Opinion

Lena Dunham Is Not Racist And Right For Once

(Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images for SXSW)

Scoops Delacroix Freelance Writer
Font Size:

Liberal comedienne Lena Dunham is under fire from all sides for a purportedly racist tweet she sent several years ago that somehow just surfaced.

Her crime? Dunham tweeted that it’s unlikely she will be raped by an Asian man.

Lena Dunham is a hero (Twitter screenshot)

Lena Dunham is a hero (Twitter screenshot)

The response was immediate and predictable. Liberals have tweeted things like, “[Lena Dunham] you CANNOT be so lost in #whiteprivilege that you think this is funny #racist #problematic #youknowbetter.”

Or, “lena dunham is a bonified racist and i also want to know how this statement makes sense ‘he’s asian’ WTF.”

Conservatives seemed equally outraged. They used Dunham’s tweet to show, once again, that “Democrats are the real racists.”

Both sides are wrong, at least about Dunham’s tweet. Dunham is in fact unlikely to be sexually assaulted by an Asian man. The numbers prove it.

Consider recent crime statistics from America’s largest city. In New York, 44 percent of men arrested for rape in 2015 were black, 43 percent were Hispanic, 7 percent were white, and 6 percent were Asian. The city’s population numbers from last census are virtually the opposite: 33.3 percent white, 29 percent Hispanic, 26 percent black, and 13 percent Asian.

The numbers look similar in the nation’s largest state. In 2015, black men in California were almost eight times more likely to be arrested for rape than Asians, while Hispanics were 3.7 times more likely. Whites in California were almost twice as likely to be booked for sexual assault. If you’re a woman walking alone late at night, Asians are your best bet. Sorry, that’s true.

So it’s not Dunham’s imagination, no matter what the haters on Twitter claim. For once she told the truth, and that’s still a defense.