As for "I have been shocked and saddened by racial incidents I had thought were in the past and unconscionable in the present", not sure why you would expect that. Such unacceptable incidents have been happening all the time, including in other countries. I have certainly been well aware of it, including now.
Having lived in the South most of my life. Even while in the service I was stationed in places like my home state of Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, even Southern Thailand (ðŸ˜), in a era of great racial turmoil. But when I checked into a motel while traveling through Alabama and the attractive black woman manager of the motel was sitting at her desk companionably sharing a cup of coffee and conversation with an older white man I knew to be a retired police officer, I said to my wife, "the civil war is finally over". It was a scene that would have been unthinkable even a few years earlier. Yes there were still occasional clashes, but they were primarily cultural not racial. Obviously I was wrong.
If there is a single entity to blame for the resurgence of intolerance I think it would be social media. It is where groups of like-minded individuals can congregate and effectively shut out or shout down any opposing voices and convince themselves they are the great majority because theirs is the only opinion they hear. As a champion of free speech and a dues paying member of the Electronic Frontiers Foundation, I believe that even racists and misogynists have a right to be heard, but their right to free speech does not give them the right to shout FIRE in a crowded theater or openly plot an insurrection. We need to convince them their hateful actions
WILL NOT DO.So, you finally see what is going on! Myself I have seen and read (and been part of (example of my wife)) about such occurrences for so, so long, it seems to be an almost everyday event. And while social media might be
one of the contributing factors (at least these days), the most obvious factor is the lack of common sense by so many folks, along with having tunnel vision. That is definitely abundantly clear. In some instances, such narrow minded folks come from an environment that invites such behavior.
I distinctly remember when I was younger as an "initial" illustration of this. I was born in Brooklyn, New York, and lived there my first 6 years. After that, we moved out to Long Island. Most folks there thought that was all there was to the world, and thus would develop a truly narrow view of reality. But I left when I was 21, and it gave me the opportunity to see and experience the true world. It got enhanced even better when I went over to Korea (did 2 tours there, and almost went back for a third). Talk about becoming so, so open minded! It was a definite wake up call, after being "brain washed" while growing up.
I suspect a number of folks have been caught in the same "trap", and need a way to get out. The current situation with attacks on Asians/Asian-Americans (and mainly of Chinese descent) is due to the COVID situation. I'll bet there are enough "pissed off" folks out there who think that
ANY individual os Asian descent is responsible for this. That is so far away from the truth, and definitely narrow minded.
