Stop *Insert Race* Hate: The Liberal Equivalent of Thoughts and Prayers
After the occurrence of any school shooting in America, swaths of tweets from Conservatives extend their ''thoughts and prayers'' to the victims and their families. Many of us agree this regurgitated and often vacant expression of sentiment bears little to no meaning. However, have we ever stopped to think whether there was a Liberal equivalent of this empty saying? For most, probably not.
It may be uncomfortable to think the side of the political spectrum that embraces and promotes diversity could possess an equivalent, but it's an essential to acknowledge. The recent shooting spree of a White Supremacist on half of dozen Asian-American women is just the latest of hate crimes on Asian-Americans since the onset of the pandemic. Throughout the span of the past 12 months, hate crimes on Asian-Americans has climbed at a drastic rate. Though there has been stories on these, none have garnered the outrage of the Twittersphere and Instagram as the recent tragedy in Atlanta four days ago. Whenever we hear of a racially-motivated crime, we rally behind our iPhone screens and recycle generic expressions of remorse across social media. What most of us turn a blind eye to is that these collective calls of ''advocacy'' often have a threshold.
Was it just one or two? Did they survive the encounter? Looks like they won't make the cut for social media outrage. What's almost as troubling as the steady climb in hate crimes, is the fact there seems to be a threshold for the crime to rise to before we activate our ''social justice.'' This threshold consists of whether there were one or many victims, and if the victims were assaulted or the encounter ended in their deaths. If the latter elements are met, then you're in luck, you've won the outrage of social media outlets everywhere. If the former elements are met, well then at best you'll get a frown proceeded by resumed scrolling.
When we start applying a threshold for racially-motivated crimes to satisfy before attracting social media outrage, can we truly argue we're better than the Conservative politicians who tweet ''thoughts and prayers'' after a school shooting? It's easy to lie and say yes. But, taking the time to reflect on the standard we may (unconsciously) impose on hate crimes, it strips us of our treasured ''morally superior'' status. Sincere advocacy can never be selective. To practice otherwise is simply hypocritical. It's nothing more than performative. It's a difficult perspective to accept, one made even harder to acknowledge given many of us embody it.
So is there any solution to this toxic threshold we demand before tweeting our advocacy? To an extent, yes, and it's to stop selectively deciding which hate crimes warrant our outrage. Stop treating racially-motivated crimes like a lottery. Stop awarding your ''advocacy'' to the those who've suffered the most. Each and every one of the hate crimes that occurred during this pandemic (and prior) is worthy of outrage. Hopefully, the reasons should be obvious. Any hate crime exposes a deepening sense of hatred and violence in this diverse nation. Let's start advocating on behalf of that reality.
