Zayn Malik covers Bollywood song in Hindi to the delight of his fans

ZAYN MALIK

FORMER "ONE DIRECTION" singer Zayn Malik posted a video of him singing a Hindi song and his fans are going wild over it.

Since he posted the cover of a Hindi song "Allah Duhai Hai", from Salman Khan’s last Bollywood movie, Race 3., it has over 3 million hits.

Despite not understanding the lyrics, a lot of his international fans are showing love for Zayn’s latest offering.

One user commented, “Wow dude, you've really smashed it your vocals sound fantastic! This is proof music is a universal language, we don't have to understand lyrics or to even have lyrics, the music can convey emotion & with a vocal too this also comes out in your voice! Congrats dude it's awesome!.”

And here is Zayn's post. Listen for yourself:

Aside from some picky criticism about his British accent, his fans -- whether or not they understood the lyrics - are generally praising his acknowldgement of his Pakistani roots and singing in a language other than English, the language he grew up with in Great Britain.

This is not the first time that the singer has done a cover for a Hindi song. Although his roots originate from the Pakistani culture, he had also done covers of Hindi songs, 'Allah ke Bande' and Kailash Kher's 'Teri Deewani.'

Malik hasn't shyed away from being raised as a Muslim. But, as someone the Evening Standard identifies as "the most high-profile British Muslim in the entertainment industry," Zayn said he's proud of his faith.

“I take a great sense of pride — and responsibility — in knowing that I am the first of my kind, from my background,” he said. “I’m not currently practising but I was raised in the Islamic faith, so it will always be with me, and I identify a lot with the culture. But I’m just me. I don’t want to be defined by my religion or my cultural background.”
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MSNBC documentary spotlight's 'Dragon Lady' Anna Chennault' & Nixon's 'Betrayal'

WHITE HOUSE FILE

Anna Chennault hobnobbed with the rich and powerful.

IF NOT FOR an Asian American businesswoman, dubbed by some as the Steel Butterfly or the Dragon Lady, Richard Nixon would never have become president -- and hundreds of thousands of lives, including the lives of 20,000 American soldiers -- would have been spared.

The role of Anna Chennault, widow of a WWII hero, in Nixon's 1968 campaign has almost been forgotten, thanks to President Lyndon Johnson's deep patriotism of putting country over partisanship, according to a recent television special Betrayal: The Plot That Won the White House, hosted by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.

Maddow painted Chennault as a behind the scenes political wheeler-dealer and noted Washington socialite, who used her sex appeal and government connections to become the key figure in scuttling the peace talks between North and South Vietnam, thus continuing the Vietnam War for another six years.

Chennault, also known as Chen Xiangmei who came from a wealthy Chinese family, in 1947 married American war hero Gen. Claire Chennault, the dynamic and charismatic leader of the Flying Tigers, famous for its raids against the Japanese in Southeast Asia and China wuring WWII.

After the death of Gen. Chennault, she settled in Washington, D.C., where she became prominent among elite social circles, hosting lavish parties in her Watergate penthouse attended by “cabinet members, congressmen, diplomats, foreign dignitaries and journalists.” She was named vice president of the Flying Tigers, an air cargo company rumored to have dies with the CIA.

Long-time readers of Views From the Edge, have known about Chennault's infamous role from a two-part posting way back in 2014: Part 1: Nixon was worst that I thought and Part 2: Nixon - The Traitor.

Nixon knew that if Johnson was able to broker peace, the Democrat nominee Hubert Humphrey would win the election. After losing the Presidency twice in 1960 and 1964, Nixon was determined to win this time and he would do anything to win the White House.

That was when he decided to use his nuclear option: Anna Chennault. He asked Chennault's widow, who headed anan airline, to use her contacts in the South  Vietnam government. The message she delivered was, don't take part in the peae talks and when Nixon wins, he would give South Vietnam more favorable terms.

But it was not until this year, 50 years after Nixon's 1968 campaign, that Johnson's personal notes on his conversations with Nixon and his knowledge of Chennault's role  have become public. Johnson's handwritten notes have been locked away in President Johnson's Library. On the file was a note not to open for 50 years.

Hoping to fend off Nixon's interference in the peace process, Johnson talked to Sen. Everett Dirksen, who led the Republicans and described what Chennault had done under orders of Nixon. "It's treason," said Johnson.

Johnson knew of Nixon's and Chennault's role in sabotaging the peace talks and threatened Nixon that he would go to the press with his knowledge days before the election. 

On Meet The Press, Nixon denied the rumors of his interference -- an out-and-out lie.

Upon the advice of his close associates and his own belief that if he went public with the subterfuge, it would send the country into a downward spiral it might not be able to recover from. For the sake of the overall well-being of the country, Johnson chose to not reveal what he knew. A few days later, Nixon was elected president

A few years later in in the midst of Nixon's re-election campaign, the Nixon's win-at-any-cost outlook resulted in the Watergate scandal and ultimately, his resignation. The Presidency was toppled off its pedestal and ever since then, government has never regained the respect and trust of the people.

Betrayal: The Plot that Won the White House special is available online here.

EDITOR'S NOTE: U[dated Nov. 25 to clarify that Chennault was born in China.
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TGIF Feature: All Asian cast lip-syncs to BTS

ASAM NEWS

STEVE AOKI'S latest music is receiving national praise for its all Asian cast.
The video is for a K-Pop group BTS’s first English-language track, “Waste It On Me,” which Aoki produced. According to Hello Giggles, BTS do not appear in the video. Instead, the group enlisted the help of an Asian American cast and crew to produce the video.

According to Variety, Joe Hahn, who is best known as a DJ for Linkin Park, directed the video. It stars Ken Jeong, Ross Butler, and Jamie Chung. The supporting cast includes Leonard Nam, Jimmy O. Yang, Vincent Rodriguez, and many more. Aoki’s half-sister and model, Devon Aoki also makes an appearance.

Variety reports that learning “Waste it On Me” was the number one song in the world on Apple music inspired Aoki to produce a music video with an all Asian cast.

“When I found out that ‘Waste It On Me’ was the number one song in the world on Apple Music I realized that this track represented more than just me and BTS,” said Aoki. “It’s bigger than music, it represents a Korean band and one Asian American DJ that can show other Asians they are also apart of the global commercial musical landscape. I feel so deeply about the Asian footprint in music culture that I wanted the music video to have an entirely Asian cast and director.”

Aoki released the music video on Monday. It has almost 6 million views.
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From the Edge: Another way to observe Thanksgiving

Credit Eric S. Carlson

An illustration of ancient Native Americans in central Alaska. The 12,000-year-old skeleton of an infant girl found there offers genetic clues to how people arrived in the Americas.

OPINION

WE DON'T KNOW their actual names, but the Alaskan natives who live in Central Alaska today call one of the girls Xach’itee’aanenh t’eede gaay (Sunrise child-girl) and the other Yełkaanenh t’eede gaay (Dawn twilight child-girl). Their remains were discovered a few years ago at a site known today as the Upward Sun River.

About 11,000 years ago, a grieving family buried their six-week-old baby girl, a three-year-old child, and a preterm female fetus. According to their ancient traditions, the children were buried under a hearth inside their home along with the carefully crafted stone points and bone foreshafts of hunting lances.

Scientists earlier this year, scientists published results of their DNA study of the two girls provides biological evidence and confirms the archaeological remains that the early people of the Americas came from Asia and their DNA can be found in descendants of the original inhabitants who would spread through the millennia to North and South America.

“These are only the second-oldest human remains in the New World where we have this full nuclear genomic analysis, so this is really kind of new territory,” explains coauthor Ben Potter, an archaeologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “With archaeology, we have bits of detritus left behind. We get clues that we [use] to build inferential arguments in a forensic sort of way. Just the fact that we have these human remains opens up amazing windows” into these people’s lives, he adds.

As we feast this day on turkey and the ethnic dishes Asian Americans like to include for special occasions (for us it is the Filipino lumpia and pancit), most Native Americans, to whom recent discoveries link to Asians, are in mourning.

The day in 1621 when the 90 members of the Wampanoag shared food with the Pilgrims, celebrated today as Thanksgiving by the descendants of that radical religious group from Europe, people of the First Nations see the day as the beginning of the demise of their way of life.

The years that follow will see countless broken treaties, driven from ancestral lands, unfulfilled promises, starvation, disease and futile war. 

While watching the movie, Map of the Human Heart, starring Jason Scott Lee, I was startled when I heard a familiar word as the actors spoke the Inuit language called Inuktikut. The actors talk about their children, using the word "anak." What made me sit up and make notice was knowing that "anak," also means children in Tagalog, one of the dialects of the Philippines.

Oh .. the connections.

The linguistic link with the Inuit and Southeast Asia is just another piece of evidence of our similarities although the environment we live in are so different.

The real history of native peoples and their interactions with people from Europe, sadly, come to the same conclusion -- whether they be the Aztecs, Incas, Cherokees, Seminole, Seven Nations or the Wampanoag.

Today, in downtown Plymouth, Massachusetts, recalled the disease, racism and oppression that the European settlers brought.

It’s the 49th year that the United American Indians of New England have organized the event on Thanksgiving Day.

Moonanum James, a co-leader of the group, says: “Native people have no reason to celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims.”

Scientists call the two girls' people the Ancient Beringians, who used the long-sunken land bridge between Siberia and Alaska. About 25,000 and 36,000 years ago, they gradually broke from their East Asian ancestors. Between 18,000 and 22,000 years ago, the Beringians broke with the populations of other Native Americans and were probably absorbed into peoples who arrive later.

But the research suggests that today's Native Americans are linked to those early peoples -- as are we Asian Americans.

As new immigrants from Asia come to our shores, they are continuing the long historical trek first taken by long-forgotten hunter-gatherers always seeking greener pastures. They share the same goals and dreams of today's migrants, whether they come from Asia or Central America.

Today we remember Sunrise and Dawn for reminding us of our human connections and  remind Asian Americans of our commonality with Native Americans.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views with an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd.
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TJ Cox's bid for Congress now rated a toss up

TJ Cox must wait until next week for the vote counting to resume in his race for Congress.

After being written off over two weeks ago, TJ Cox's Congressional campaign is alive and kicking. On Thanksgiving Day eve, the Filipino American has narrowed the gap between him and incumbent Rep. David Valadao to only 447 votes.

About 15,200 votes remain to be counted in Congressional District 21 in California With the holiday upon us, the next Fresno County update will be Monday.

fivethirtyeight.com, the political nonpartisan website of ABC and pundit Nate Silver, which on Nov. 6 gave long odds on a Cox victory now rates the contest as a toss-up.

In California, it’s not unusual for close races to still be uncalled even several days after the election. That’s because most people in Californiavote by mail, and mail ballots only have to be postmarked by Election Day; they can arrive at elections offices as late as three days later and still be counted. For that reason, we think the California 21st District is far from over, even though the Associated Press and ABC have both already projected a Republican win there. GOP Rep. David Valadao has less than a 1-point lead, but the votes that have been released in recent days have favored Democrat T.J. Cox, and the counties that have yet to report the most votes appear to lean Democratic as well.

Cox, an engineer who has helped build dams and water conveyance systems, he vows to work on helping solve the agricultural district's access to water.

As a district that depends on immigrant workers in its fields and orchards, his campaign literature states:

“There is no congressional district in America that has suffered more from the senseless immigration policy of Trump’s Administration than California’s 21st. In Congress, he will fight to ensure hardworking families don’t have to live in fear of being torn apart and are valued for their contributions to our economy and communities. For our local businesses and region to thrive, we need an immigration system that actually works. T.J. will work tirelessly for common-sense immigration reforms that include a path to citizenship and protections for DACA recipients. T.J. doesn’t see the diversity of our nation as a problem—but as our promise.”

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Manny Pacquiao opponent booed for making Asian joke

SCREEN CAPTURE / YOUTUBE

Boxer Adrien Broner laughed at his own jokes, but no one else was laughing.

ASAM NEWS

TO THE SOUNDS of boos, boxer Adrien Broner made racist Asian and Black jokes about legendary boxer Manny Pacquiao in an effort to drum up buzz about their January 19 fight in Las Vegas.

Broner dropped “F” bombs and other four-letter words frequently during a joint news conference to promote the fight.

“Before beating me, he has a better chance of becoming a driving instructor,” Boxing Scene reported Broner said, referring to the Asian bad driver stereotype.

Broner didn’t stop there.

“(Pacquiao) f—-d up his money, f—-d up his taxes. If you ask me, he’s a black fighter,” he went on to say to another round of boos from the crowd.

Pacquiao smiled throughout the whole news conference. You can hear some of Broner’s profanity-laced tirades below.

“I got to be the one that sells the fight,’’ said Broner, according to USA Today. “His English isn’t that -- well, you know.-- Isn’t that good. All he do is smile and say one word at a time. 
So I got to sell the fight.’’

Pacquiao and Broner will meet in the ring Jan. 19 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It’ll be the 14th time Pacquiao has fought at the MGM Grand and 20th time in Las Vegas overall. Many of those fights will go down as some of the best in the sport’s history, as well as the biggest moneymakers.

Pacquiao hopes to get a rematch with Floyd Mayweather, but those plans could be sidetracked if the 39-year old fighter does not beat Broner.

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Filipino American narrows gap in California congressional race

TJ COX

VOTES are still being counted in California's District 21. The congressional contest between Filipino American TJ Cox and David Valadao, the GOP incumbent, is still too close to call.

Only 930 votes separate the candidates. Democrat Cox, an engineer and small businessman, has 51,151 votes, or 49.5 percent, to Valadao’s 52,081, which is 50.5 percent.

An undetermined number of provisional ballots from four counties remain to be counted including Fresno County, Cox's home base.

The Central Valley district includes areas of Fresno County, Kern County, Kings County and Tulare County and includes Hanford, Delano, Wasco, Shafter, Lamont and southeast Bakersfield. It is 71 percent Latino and Democrats have a 45 percent to 28 percent registration advantage over Republicans, yet it has returned Republican Valadao to Congress three previous terms.

Immediately after the Nov. 6 midterm elections, it was close but it looked like Vaaladao had a comfortable 5,000-vote lead and most media called the race for the incumbent. However, as the provisional and mail-in ballots began to roll in, the gap between the two candidates began to narrow.

Valadao, a Hanford dairyman, was elected in 2010 to represent California’s 30th State Assembly District. In 2012, Valadao was elected to represent California’s 21st Congress District.

Besides being an engineer and small businessman, Cox created the Central Valley Fund, which raises money for projects in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods throughout the Central Valley.

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Inter-racial marriages continue to grow in the U.S.

I'M A FIRST-GENERATION Filipino American. My wife is a Filipina American whose family has been in this country five generations. Through my extended family, I have relatives who are mixed race: Filipino plus white (a strong dose of Irish), black, Latino and Native American.

According to the U.S. Census, the rest of the country is catching up with my family. The  trend of interracial marriages is becoming more common place, according to the U.S. Census.

Is this what people mean when they say, "Love conquers all?"

By Brittany Rico, Rose M. Kreider and Lydia Anderson
U.S. CENSUS

MARRIAGE LOOKS a lot different today in many ways than in years past. As our nation becomes more racially and ethnically diverse, so are married couples.
The percentage of married-couple households that are interracial or interethnic grew across the United States from 7.4 to 10.2 percent from 2000 to 2012-2016. This change varied across states and counties and for specific interracial/interethnic combinations.

Is this what people mean when they say, "Love conquers all?"

Following is a press release from the U.S. Census:

There are seven types of interracial/interethnic married-couple combinations that make up 95.1 percent of all such married couples. The largest of these is non-Hispanic whites married to Hispanics, which increased in 43.2 percent of counties. In contrast, just 3.0 percent of counties showed an increase in the percentage of married-couple households that were non-Hispanic whites married to non-Hispanic American Indians or Alaska Natives.

While 40% of Asian females married outside their race in 2008, just 20% of Asian male newlyweds did the same. 

All states experienced an increase in the percentage of interracial and interethnic married-couple households from 2000 to 2012-2016.

• Two states, Hawaii and Oklahoma, and the District of Columbia increased by 4.34 percentage points or more. 
• Nine states, located mostly in the West and the Mid-Atlantic region, increased by 3.34 to 4.33 percentage points. 
• Seventeen states increased by 2.40 to 3.33 percentage points. 
• The remaining 22 states increased by less than 2.40 percentage points. 

The authors are family demographers in the Census Bureau’s Fertility and Family Statistics Branch.

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Filipina American concedes Texas congressional race

SCREEN CAPTURE

Gina Ortiz Jones during a press conference last week.

VIRGINIA'S REP. BOBBY SCOTT will remain the lone Filipino American in the U.S. Congress after Gina Ortiz Jones ended her quest in Texas.

While Scott was unopposed in his Nov. 6 midterm contest, it took almost two weeks to determine the winner of Congressional District 23. Ortiz Jones ran a tough aggressive campaign narrowly losing to Republican incumbent Rep. Will Hurd by a little more than 1,000 votes.

“Our campaign was based on the belief that everyone is equal – equally deserving to be heard at the ballot box and served in our communities. We worked hard to make this a reality, understanding this is the only path toward the more perfect union that our founders envisioned," Jones said in a statement sent out via social media.

Hurd, whose campaign received massive amounts of PAC funds is the only African American Republican in Congress issued a statement thanking his family and supporters.

"I want to thank my opponent and her supporters for engaging in the democratic process. To thrive, our democracy needs a vigorous competition of ideas, and whether you voted for me or not, I will need your help," said Hurd.

Ortiz Jones' concession thus skipping a possible recount surprised some supporters because she showed no sign of giving up, accepting the invitation to attend the freshmen orientation session in Washington last week. 

If Ortiz Jones had won, she would have been the first Filipina American to serve in Congress. She was one of five Filipino Americans running for Congress in the midterm elections. Scott was the only one to win, running unopposed for his 14th term. Republican Christina Osmena and Democrats TJ Cox of California and Jennifer Mijaris-Zimmerman of Florida did not succeed in their bid to unseat incumbents

(UPDATE: As of Nov. 21, the race for California's District 21 with TJ Cox running against a Republican incumbent is still too close to call.)

From left: Rep. Bobby Scott, Christina Osmena and Jennifer Mijares-Zimmerman.

Texas's sprawling 23rd District stretches from the western suburbs of San Antonio to the eastern suburbs of El Paso in the far-west tip of the state and includes 800-miles of the Texas-Mexico border.

A week after Election Day, Jones said Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacquelyn Callanen had not made public the list of provisional voters in the race, making it difficult for voters to ensure their ballots officially counted.

“We’ve had issues in Bexar County providing information that should be a matter of public record,” Ortiz Jones said in a news conference. “This includes the list of folks that voted via provisional ballot.”

Last week, the former Air Force intelligence officer, sued the Bexar County election administrator for not making public a list of provisional voters and asked for a 48-hour extension for the counting of their ballots.

Ortiz Jones' hopes were dashed when a Bexar County judge denied the deadline extension to validate provisional ballots. She had to depend only on the validated votes by the deadline.

The Blue Wave that swept through some Republican-held Congressional seats, especially in California, didn't have as huge an impact in Texas although Democrats were able to unseat two House Republicans. However, that was tempered in the State Legislature where Republicans increased their majority in the Senate.

Although Democrats were able to win over 54% of Latino voters, Democrats needed a better turnout and a greater percentage of Latinos to overcome the traditionally conservative state. 

Nevertheless, the impressive showing of Beto O'Rourke in challenging incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, and the performances of Gina Ortiz Jones and Sri Preston Kulkarni in the 22nd Congressional District give Democrats hope that changing demographics of the Lone Star state may turn Texas purple by 2020.

"Turning Texas blue is not an event, it's a process," state Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said in an interview with the Texas Tribune, "and I think 2020 will put us, if not blue, purple — deep purple."

Editor's note: Earlier versions of this article did not have the results for TJ Cox running in California's District 21.

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DACA student awarded a Rhodes Scholarship

SCREEN CAPTURE / MSNBC

Jin Park was interviewed on MSNBC about the DACA program.

A BENEFICIARY of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has been awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

Jin Kyu Park, the DACA recipient, is currently an undergraduate student at Harvard University studying molecular and cellular biology. He is also the managing editor of the Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal.

DACA is a program established by President Barack Obama to allow children who were brought to the U.S. by their undocumented parents, a path to staying in the country legally. One of the first things Donald Trump did when he took office was to issue to end the program. A series of lawsuits are still winding its way through the courts challenging Trump's action.

The Korean American student actually applied last year but was denied because of his DACA status. His application forced the Rhodes Trust to reexamine its criteria, which it eventually changed to accommodate DACA students. Park will join 29class of 32 U.S. students receiving the Rhodes Scholarship in 2019.

Established in 1902 by the will of British philanthropist Cecil Rhodes, the scholarships cover all costs for two or three years of study at Oxford. Winners are selected on the basis of high academic achievement, personal integrity, and leadership potential, among other attributes.

Park was born in South Korea and came to the United States at the age of seven. He grew up in New York City. 

Last year, Park wrote an oped for The New York Times. "As a child, I wanted to escape all semblance of my immigrant identity. I never wanted to be known as Jin Kyu Park, the Korean immigrant of a restaurant laborer and a nail salon worker. But as I grew and learned, I realized that my lack of status had defined the way I experienced America. My status is inextricably linked to my identity, because it has affected every single way I interact with this country – from close friends to political institutions. As an undocumented immigrant, I don’t choose to be political. My existence is by definition political through means out of my control," he wrote.

“Growing up as an undocumented person in New York City, I had a lot of formative experiences that have taught me that it’s important for me to use my talents and my educational training to give back to the undocumented community,” Park told the Harvard Crimson. “And I wanted to do that through the lens of healthcare.”

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Democrat comes from behind to beat Young Kim in California congressional race

 CISNEROS FOR CONGRESS

Gil Cisneros, left center, ran an aggressive campaign to win Asian American support, including the endorsement of Congressmember Judy Chu, who represented a neighboring district.

ASAM NEWS

A REPUBLICAN STRONGHOLD in California has fallen to the Democrats.
The Orange County Register reports that Gil Cisneros is now officially the winner over Republican Young Kim in California’s 39th Congressional District.

Kim ended election night with a 3.2 percent lead. Many prematurely proclaimed her the first Korean American women ever elected to Congress., but by Saturday (Nov. 17), Cisneros had increased his lead over Kim to 3020 votes with the help of the remaining provisional ballots that needed to be counted.

With Cisneros’ win, the Democrats have flipped five Congressional seats in Southern California, including all four Republican seats in Orange County.

“The past two years have been hard, but change is coming,” said Cisneros in a statement sent to AsAmNews. "The hard work begins now. The people of this district will receive the representation they deserve. I am honored by their support and humbled by the opportunity to represent them in Congress.”

Cisneros effectively communicated to voters that “The Republican agenda is anti-immigration.” The 39th Congressional District is now one of the most diverse in the country with two-thirds of the voters minorities, according to the OC Register.

Kim called Cisneros late Saturday to offer her congratulations and sent this message via Facebook to her supporters:

Kim had tried to distance herself from Donald Trump’s policies, saying she would protect family-based immigration programs.

According to Politico, the Democrats needed to flip 23 seats to take over Congress and actually picked up 38 seats.

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Sunday Read Hate crimes rising, says FBI report

GRAPHIC FROM TWITTER

IN 2017, DONALD TRUMP'S first year in office, the number of hate crimes jumped up 17% from the previous year for a total of 7,175 hate crimes, the highest increase since 9/11.

It was the third year in a row that the FBI Hate Crimes Report has shown an increase. Part of the reason for the hike in hate crimes is that 1000 more jurisdictions are taking part in the voluntary program.
However, given that reporting hate crimes to the FBI is not mandatory, the FBI statistics likely represent only a fraction of such violence. Civil rights groups link the increase to Donald Trump statements and policies.

The report released Monday (Nov. 12) found that the majority of hate crime perpetrators were white, 50.7% followed by African Americans 21.3%.

Of the 4,832 single-bias hate crime offenses were motivated by race/ethnicity/ancestry, 3.1% were directed against Asians.

Of those hate crimes motivated by religion, the majority, 58%, were directed at those of the Jewish faith. Anti-Muslim, anti-Sikh and anti-Buddhist, faiths usually associated with Asians and Asian Americans, were targetted in 21% of the hate crimes.

"This report is a call to action—and we will heed that call," said Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. "The Department of Justice’s top priority is to reduce violent crime in America, and hate crimes are violent crimes. They are also despicable violations of our core values as Americans,” 

WIKIPEDIA

Some say Donald Trump's rhetoric has emboldened racist movements in the United States. He said that "there were fine people on both sides," when he addressed the Charlottesville violence.

“I am particularly troubled by the increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes—which were already the most common religious hate crimes in the United States—that is well documented in this report.“

As alarming as the hate crime stats are, the actual number is likely much, much higher because of inconsistencies of the definition of hate crimes among the different agencies that choose to report the incidents. Also, not all law enforcement jurisdictions bother to gather the stats or even to report them to the FBI.

The Anti-Defamation League said some police departments in major U.S. cities didn’t report hate crimes as part of the annual report, including the Honolulu Police Department, Indianapolis Police Department and police in Kansas City, Kansas. Other departments, like the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and police in Miami, Florida and Newark, New Jersey, reported zero hate crimes.

There were also notable hate crimes missing from the FBI report. 

For instance, the murder of Indian American tech worker Srinivas Kuchibhotla is missing. According to FBI statistics, no hate crimes were reported last year in Olathe, Kansas. But on February 22, 2017, Kuchibhotla was killed at a bar in Olathe when a man shot him because of his perceived national origin. His friend Alok Madasani was also targeted but survived the shooting, as did a man named Ian Grillot who attempted to intercede.

The shooter, Adam Purinton, was convicted on federal hate crime charges but the local law enforcement agency didn't officially report it to the FBI as a hate crime. The FBI depends on those local agencies to report hate crimes in their jurisdictions.

Another example that was included in the FBI report was the car attack in Charleston that killed Heather Heyer. Heyer, who was protesting against the Unite the Right demonstrators, was killed when white supremacist James Allen Fields, Jr. drove his car into a crowd.

Although Fields was convicted of a hate crime under state law but authorities failed to include the incident to the Feds as a hate crime.

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring on Thursday unveiled legislation aimed at preventing hate crimes and white-supremacist violence as reports of such incidents increase around the country.

It is his third attempt to pass similar legislation. The proposals have so far been blocked by Republicans in the state legislature concerned that they were overly broad and restricted gun rights.

"It is well past time to acknowledge the threat posed by hate and white-supremacist violence and take action to stop it," Herring said.

Next year, FBI personnel will provide training for law enforcement officers on how to identify bias-motivated incidents and report that data to the FBI’s UCR Program. Additionally, the Department of Justice launched a new hate crimes webpage, which has information for law enforcement on reporting incidents.

Some of the highlights of the FBI report includes the following:

Of the 6,370 known offenders: 

• 50.7% were White 
• 21.3% were Black or African American 
• 19.1% race unknown 
• Other races accounted for the remaining known offenders

Of the 5,131 known offenders for whom ethnicity was reported: 

• 25.0% were Not Hispanic or Latino
• 8.8% were Hispanic or Latino 
• 1.6% were in a group of multiple ethnicities 
• 64.5 ethnicity unknown 

In 2017, law enforcement agencies reported that 4,832 single-bias hate crime offenses were motivated by race/ethnicity/ancestry. Of these offenses:

• 48.8 percent were motivated by anti-Black or African American bias.
• 17.5 percent stemmed from anti-White bias. 
• 10.9 percent were classified as anti-Hispanic or Latino bias. 
• 5.8 percent were motivated by anti-American Indian or Alaska Native bias. 
• 4.4 percent were a result of bias against groups of individuals consisting of more than one race (anti-multiple races, group). 
• 3.1 percent resulted from anti-Asian bias. 
• 2.6 percent were classified as anti-Arab bias. 
• 0.4 percent (17 offenses) were motivated by bias of anti-Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. 
• 6.5 percent were the result of an anti-Other Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry bias. 

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,679 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-biased offenses showed:

• 58.1 percent were anti-Jewish. 
• 18.7 percent were anti-Islamic (Muslim). 
• 4.5 percent were anti-Catholic. 
• 3.2 percent were anti-multiple religions, group. 
• 2.4 percent were anti-Protestant. 
• 1.8 percent were anti-Other Christian. 
• 1.4 percent were anti-Sikh. 
• 1.4 percent were anti-Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Other). 
• 0.9 percent (15 offenses) were anti-Mormon 
• 0.9 percent (15 offenses) were anti-Hindu. 
• 0.8 percent (13 offenses) were anti-Jehovah’s Witness. 
• 0.5 percent (9 offenses) was anti-Buddhist. 
• 0.5 percent (8 offenses) were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc. 
• 4.9 percent were anti-other (unspecified) religion.

Civil rights organizations that maintain their own data on hate crimes, such as the ACLU,  the Anti-Defamation League, Southern Poverty Law Center, Council for American-Islamic Relations and South Asian American Leading Together mention the harsh rhetoric coming from the White House and Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric as a catalyst for behavior based on prejudice.

“While everybody should be horrified by these jaw-dropping statistics, these numbers still fail to paint a complete picture of the enormity of the problem,” said Sikh Coalition Legal Director Amrith Kaur.


The omission of the Kuchibhotla murder was spotlighted by South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) in its critique of the report. 

In SAALT's 2018 report Communities on Fire report found that perpetrators of hate violence referenced Trump, a Trump administration policy, or a Trump campaign slogan in one out of every five hate incidents documented. 

"White supremacist violence, fanned by the flames of racist rhetoric and policies at the federal level, has devastated marginalized communities," said SAALT in a press release.  "Until this administration confronts this crisis, we will continue to face a surge in hate crimes aimed at our communities."

California had the greatest number of hate crimes, but that was due to the fact that it also had the greatest number of jurisdictions reporting hate crimes.

“America’s elected president has mocked the disabled, called Mexicans rapists and murderers, executed a Muslim travel ban, issued disparaging remarks about women and African Americans, and is working to roll back protections for members of our transgender community,” San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón told the San Francisco Chronicle. “The country’s increase in hate crimes should be a surprise to no one, but it should be alarming to all. We look to our elected leaders to set an example.”

As of this writing, Trump hasn't said anything about the FBI report.
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