03-16-2021, 06:53 PM
(03-16-2021, 06:43 PM)Dill Wrote: My question assumes recognition of attacks from different ethnicities, which have some marker of racial motivation (as opposed to a random robbery or altercation after a fender bender). It asks what is the next step, then, in determining the cause of a rise in violence? If there is one, then maybe checking stats is a start. The FBI does has not readied stats for 2020 yet, so we have to rely on other sources, like Stop AAHI Hate, which collect volunteered reports and monitor the news. They report some 3,000 attacks between March 2020 and Feb. 2021, compared to 100 in the preceding time frame.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/11/asian-american-hate-incidents-target-new-legislation-congress/6937841002/
One study from April 2020, maybe to early to be useful here, could NOT find that the pandemic had increased xenophobic behavior to Asians, at least as measured in surveys (not violence)
Does Pandemic Threat Stoke Xenophobia? https://as.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyu-as/populationCenter/documents/Has%20Pandemic%20Threat%20Stoked%20Xenophobia%20aggregate%2012%202%202020%20w%20cover%20page.pdf
We're talking about a relatively low number, we don't need to wait on the FBI to determine basic facts like this. A great question to ask would be, why hasn't this already been done?
Quote:The question is about as straightforward as it can be, without assuming the answer from the get go. I can refine it a bit, though.
If "we are all responsible for our own actions," then why have more individuals been responsible for racist attacks against Asians this year than in the first quarter of 2019 or 2020?
Likely a myriad of reasons. As stated before racism towards Asians has always been prevalent in some communities. Seeing as how the virus originated, indisputably, from China and China certainly aided in it's spread by its complete lack of transparency I don't know that some people, already so inclined, would need any more justification for their violence or hate. Now, if, as you heavily allude to, Trump is solely, or mostly, to blame then why would so many of the attacks be carried out by communities in which Trump holds little to no sway?
Quote:The answer cannot be a generalized abstraction, like "racism," since that was already there in 2019 and 2018. Something more time- and environment-specific is needed. It is also possible the attacks are genuinely random, like a June snowstorm. We could even start with that as a null-hypothesis (i.e., if we investigate, we'll find no causal pattern beyond those already existing).
Sure it can. Do you not think racist attacks increase after a particularly negative news piece featuring an act by a person of a certain race? Do I think it's solely caused by this, absolutely not, but you absolutely cannot discount it as you just attempt to definitively do.
Quote:Since some Dem lawmakers want to introduce a bill addressing the problem, they should take your point to heart--namely that we need to understand causes if we hope to address them effectively.
Hate crime laws are already on the books, so I don't know what further legislation would be needed, or warranted to prosecute these crimes. What would such "solutions" even look like?
