Hate speech is becoming more and more evident in the country. Hate attacks against the AAPI community (Asian-American and Pacific Islander) are on the rise in the United States. The Stop AAPI Hate initiative recorded more than 11,000 hate incidents against these communities.
Hate crimes, said Becky L. Monroe, deputy director for Strategic Initiatives and External Affairs, at a press conference organized by Ethnic Media Services, are considered by the California Department of Civil Rights –CRD– as “a criminal act committed because of disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or because of the association of a person with another or a group of people.”
The CRD also noted that it considers "an expression or action that may be motivated by race, color, disability, religion, origin, sexual orientation or gender and that may or may not violate the law" to be a hate incident.
According to federal data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) annual Hate Crimes Statistics Act report, the number of hate crimes against the AAPI community increased more than 73 percent from 2008 to 2020.
In addition, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) indicated that this year the number of hate crimes exceeds 200,000 per year, which has worried members of this community and activists. "There is no doubt that the numbers are misreported," Monroe acknowledged.
Brian Levin, a criminologist and civil rights attorney, said hate crimes increase during election time because "there is a connection to politics," he said.
He also noted that according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism (CSHE), hate crimes against the Latino community increased by 41 percent, while those directed at the African-American community increased by 46 percent.
"Most hate crimes are committed by white men," Monroe said, adding that a large number of the reported incidents included hateful, racist and xenophobic rhetoric used by former US President Donald Trump.
In her turn, Manjusha P. Kulkarni, executive director of the Asia-Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON), pointed out that most acts of hate against the AAPI community occur in public places such as parks or businesses, 61 percent of these have been against women, 9.9 percent against minors under 17 years of age and 7 percent against older adults.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-China discourses have gained strength around the world, blaming this country for the pandemic derived from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which caused an increase in attacks against this sector, interrupting and affecting their daily lives due to fear and concern, as the incidents even occurred in schools.
“Many of the acts that happen in schools are hate incidents” and can amount to crimes, Monroe said. As a result of the pandemic, a large number of Asian school-aged children were physically and verbally attacked under the slogan “go back to your country.”
Kulkarni also noted that 63 percent of the attacks are in the form of verbal harassment, while 16.2 percent are physical attacks. “Most of these are traumatic and damaging, but they are not hate crimes,” she said.
Thus, since they are not considered as such, the solutions for these incidents are not limited to the application of the law alone.
Derived from this problem and thanks to the coalition of organizations such as the Department of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, Chinese for Affirmative Action and AAPI Equity Alliance ‒formerly the Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council‒ Stop AAPI Hate was born, which seeks to monitor and respond to hate incidents against these communities.
This organization seeks, among other things, to advocate for local, state, and national policies that protect the rights of AAPI communities.
Additionally, the California Department of Social Services and the Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Affairs (CDSS and CAPIAA) announced that the Stop the Hate program would provide $20 million in fiscal year 2021-22 to support and care for victims of hate crimes and incidents, as well as prevent them.
"We hope that policymakers will look at this issue and determine what we need in terms of government responses because community organizations cannot do this alone," Kulkarni said.
Healing and fighting hatred
"My grandmother had a breathing tube down her throat, she had blood all over her, and we found her in the middle of a slide, having been harassed by a 17-year-old boy who is now being charged with murder," said Sasanna Yee, a conscious movement instructor and community wellness activist in San Francisco.
Following this event, Yee created the initiative “Move the Chi for Multiracial Solidarity” which seeks to foster unity and collective action against all forms of hatred and violence, through a healing practice that has its origins in China.
"My grandmother has started teaching me to go beyond cultural barriers," she said.
“How do we create a world that is more humane?” Yee asked, noting that each of us has the power to transform circumstances.
At the end of the meeting, the experts agreed on the need for communities to join forces to fight against hate attacks and thus achieve a more just country for all. They also called for reporting hate incidents and crimes, as they stressed that the numbers "are higher than we imagine."
They also pointed out the importance of creating spaces to understand the type of hatred towards this sector through education, the application of laws in favour of civil rights and the visibility of this problem with the help of the media, politicians and leaders.
If you suffer any incident or hate crime, you can report it through https://stopaapihate.org/reportincident/, if you need immediate assistance, please call 911.
This publication was supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
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