NBC News is alerting us to a new analysis by Janelle Wong, a professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, that urges people not to let viral images of people of color assaulting Asian Americans color their perceptions (no pun intended). Wong looked into data from Stop AAPI Hate, Pew Research, official law enforcement statistics, and other sources to assure us that most assaults on Asian Americans are perpetrated by white people.
The piece is headlined, “Viral images show people of color as anti-Asian perpetrators. That misses the big picture.”
"No matter how many times we tell you unwoke hayseeds what you're supposed to think, you continue to stubbornly draw obvious conclusions from observable evidence." #journalism pic.twitter.com/PndKc9XPuS
— ryuge (@0ryuge) June 15, 2021
NBC News: Don't believe your lying eyes pic.twitter.com/oJpwAlV1yE
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 15, 2021
Some watertight analysis right here pic.twitter.com/r3oCLieZ0Y
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 15, 2021
The underlying study is awful, which I could tell as soon as I saw them using the word “Latinx”. They get their data from the U of M study that basically listed politicians using “Wuhan virus” as examples of anti-Asian hate incidents. https://t.co/Bcige2Pctv
— AG (@AGHamilton29) June 15, 2021
“You have security camera videos that are more available and prevalent in certain types of urban settings. And so that’s what’s available to people in terms of sharing,” Ramakrishnan said. “The videos are more viral than if it’s something that doesn’t have any imagery or video connected to it, like something that’s happening in the suburbs, for example.”
When they are circulated, they play on a loop with no audio. Even though the videos alone don’t provide much detail about what’s happening, they dominate our perceptions, [AAPI Data founder Karthick] Ramakrishnan said.
“There’s just something so powerful about these visual images so that no matter what the social science might say, people believe their eyes and especially the images that get played on repeat now,” he said.
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White people are ninjas who evade detection by cell phones and public cameras
— Ryan (@alwaysonoffense) June 15, 2021
There's no cameras in rich affluent neighborhoods, shopping centers or workplaces.
Only poor people have those ring doorbells.
— mitrebox (@mitrebox) June 15, 2021
NBC: "Who you gonna believe; us or reality?"
— Narrative – Asset Builder (@BobBurnatt) June 15, 2021
Good lord the mental gymnastics here is incredible
— Jack Merridew (@Maroon_1001) June 15, 2021
🤡🌍
— Dana Zuul Barrett (@LRJensen1) June 15, 2021
— ·Lightning· (@X_LIGHTNING) June 15, 2021
Or the big picture. Or the facts. Or you own life experience. Just believe in big tech/media. The man behind the curtain is all knowing.
— don dudley (@dondudleyjr) June 15, 2021
So it’s actually white people disguised as black people on all the videos of black people beating up Asian people for no reason?
— Steve-O (@s_barkowsky) June 15, 2021
Obfuscate because solidarity and stuff.
— Never Give In To The Mob (@jcon95b) June 15, 2021
"long-term consequences for solidarity"
UFB
— Mike Moss (@_MikeMoss) June 15, 2021
@NBCNews is trying to be more of a dumpster fire than @CNN lately
— Emanuel Goldstein 🇺🇸 (@GoldsteinEman) June 15, 2021
Never forget that Jussie Smollett had to employ two recent African immigrants to commit acts of racial violence a fellow white American would not commit. The narrative is not working.
— Up The Republicans (@UpTheRA03982085) June 15, 2021
BLM logic: 75% of the perps were white, and whites make up 76.5% of the population, so whites are LESS LIKELY to commit anti-Asian hate crimes, and Asians are DISPROPORTIONATELY targeted by people of color.
— Rich Lemond (@RichLeMond) June 15, 2021
Wong says that while videos highlight violent attacks, “studies show that most of the racism Asian Americans have faced because of the pandemic is verbal harassment or shunning.”
— Al (@AlBeachGuy) June 15, 2021
According to Wong, “… selectively amplifying aspects of the issue or omitting context can further perpetuate dangerous stereotypes and break opportunities for solidarity among marginalized groups.”
Related:
NY politician who supports defunding the police shared a video of an attack on an Asian woman by a suspect with '17 prior arrests' https://t.co/M4Cy55gUCg
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 1, 2021
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