Is “white supremacy” to blame for the rise in violence against Asian-Americans?

While it’s too early to make generalizations about the demographic profile of perpetrators of recent violence against Asian-Americans, it’s clear from scanning news stories that the perps are racially diverse. We do, however, have stats on violence from previous years. A government study found that, in 2018, 27.5% of violent crimes against Asian-Americans were committed by African-Americans (13.4% of the pop), while whites (76.3% of the pop) were responsible for 24%.

https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv18.pdf 

Why are the victimizers of Asian-Americans disproportionately African-American? It’s complicated. The “model minority stereotype” <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_minority> may partly explain it, along with “reactionist” theory, which examines the way groups with scarce resources are motivated to protect their resources from perceived competitors:

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Hate crimes against Asian Americans are more likely than hate crimes against either African Americans or Hispanics to be committed by non-White offenders. This finding may be attributed to animosity toward the “model minority” from other minority groups. As aforementioned, the “model minority” stereotype assuming Asian Americans’ success in economics, education, and other opportunities generates potential competition or threats by members of other racial groups, which in turn may lead to resentment to be further acted upon through hate crimes. Offenders of other minorities of color targeting Asian Americans might fit the category of “reactionists” identified by Levin and McDevitt (2013). Instead of acting impulsively, the “reactionists” are motivated by protecting their resources from competitors (Steinberg et al., 2003). This finding might also lend indirect support to the perspective of racial competition motivating hate crimes, which argues that when members of a racial group perceive that their access and privileges to material resources are threatened by other racial groups during economic downturns, racial conflict and hate crimes may occur (Olzak, 1990, 1992, 2013; Soule & van Dyke, 1999; van Dyke et al., 2001). 

/quote

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7790522/ 

The “reactionist” explanation may be supported by the fact that, between 2000 - 2010, the Asian-American population increased by 46%, the largest increase of any racial group during that period of time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Asian_Americans#:~:text=The%20total%20population%20of%20Asian,racial%20group%20during%20that%20period

It’s a common trope in anti-racist rhetoric that Asian immigrants are “white adjacent,” and have “reinforced white supremacy.”

https://thelensnola.org/2020/07/26/black-lives-matter-how-should-asian-americans-answer-the-call/ 

There is, of course, a history of Black racism against Asians that predates the immigration wave of the aughts. This can be seen clearly in NWA’s song Black Korea (1991):

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Every time I wanna go get a f****' brew/ I gotta go down to the store with the two/ Oriental one penny countin' m***********s/ [...] "Look, you little Chinese m**********r/ I ain't tryin' to steal none of yo' s***t, leave me alone!"/ So don't follow me up and down your market / Or your little chop suey ass'll be a target [...] / So pay respect to the black fist/ Or we'll burn your store right down to a crisp/ And then we'll see ya/ Cause you can't turn the ghetto into black Korea/ "Mother f***k you!"

/quote

It seems to me that the best way to address the model minority stereotype and reactionist-motivated violence is to create policy that removes fear of scarcity and provides jobs and economic opportunity for everyone, regardless of race. Focusing on the supposedly zero-sum competition between racial groups (as anti-racism and CRT do), while ignoring political-economy and the struggles of working people as a class that transcends racial categories, seems like a recipe for further disaster.