Second Thoughts About That FBI Report of a 40% Spike in Anti-Black Hate Crime | RealClearInvestigations
The FBI s latest annual report on hate crimes seemed to deliver more grim news about race relations in America, announcing a nearly 40% rise in anti-black hate crimes in 2020. Major news outlets trumpeted the headline-grabbing statistic, noting that it coincided with a rise in white nationalism and came amid a surge in anti-black hostility caused by summer 2020 protests. Attorney General Merrick Garland quickly promised a comprehensive response by the Department of Justice.
But a closer look at the data reveals a more complicated picture. Some of the biggest increases in anti-black hate crimes occurred in Democratic Party strongholds yet, perhaps surprisingly, almost no increases were reported in major cities riven by the racially tinged protests and riots after George Floyd s murder. It s no surprise, then, that experts caution against using these numbers to claim an epidemic of anti-black crime both because of the FBI data s limitations, as well as the small absolute and relative size of the reported increase.