An Asian Uber Driver Was Attacked by a Mob. Then YouTube Took Down His Video
inquiremore.com
inquiremore.com
It's unquestionable that certain demographic groups are seeing a disproportionate level of violence. It's unquestionable that some of this is caused by naked, explicit racism. But not all of it. Poverty and social class plays a significant role too; unfortunately this has correlations with other demographic markers.
Fearful citizens are more easily to motivate to vote reliably, and without questioning more complex policy positions. Moreover, racially motivated voters seldom demand anything of substance from their leaders aside from the appearance of "standing up".
TV and online media similarly love racial conflict because it drives high user engagement and ad revenues, while similarly lowering the bar for producing any meaningful content.
The self-destructive path we are on should be greater cause for alarm. There is no evidence that the escalation racial violence will abate any time soon.
If attacks don't fit the prevailing political narrative, they're buried immediately and sometimes covered up completely.
[1] https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/07/09/bart-withholdin...
But to throw a hypothetical at you: is it right for an Asian person in San Francisco to be more scared when they see someone of "X" race than when they see someone of "Y" race?
Even if most of the people in the "X" group are nonviolent, if threats disproportionately come from the "X" group, it would not be unreasonable to be more wary of members of that group.
Isn’t Youtube still hosting it?
The YG concert in Oakland a few years back actually had lots of Asian people there. As an Asian, I don’t want to excuse the song. It was just made in bad taste, before everyone became so sensitive.
What irks me is not the song itself or YG, I like his music, but the double standard and hypocrisy of people applying cancel culture only when it’s convenient to. For example, if an asian person made a song in the reverse. I’d rather get rid of cancel culture altogether
You’ve noted that cancel culture is rather one-side: I feel Asians tend to be fairly moderate, in which case there is plenty to dislike whether looking into Democrat and Republican.
So here’s the thing: Asians including East Asians need to become far more involved in politics, rather than simply taking cues from MAGA, BLM, or other self-serving interests.
If Asians are a small minority, consider also that both sides are eager to court Asians for the moral high-ground.
tl;dr; Asian Americans may be the moderating voice that the US needs.
>It's hard for me not to believe you just made this up. "ling-ling boppin" doesn't return any Google results.
1 video, with 1100 views is in no way indicative of a "hip hop trope".
I used to love HN, now I can see that there are a large number of intellectual cowards here. On a site full of engineers that understand statistics, a video with 1100 views being seen as a trope within the context of hip hop is patently absurd.
I literally cannot find a single wu-tang video with less than millions of views, but one no-name rapper with 1100 views is a "trope". Yet that comment will receive 0 downvotes because it's a victim narrative that HN wants to believe. That is dangerous and intellectually disingenuous. I was ashamed of the "Michael Brown - Hands Up Don't Shoot" narrative because it was simply untrue, but it was a narrative adopted by the AA community because it supposed a popular and often valid position. I always expected better on HN, it truly saddens me to see this here.
https://twitter.com/vincentkangnow/status/139344934049724416...
Google being hard to get on the phone: check
Where is the bingo sheet
Also, here is the video in question.
https://twitter.com/vincentkangnow/status/139344934049724416...
It's really unhealthy to write off "contrarianism" as some kind of tactical play instead of like... complex opinions.
That narrative has been applied successfully for political gain , i.e. it's easier to get public support for fake "social justice" causes vs. actually fixing the underlying (predominantly economic) problems which originate in bad policy and bloated government.
Silicon Valley is predominated by and attracts people who are left leaning. This ideology carries with it a narrative that there is an oppressed group and a oppressing group. In America, the form this narrative takes is that non-whites are oppressed by white supremacy.
There is a notion that Asians are a “model minority” who fare better socioeconomically than even the white majority which is inconvenient to this narrative.
People on the right believes this shows white supremacy does not exist. People on the left thinks the notion of a model minority is a divide and conquer tactic to advance white supremacy. The left ironically still believes the Asian Model Minority is real, because it’s initiatives for equity usually does not extend to Asian people. To be more concrete, tech companies will have initiatives to hire more ethnic minorities, however Asians are usually precluded.
Reporting White on Asian violence fits in with the White Supremacy narrative.
Reporting Asians are victims to other ethnic groups would not advance the agenda that the oppressed group is worth helping.
Asians have, on average, higher incomes than other groups in the US including whites. Asians are overrepresented in tech. However, when you look at senior and executive positions, Asians are underrepresented. This is known as the bamboo ceiling. Tech companies while left leaning is still predominantly white in management positions. Since the Trump era, the American right is often accused of supporting or being white supremacists. Additionally, to suggest Asians are victims is equivalent is equivalent to being a white supremacist (hence the movement is coined Stop Hate Asian rather than Stop Asian Racism, because the left believes Asians cannot be the victims of racism ). Like “minority”, the word “supremacy” is selective. The Trump base is lead by poor rural whites who hold little economic power. Meanwhile, their Silicon Valley counterpart is highly educated and affluent. Again, whites are at the top. As we know, tech has huge influence of media and access to information, and so ironically, tech companies are quite possibly the White supremacists. As an example of this irony in white liberals, there were documented examples of a white Black Lives Matter protester yelling in the face of a black police office telling them they were the racist ones.
I'm not sure where you get this. If anything, you're the one perpetuating the victimhood mentality right now
> This is the "asian hate" that never gets called out
First of all, I'm not fond of the #StopAsianHate movement. It is populated with the same ironic Silicon Valley hypocrisy, and many "Boba Liberals" who mansplain privilege to us all. But notice that they named it Stop Asian Hate instead of Stop Asian Racism, as to not steal the thunder of Black Lives Matter.
FWIW, I personally don't consider all of this Asian hate. I consider it racism towards Asian.
> you paint all whites as bad faith actor
Nope, mainly just the hypocrisy of privileged Silicon Valley types from the suburbs who post a picture with the one black friend they have and use minorities as an excuse to shed their white guilt, instead of actually paying principal on two acres and a mule
> Unfortunately stop asian hate is only seen as stopping hate directed toward asians, it would be a much more effective strategy if asians and all people would take this to mean asians should also stop the hate the direct at others.
Is Black Lives Matter's strategy to stop racism towards directed white people? Is it strategy to uplift other minorities, or to detract from it as you are now. Many Asian people believe they are allies with blacks, but many blacks reflect your sentiment that they are fighting their own battle. If you believe your own people's plight takes precedence over others, I think that's fair, just don't be ironic about it and call it out when other people ( such as myself ) do the same for their own.
> This is the "asian hate" that never gets called out, this is why the name Latisha Harlins is never spoken and the perpetual racism of asians toward blacks never gets called out.
I actually wrote a dozen paragraph follow up to another commenter from Australia who was confused by the newfound Asian resentment and whether it was due to immigration. I brought up Google searching "Rooftop Koreans" ( which you can argue is form of Asian victimhood) and the idea in the black community that Asian businesses profit off blacks, which I'm sure you believe in given the tone and sentiment you're expressing here. I deleted it because I felt this thread was over and no one was actually going to read it, and potentially it will just feed into the division because it's hard to decouple the recent years from politics.
There's countless Asians on the left aka "Boba Liberals" who are very keen on mansplaining white supremacy to everyone, and also reminding the history of blacks and asians, the good blacks has done for all minorities, and reminding the Asian community of anti-blackness. I've also seen this in the reverse with blacks being allies to Asians. Then I've also seen many people like you who presume Stop Asian Hate is a euphemism for anti-blackness. Maybe you're the one projecting your own assumptions about who is perpetrating the Asian hate crimes. Everyone is on a spectrum, but your response paints all Asians as anti-black, but would also explain why your belief template interpets my comment as saying all blacks are perpetual victims and all whites are to blame. It's not helping your cause at all when even the "Boba Liberals" feel betrayed that their support of others is not reciprocated.
One small NIT. I do not think I was "perpetuating" a victim mentality, but I can see how you may feel I was projecting.
Also, there are a number of asians who do in fact use "Stop Asian Hate" as a cloak for their own anti-black feelings. You should look into what is happening in Africa. Specifically Kenya.
I agree
Could something similar be happening in the US now? I believe that people universally care about their material conditions of their lives, about being treated with respect, and about the future for their children, but when these concerns are presented in the media it is the shrill and sensational voices that are amplified. No-one gets to see their perspectives communicated in way that resembles the true beliefs and everyone else seems trivial, idiotic and dangerous.
In recent decades, immigration animosity is usually directed towards Mexicans. Usually people are upset when they perceive their jobs are being "taken away", but the professions Asians are associated with in recent decades in accordance with that model minority myth are not the same set of jobs that are being threatened.
> I believe that people universally care about their material conditions of their lives, about being treated with respect
I think everyone would agree with this sentiment, however the far-left/medium-left now equate this sentiment to "All Lives Matter" and reaffirming white supremacy or even that Black Lives Don't.
I attended public school that was 25% black, 25% white, 25% latino, 25% asian. I always felt America was a tolerant place, but in recent years that has changed. The democratic party has shifted from the labor of party to being one of social issues and identity politics, while the republican party has in a way become about blue collar laborers. In my opinion, identity politics is to blame for this, but the situation is far too complex to point to a single or even a dozen things. I realized that, as a rule of thumb, most phenomenon in America can be parsed if you assume there is some private commercial interest at play. Things may start as grassroots, but eventually corporations taint the situation with their own agenda. Definitely Social Media and the attention economy which is fueled by controversy and polarization, "The Social Dilemma" may cover some of these bases.
Reinforcing a narrative of white-supremacy is a key part of that strategy.
1. The driver in the article even says that this case might not be racially motivated. There was a fist fight going on and it was related to the passengers. Passengers got in the car and the group attacked the passengers and the driver.
2. There has been a lot of Asian rascism and hate crimes in America. There was some statistic that showed ~50% was from African Americans and ~30% from Latinos. News have been underreporting this in light of the statistics. This is a huge issue that media is hiding from us.
3. This rise in asian hate crimes might stem from harsher job market and rise in Chinese propaganda. In fact, it also seems like Black/Latino community after being oppressed so long is lashing out at another minority community. I would suggest it might stem from 1. A lack of financial opportunities and 2. Systemic oppression against Blacks in America. It's like how Trump likes to do it. Deflect the blame and hatred at others instead of really looking at the main issue.
Overall, both class and wealth inequality comes into play. I would suggest there's quite of things going on but what would improve it would be:
1. Start improving the education system in America. Education is usually correlated to higher wage, better working standards and job satisfaction. However not only improvements in STEM, but also in the Arts (History, World Literature, Philosophy, Finance? and others). When you lack a well-rounded education, you don't see beyond your current situation. You start discovering more about the world, more about other people's plight or your own and you understand the human condition. You see that the world is beyond just your current situation. "People who do not know history will end up repeating it" (Some person I dont know)
2. Change in Black culture. I'm not the most educated on this but there needs to be a change in African American arts/music. There needs to be a change from just victimization, gangbanging and "money" culture. Yes it is true there's is system oppression. Yes it is also true that Blacks should be able to express their frustrations and anger at society through music. But it should be towards a goal to reform society or to be conducive towards society. Right now, there's a mindset of creating division or rage against society or the police. We should build communities not destroy them.
Anyways, I don't know what I'm saying lol. Just rambling and trying to get my thoughts out. Steps are 1. Improve Education 2. Improve Wealth Generation 3. Build stronger communities (maybe?)
But then again, discrimination and racism posts in general are something that gets flagged a lot on HN so it's not surprising.
Sounds like they are charging tens of thousands of dollars a year in booking fees for each FT driver, how is the coverage that bad?
https://help.uber.com/driving-and-delivering/article/what-is...
You see where I'm going with this?
I wasn't aware he had a large base in Oakland.
They are pretty rabid Trump supporters, probably not unrelated to the fact that my wife's family are universally successful, extremely wealthy, entrepreneurs. They live in Atlanta, and therefore the topic of the massage parlor shooting came up.
The refrain I kept hearing from my wife's uncle, specifically, was that "we know what we see with our own eyes, and it doesn't match what THEY (he meant the establishment media) are trying to tell us".
It was a rather surreal experience arguing about Trump with them as a white dude, with them being the defenders.
White liberals are the white supremacists dictating to minorities what they ought to believe.
What is the difference between holier-than-thou woke elitism that is commonplace in tech versus supremacy? Why is that tech workers from white, white, white suburban backgrounds ( which includes Asians ) where their parents paid for SAT prep courses also the loudest voices in social justice movements while the blue collar minorities I talked to were busy in their hourly work during the pandemic instead of having the privilege of encouraging protests in the middle of a pandemic ?
The data shows minorities including blacks and LGBTQ have trended towards Trump since 2016 while upper class whites have shifted the other way, meanwhile the narrative of racism, inclusivity and toxic righteouness has been escalated by the left. But of course, anyone who supports Trump is racist, dumb, uneducated, when quite possibly they don’t care for him more so than the rejection of white progressive ideals and the white owned tech oligarchy
1. Just like Asians have been the "model minority," Blacks are treated as the opposite. There's a lot of resentment going one way, and a lot of "what did you hit me for?" going the other way.
2. There's a lot of Asians (especially those from overseas) who don't understand the historical context, and aren't privy to empathy or compassion when they're being targeted. This dynamic isn't something that's new. When I grew up in NYC in the 80s, it was like Chinese immigrants were fair game. The poorer Chinese immigrants were the only folks who other groups had any "power" over. In turn, it's been really difficult educating my own relatives about this, and the prejudice that they may have. It's sad, and I understand them.
3. The matter is something that has caused real rifts in the AAPI communities. Asians as a group are not uniformly affluent, and the folks who live in inner-city neighborhoods feel as if the "boba Asians" don't understand them. It's these poorer Asians who are subjected to the brunt of the violence and prejudice.
4. There's a fair bit of talk these days in some of my circles that there's a divide-and-conquer thing going on.
Not sure I'm understanding; are you saying asians are targeted by blacks because of some "race retaliation" scheme?
> 4. There's a fair bit of talk these days in some of my circles that there's a divide-and-conquer thing going on.
Divide-and-conquer of what exactly?
But there are several cases where black attacked Asians unprovoked. Like what else was the reason for an attack??
Another reason is that blacks aren't arrested or prosecuted when attacking Asians.
There are a few examples where SF tried hard to downplay (and/or not prosecute at all) black-on-asian crime. For example, you can search for the news reporter Dion Lim where she found that a black-on-asian case is dropped silently.
This also potentially results in the side effect of Asians (specifically Chinese) fleeing the country and/or siding with the majority against African liberation and civil rights issues. This is seen as a win-win scenario.
Anyone that's closely studied colonial history intuitively understands what might be going on and recognizes the pattern.
The structures capable of this kind of sabotage (that historically operated in Asia, Africa and South/Central America) didn't die off, they just became dormant/less-active temporarily.
The reality of this is that really really crappy people exist in all racial categories and they do really crappy things to other people especially if they are different than them. These crappy people are a minority of any race but too often we talk about it as if they are majority of any given race.
If we would stop talking about race and start focusing on class then the less affluent Asians wouldn't get turned down from colleges because they are lumped in with the affluent suburban Asians. The white kids from the trailer parks in Eastern Kentucky wouldn't get turned down because they are lumped in with the rich white kids at Sidwell Friends School.
I'm only saying all this because I recently had the wonderful experience of getting lectured on equity by a CEO making over a hundred times more than the average employee at my former company. The fact that it works so well was the worst part about it. The employees were going after each other over their skin color and ancestral guilt / victimhood and completely ignoring the fact that this useless CEO isn't worth three programmers let alone a hundred of them.
I've noticed there are a number of divides like this.. minorities vs racists, women vs misogynists, foreigners vs xenophobes, millennials vs boomers, and trust vs distrust in technology/science. This list matches the fact that the labor pool is currently being diluted with increased participation of minorities and women in the workforce, outsourcing of jobs or immigration labor, an older generation that hasn't yet retired, and automation of labor.
It follows suit that a young white male with a poor education might have an extremely difficult time entering the job market. This person is the most likely to look at his dismal situation and place blame on these demographics that he's in competition with. Ideally, instead he would see them as his peers, that each of these demographics would see him as a peer, and that they would see each other as peers. But I imagine there are those at the top who do not want the finger pointed at them, and so are happy to reinforce people's existing biases
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots
I would also note that many discussions about American racial injustice, particularly in the education system, treats asians as if they are barely worth discussing. Only the GOP seemed to have been interested in picking up the issue, and only very little in an opportunistic way.
https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11...
Is there anywhere I can read about this elephant in the room? I'm not sure why the label is important here; is the implication that black people are ideologically motivated to attack Asians? Are you sure this was a hate crime (the driver was attacked because was Asian) or a crime of oppurtunity (the driver was attacked because he was an easy target)? Unless you are sure it was the former, the rhetoric sounds awfully close to the 13/52 dog whistle.
>Named after a 2015 tweet from provocative conservative political commentator, Ann Coulter, Coulter's Law states that the longer it takes the news media to identify a mass shooter in the United States, the less likely it is to be a white male.
I’m not challenging you here, I’m trying to understand why it’s wrong to state it in this kind of context.
Consider this, if I told you Koreans only make 1% of Japan but they make up 70% of the Yakuza, what would you take away from that? The observation is true. But do you think I'm making a fair implication about Koreans in general? What if I said next that the Japanese police should be free to treat Koreans anyway they fit? Would you agree to that? I hope you would see that as insane, but that is line of reasoning that always happens with 13/52.
So currently when I read "black on asian violence is increasing" I'm not sure yet whether I can believe the author is making a fairly reasoned observation about black people ideologically attacking asians, or if they are calling for a "force" to "take a closer look at those black people".
"While ethnic Koreans make up only 0.5% of the Japanese population, they are a prominent part of Yakuza ... The Japanese National Police Agency suggested Koreans composed 10% of the Yakuza proper"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza#:~:text=According%20to%...
In a more practical sense, does this statistic matter to an individual on a dark night? Will I fear being called racist as I walk down South Side Chicago on a dark night or 13/52? The choice here is not a choice at all.
Upon hearing that I don’t think anyone would focus on the statistic (that I’m implying Koreans are violent) and instead focus on the fact that it’s dangerous because is a high crime neighborhood.
Somehow you have missed the point entirely; it’s strange you bring up the lies, damn lies quote but continue to argue the statistic point. In a practical sense, if I were to travel to high crime area in Mexico or Belarus, would it be logical for me to not fear getting mugged because there are no black people? You’ve presented a false choice - you created a situation where you are a likely to mugged for socioeconomic factors and then have walked that back into carrying water for a racist trope.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza#:~:text=According%20to%...
Specifying the race has a tendency to make people correlate the violence with race, which can lead to racism.
The link between skin colour and poverty is undeniable—it's right there in the aftermath of slavery and Government-sanctioned racism in the decades hence. The link between poverty and a propensity to engage in violence is also clear.
So if poverty is the critical link, if poverty is the underlying cause, why would it ever be useful to talk about levels of violent crime associated with a tangential correlate?
The company you keep and all that.
A lot is clearly crime of opportunity, but a lot of the high-profile cases appear to be completely unmotivated by theft (ie, the assaults on elderly asians are often just sucker-punches by a suspect who leaves immediately without taking anything).
It is. If you are going to label the problem as black-on-asian, I'd like to at least know what black people, specifically, are attacking asians. When the media uses labels about white supremacy it's usually because white mass shooters are usually ideologically motivated; they aren't killing people to steal money or eliminate competition, they are committing these crimes specifically because the victims aren't white.
What I'm trying to see if there is a common motivation (rooted in, lack for a better-term "black" supremacy), or if this just an uptick in crime by an economic class that skews black. I'm not even saying its false, and I'm passing no judgement; but I've seen this rhetoric increase and I'm wondering what the source of it is.
It's hard for me not to believe you just made this up. "ling-ling boppin" doesn't return any Google results.
Secondly, a trend in hip-hop would be a trend in American pop culture. Hip hop, is currently the biggest music genre in America - if what you say is true I can't imagine how I would have missed it. A quick Google search doesn't mention anything from the top Spotify artists about it.
… returns plenty of results. And hip-hop is a subculture of pop culture that is dominated by and mostly caters to young black people.
Let’s assume the best of each other here on HN and not accuse people of making things up.
It's not, and thats why I am pressing this point. Billboards top 5 artists of last year were all hip hop[1]. Saying hip hop only caters to black people is like saying Soccer caters to the british. There is no way such a tiny demographic could drive international recognition for the medium.
Next the results you provided don't show any sort of trend. The only relevant results link to the same subreddit which calls out a single racist rapper who made a racist tweet in 2013. The rapper Drakeo is hardly relevant (he has less than 100k followers on Twitter). I don't know how a barely known rapper tweeting out a racist remark, since 2013, constitutes a trend in the largest music genre in America right now.
I'm pushing back because I want to know how these narratives are being created. I don't think it was your intention to inflate the nature of the trend, but I'm wondering why these memes are starting to grow all the sudden.
[1] https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/2020/top-artists
Yeah, so are we talking the recipe site or the Kirby 3DS letsplay video here?
> And hip-hop is a subculture of pop culture that is dominated by and mostly caters to young black people.
What year is it?
We can assume the best but let's also not casually throw out significant claims without evidence and correlations based on things that haven't been true since like 1990.
Also pls leave these “dog whistle” or “gaslighting” labels to ideological moshpits and echo chambers. It’s considered a bad tone to use agitprop language in civil conversation.
It seems to me that the RAM available to many people is too small to fit in a complexer perspective. That's why public discussions seem to stabilize with time on some dumbed down equilibrium that can be expressed in maximum three barely grammatically complete sentences.
Slavery was banned in the major kingdoms in Africa, the slave trading minority were empowered, funded, and armed by foreigner traders. They were able to take control of a large portion of the continent this way.
Just like opium trading was banned in China, the drug trading minority were empowered, funded, and armed by foreigner traders...etc
Much of the 'slavery' in Africa was actually mislabeled, it is better described as 'human adoption'. These so called slaves lived and ate in the same house as 'owners', had wives/children (sometimes more than the 'owner'), were not forced to work, and would intermarry with the adoptive family freely. Many rose to prominence and wielded tremendous power/influence in the families/communities/tribes they were adopted into. This form of 'adoption' (which includes adults) is still common in war torn countries in Africa where families are broken apart and family members lost prematurely.
In America, the modern day equivalent would be going to a homeless tent city, moving some of the individuals into your home and sharing resources.
Chattel slavery was considered abhorrent and only arrived in certain parts of the continent after a certain point.
There were also POWs that were treated poorly and initially they were the people sold to foreign traders... preferable to leaving enemies of a tribe in jail, which posed a security risk and caused many other problems.
"The black people sold black people" line is popular in the US because it sidesteps the details and on some level freed slave owners and their descendants from moral/social burden and guilt. This retort was/is also useful in denying the case for reparations when African Americans raised/raise it.
No, its not. At all. (It includes people which hold such views, and excludes some part of the other extreme, but that’s true of any organization less hostile to Blacks than the general society.)
Don't know why this poster thinks it is okay to casually add this piece of information to the story.
That said. Youtube doesn't owe Kang or anyone any explanations for taking down videos on their platform. You aren't paying them to host and backup your files. They are a business first, any content that could potentially drive away advertisers has no home there.