Jeff Yang is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a frequent contributor to radio shows including Public Radio International's "The Takeaway" and WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show." He is the co-author of "I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action" and editor of the graphic novel anthologies "Secret Identities" and "Shattered."

Here's the hard and honest truth about this ugly incident: It is not an exception, but the new normal. Dao's brutalization was shocking to many Asian-Americans, who set Twitter aflame with accusations that he was targeted because of his race. We don't know what might have happened if he had not been Asian-American.

But America knows well the template for this treatment of "the other": Among African-Americans, the incident was simply and tragically familiar — an expression of the same state and corporate-endorsed violence that they have seen enacted against their community for generations.

Time and again, we've seen the same kind of memo that Munoz sent to his United team -- issued by police chiefs, commissioners and governors -- stating that "standard procedures were followed," that the victim was to blame for resisting, that "defensive" reprisal was to be expected given the constant fear of harm experienced by law enforcement. And time and again, we've seen retroactive smearing, assertions that the victim was actually a thug, a criminal, a monster, a predator who needed to be dragged away like an animal for public safety.