Reports indicate that the rate of hate crimes against the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community seems to be getting worse each day. Across the country, an incident of hate targeting the AAPI community occurs nearly every day. Several reports have indicated the alarming rate of crimes against the Asian American community, however, the most recent seems to have documented more crimes than predicted. Despite the increasing awareness against bias crimes, Stop AAPI Hate documented over 11,400 self-reported anti-AAPI hate incidents, according to its latest report released Wednesday.
The report indicates that 67% of reported incidents involved harassment, including verbal or written hate speech and discriminatory gestures, while 17% involved physical assault, and the rest were incidents of shunning or public avoidance. Nearly 1 in 10 incidents occurred on public transit.
Amongst all the ethnic groups, the largest percentage of reported incidents were from Chinese people who accounted for 43% of all reported hate incidents. Additionally, the report noted that women were two times more likely than men to report a hate incident.
As former reports have indicated California, which has the largest AAPI population in the country, had the largest number of reported incidents, at more than 4,000. New York followed with 1,800. The data follows a nationwide survey conducted by Stop AAPI Hate and the Edelman Data & Intelligence Team between 2020 and 2021, which found that one in five Asian Americans and one in five Pacific Islanders experienced a hate incident in that time.
The latest report “reflects what is the new reality for AAPIs, that hate was not simply short-term or related only to COVID,” Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and executive director of AAPI Equity Alliance, told Axios.
“We’re seeing across the board really an upsurge in white supremacy and the ways in which it’s wreaking havoc on our communities. This is not a temporary problem, but one that is seemingly long-term and is going to require more permanent solutions,” she added.
The report comes at a time during which at least two reported incidents made headlines this week alone.
In New York police are searching for a man accused of headbutting another man while yelling anti-Asian remarks at him in Queens, Yahoo News reported. According to police authorities, without provocation the suspect yelled at the victim: “You Asians are the reason I cannot get a job. You Chinese are scum.” The incident occurred less than a day after another Asian American was kicked in the hip and told to “get out of this country” in Chelsea.
While rarely do these incidents result in charges and conviction, hate crime and fourth-degree assault charges were filed against a man Thursday after he allegedly punched two women in Seattle, Washington, local prosecutors said. According to NBC News, Seattle officers arrested a man after he “appear(ed) to be going after Asians,” court documents said. In Seattle, hate crimes and bias incidents rose from 260 in 2019 to 509 in 2021.
According to Axios, a significant amount of Americans have continued to wrongfully blame COVID-19 on members of the AAPI community resulting in an increase in attacks between 2021-2002. Hate crime data from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino found that hate crimes against Asian Americans surged in 2020 in at least 15 cities, Daily Kos reported. As the cities were further reviewed, a new report indicated that crimes against Asian Americans rose by 169% when comparing the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021.
Additionally, data released by the FBI found that hate crimes targeting people of Asian descent in the U.S. rose by 70% last year when compared to the number of such incidents in 2019. The report found that more than 10,000 people reported hate crimes to law enforcement, the highest tally of reported hate crimes since 2008. As a result, the AAPI community is not only living in fear but expressing an extreme increase in stress. A national study found that not only did violence against the AAPI community increase by 339% in 2021 compared to the previous year, but Asian Americans are changing their daily routines out of fear of violence.
The AAPI community needs our support now more than ever. Hate is the real virus, and we cannot let it continue. Daily Kos has compiled resources to help our community stand united against racism. Help us put an end to this hate.