Political leanings will always have a reactionary “hot take” reason on “Who’s to blame” for terrorism. Many did blame Obama for the shootings in Dallas. I didn’t. But he DID make a speech right before the shootings that felt nuanced to me at the time, but I know upset many on the Right — just like his speech the week after five police were killed.
Though, the Far Left often says Obama doesn’t go far enough and covers up for cops that prop up institutional racism.
Regardless of those politics, I would love if you, Chris Wiley, linked to any of those stories. For the record, many of them I do know about.
It is interesting the ADL has written about this (and promoted like crazy), and I’ve meant to write something. Maybe this response will do. These are the headlines as of late. Many misleading when you dig into the grime of the details.
- The Atlantic: The Resurgent Threat of White-Supremacist Violence
- CNN: White supremacists responsible for most extremist killings in 2017, ADL says
- The Hill: ADL warns of rise in white supremacist violence
- The Root (bring the snark): White Supremacists Killed More People in US in 2017 Than Muslims, Antifa and Kneeling NFL Players Combined
- Huffington Post: Murders By U.S. White Supremacists More Than Doubled In 2017, New Report Shows
And finally today:
- The Cleveland Jewish News: Which terrorists are more of a threat, foreign or domestic? The ADL and the Trump administration differ.
Again, demographically whites are a “majority” of the population (63%) and Muslims are 1%, but we’ll get there in a minute. The overall murder total spiked for a second year to 17,250, a “majority” committed blacks and inspired by the de-policing movement, but you didn’t see that mentioned in headlines.
I will also link to the “Incidents page” of the report immediately below, which is actually rather difficult to find. Farther below I delved into the hate-related killings you mention. Indeed, I agree that “They [The ADL] like the SPLC, are inducing a national moral panic to raise cash, enforce censorship and silence the opposition.” We probably also voted for different presidents. (“I’m (still) With Her.”)
Most of the articles linked to this:
On that page, the ADL would write:
White supremacists were directly responsible for 18 of the total 34 extremist-related murders in 2017, according to the new ADL report, Murder and Extremism in the United States in 2017. A total of nine deaths were linked to Islamic extremists.
18 out of 34 is 53%. They would not write that whites are nearly two-thirds of the population, and “white supremacists” are committing just over half of the killings. It’s only logical to assume that “extremists” based on ethnicity or race should be compared to the populations in which they arise and judged accordingly. When it comes to “white supremacists,” I find the numbers clearly show: They’re hugely overblown as a “threat,” existentially or otherwise.
Then the ADL links to this page below, where all incidents are shown. But you have to click “incidents” button to see the murder details; it took me a couple attempts. From what I can see, most of the 18 murderers are simply people associated with white supremacist groups who killed people — most victims were white and often for non-ideological reasons. There’s also a mix of other “black nationalist” killings, but missing many obvious ones, such as the Tennessee church shooting where hard facts like a handwritten note indicate he was committing a racist revenge for Dylann Roof’s racist murders. The ADL does mention this: “In 2017, extremists killed at least 34 people in the U.S., a sharp and welcome decline from the much higher totals for 2016 and 2015, but still the fifth deadliest year since 1970.”
Three points & questions:
- Is the ADL consistently evaluating these “extremist killings” since 1970? Different years can lead to different research results; with modern communications, where one doesn’t have to scan physical paper on microfiche or LexisNexis, certainly you’ll scrape together higher killing totals in the modern era.
- Is the ADL considering other gang-related killings, or contextualizing “white extremist” killings alongside a wider set of murders? According to federal statistics, twice as many whites are killed by blacks than blacks killed by whites. There’s 2000 gang-related killings a year, and only around 10% of gang members are non-Hispanic white. The ADL talks about 18 (of 34) “white extremist” killings, where many become radicalized as criminals in prisons, too. Certainly members of the Latin Kings, MS-13, Crips, Bloods or or 18th Street Gang, all of which have more members than the Aryan Brotherhood (20,000), killed more people in 2017. With these white supremacists, we’re talking bad men. But they’re not instigating a rash of identity-based murders. This is blatant dishonesty by the ADL when even the Southern Poverty Law Center, which often exaggerates racism for fundraising profit just like the ADL does, has indicated 4–5 of around 15,000 annual murders are hate crime-related. Even the U.S. Department of Justice verified in an eight-year period there’s an average of 6–7 per year. Thus, hate crime murders are .04% of overall homicides (about 1 in 2500).
- Basically, how can the ADL make a big hub-bub about 34 murders where very few fit the definition of ideologically based murder (i.e. a neo-Nazi murdering a black person because they’re black), while ignoring hundreds of other killings committed by black or Hispanic gang members, or possibly more murders associated with the 193 black separatist groups annually?
Essentially, I question their methodology and lack of transparency in their data gathering.
Also, this is buried several bullets down in the section “Key Findings”:
The year 2017 was the second year in a row in which black nationalists have committed murders in the United States. Combined with other violent acts by black nationalists in recent years, these murders suggest the possibility of an emerging problem.
Fact-checking The Comment by Chris Wiley on This Comment Thread to the Charlottesville article I wrote:
Some of these Chris Wiley mentioned I’ve never heard about. As you linked, the SPLC even covered the story of Latino gangs indiscriminately killing blacks. Most, sadly, I have heard about through research — but many don’t make the news like the Portland, Oregon, train stabbings by a clearly mentally unhinged white supremacist.
Even Wikipedia quotes the head of the ADL focuses on a “string” of right-wing attacks:
The Anti-Defamation League, in a statement by its CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, offered its condolences to the victims, praised the heroism of bystanders who intervened, and stated: “The deadly attack in Portland is not a rare or isolated event. Rather, this is the latest in a long string of violent incidents connected to right-wing extremists in the United States… This consistent threat requires consistent resources and we call on our leaders to condemn this brutal act of terror and craft policy to counter all forms of violent extremism, including white supremacy.”
But who runs honest totals on both sides of the ideological-based divide?
Folks on the political right tend to argue other forms of race-based killings other than white-on-minority killings are played down in the media. Ironically, it’s the alt-right that Newsweek acknowledged may have been on the right track concerning a black immigrant shooter who likely carried out a deadly retaliation for white supremacist Dylann Roof’s infamous hate killings. After days of skeptical reporting, Newsweek finally wrote the following mea culpa around the Antioch, Tennessee, church shooting that left 1 dead and 8 injured: THE ‘ALT-RIGHT’ MAY HAVE BEEN RIGHT ABOUT TENNESSEE SHOOTER EMANUEL KIDEGA SAMSON
Also missing on the media landscape: I only just discovered that story of 5 white people killed in Kansas City by a potentially schizophrenic black young man who claimed once he wanted to “kill all white people.” Though reading about it now I can see how all the inflamed “hatred” and fears of white supremacist groups may have instigated a mental crisis leading to a hate crime by this black perpetrator. That’s called irony. I would also argue that just like the Dallas killings of police officers by a black separatist angered by hype around Black Lives Mater these reactions could be avoided if the media and activists didn’t sensationalize every death as “racism.” Especially when there’s no systemic, nation-wide evidence of police killing blacks more than whites.
Here are a few details from The Washington Post in Sept 2017 (about this 2016 series of murders in Kansas City):
Beginning in August 2016, four random murders occurred in south Kansas City. All the victims were shot. All were middle-aged white men. And all were killed on or near the popular Indian Creek trail, a 26-mile concrete loop winding between green space and parks. Police charged Scott in connection with one of those killings and said he is the prime suspect in the remaining three.
Authorities have yet to commented on a motive. But reports this week supercharged the issue along racial lines.
The suspect previously threatened to shoot up his high school and “kill all white people,” and exhibited other erratic behavior, according to the Kansas City Star. The revelation comes as the country struggles with racial inequality and the high profile reemergence of white supremacy groups.