3 ms·

Personally I find it frustrating whenever anyone gets summarised as their cultural appearance, biological sex, chosen gender, political affiliation, or anything

Personally I find it frustrating whenever anyone gets summarised as their cultural appearance, biological sex, chosen gender, political affiliation, or anything else like that. When we get headlines like "Asian attacked by black person" it becomes far too easy to lazily read that as "Asian people are victims. Black people are violent." The root cause of this incident might have nothing to do with either person's cultural background, but headlines this this one make it very difficult to think about issues any other way. 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.

koheripbal 5y ago
The media and politicians find value in advancing a narrative that racial conflict is escalating in America. 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.