of years and would absolutely argue that racism against Asians is far more prevalent in that community than in the white upper middle class community im apart of now. Hidden in this thread or another, i recently agreed about that with another poster. That said, the more rural areas nearby where i live now arent exactly friendly towards brown looking foreigners either.
Secondly, and correlated to the point above but contrary to your point, almost all the videos i see on the news showing Asians being attacked, show a black guy as the attacker. It usually is VERY reminiscent of āthe knockout gameā from a few years back. Its seems like you are latching onto this mass shooting story as the beinginning of the media reporting on an uptick in anit-asian harassment and assaults. Its been going on for a while (see my N. Idaho KFC story i trot out all the time), but was certainly stoked by the China Virus rhetoric of the past year. I think you are reading too much into this being about white supremacy. Sure, some especially progressive woke folks on NPR late night or weekend mornings want to make that connection, but for the most part i just see this as racism against Asians. period.
Also, what in the fresh hell is duckduckgo? do you honestly expect anyone to switch from google? Lets be real here. Aint happening.
Are we taking away from solving the issue of racism with all the white supremacy stuff? It seems to me that if we have an issue, that falsely framing it makes the issue harder to fix in most cases. By falsely framing it, I mean that it seems that many have been convinced that a large majority of it is by white people and more specifically white men. My experience does not line up with this narrative.
I think one of the outcomes of falsely framing it is that very little improvement will be made inside of other groups. I think another is that improvement among the white people who are actually racist is going to be blunted as they will feel victimized (because when many guilty parties are excluded and a subset are punished, the punished ones feel like victims). I think feeling like a victim is not good reasoning (it is whataboutism), but I still think they will feel that way, and be more resistant to change.
I think this idea is at the root of a lot of the posts that Sloth and others are making on the topic. And I agree frankly. It does nothing to fix or solve the problem, or bring unity and move on.
And you are absolutely correct about the blunting of progress and especially victim mentality being whataboutism (can be applied to both sides honestly)
Desire for unity is missed by so many. It seems so many on both sides are dug in and convinced they are right (and morally superior). I think much of it comes down to human nature (we seem to instinctively be drawn towards tribalism). I am not sure what we can do about this though.