Trump’s racism is being spread via Fox News as the network falsely claimed that African-Americans commit more hate crimes than white people.
Video:
Is this Fox News guest saying that Black Americans commit more hate crimes than white Americans? Is that what was just said? pic.twitter.com/R7MnQiZS8B
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) August 7, 2019
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Fox News pushed this false and misleading statement, “But let’s look at the numbers we got. The FBI reports in 2017, an 11% increase in, when you account for increasing reporting, blacks are 50% overrepresented among perpetrators of hate crimes. Whites are 26% underrepresented among perpetrators of hate crimes. The same goes for mass shootings. Blacks are 50% overrepresented among perpetrators of mass shootings. When it comes to white supremacist incidents, according to one source, there were 17 white supremacist homicides last year. That’s .01% of all homicides in this country. It doesn’t even register.”
Fox News was lying to diminish white hate crimes
Here are the DOJ statistics that was never mentioned in the Fox News segment. 50.7% of hate crimes were committed by white people. 21.3% by blacks. Hate crimes based on race and ethnicity grew from 2016 to 2017 and made up 58.1% of all hate crimes.
The ADL found a surge in right-wing extremist murders in 2018:
In 2018, domestic extremists killed at least 50 people in the U.S., a sharp increase from the 37 extremist-related murders documented in 2017, though still lower than the totals for 2015 (70) and 2016 (72). The 50 deaths make 2018 the fourth-deadliest year on record for domestic extremist-related killings since 1970.
The extremist-related murders in 2018 were overwhelmingly linked to right-wing extremists. Every one of the perpetrators had ties to at least one right-wing extremist movement, although one had recently switched to supporting Islamist extremism. White supremacists were responsible for the great majority of the killings, which is typically the case.
Fox News is lying about the size, scope, and perpetrators of hate crimes. The big flashing neon signs of white supremacy, like Tucker Carlson, are easy to spot. It is the misleading downplaying of white supremacy and racism that Fox News slips into their “news” coverage that is more insidious and damaging to the fabric of the nation.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
