During a heated election year, anti-immigrant rhetoric and systemic discrimination fueled anti-AA/PI hate.
Our second annual State of Anti-AA/PI Hate report conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago paints a sobering picture of widespread and persistent anti-AA/PI hate in 2024 — which impacted over half of AA/PI adults and almost 3 in 4 young adults.
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The executive summary is also available in Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Hindi, Korean, Samoan, and Vietnamese.
In 2024, growing anti-immigrant political rhetoric and deepening systemic discrimination fueled racism and xenophobia against AA/PI communities nationwide.
Our report brings together results from a Stop AAPI Hate national survey conducted with NORC at the University of Chicago and stories of hate acts submitted to Stop AAPI Hate’s reporting center. Based on this information, we found that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders nationwide were caught in the political crossfire in 2024 amid a contentious general election cycle rife with racist, xenophobic rhetoric from Trump and his loyalists.
In fact, nationally representative data from our second annual State of Anti-AA/PI Hate report confirms that over half of AA/PI adults (53%) and almost 3 in 4 AA/PI young adults (74%) experienced a hate act last year due to their race, ethnicity, or nationality.
We also found that the vast majority of AA/PI adults (83%) are concerned about the nation’s current racial climate following the surge of racism and xenophobia coming out of the 2024 election season.
Despite these sobering statistics, our findings also offer a beacon of hope. Even as hate continues to wreak havoc on our mental health, personal relationships, and sense of belonging, the majority of AA/PI adults remain optimistic about our power to end racism and are motivated to get involved in justice and equity efforts.
Key findings
Over half (53%) of AA/PI adults experienced some form of hate in 2024 — including a staggering 72% of young adults (18-29).
This compares to 49% of AA/PI adults who indicated in our previous State of Hate survey that they experienced race-based hate in 2023. That means hate remained consistently high in 2024.
Many hate acts parrot the anti-immigrant rhetoric of political leaders — including President Donald Trump. Throughout 2024, Stop AAPI Hate respondents reported verbal harassment by offenders who questioned their place in America, told them to “go back to where you came from,” threatened deportation, and used racist slurs to suggest they don’t belong in this country.
“I took my teen daughter to get her first driver’s license. The worker … assumed she wasn’t a citizen and told her she would have to become a citizen. I told him she was a citizen, but he didn’t believe me. I showed proof. He said, ‘90% of the Chinese who come in here aren’t citizens and don’t tell the truth.’ Defending his racism and racial profiling was as offensive as telling her to become a citizen.”
Parent of Girl, Chinese, Midwest
“While walking to the train station …, a man leaned towards my face and said, ‘I can’t wait until Trump gets reelected so you all can go back to where you came from.’”
Woman, Chinese, New York
“[Hate group] left hate propaganda on our front yard targeting POCs and immigrants that said, ‘Stop Illegal Immigration’ and ‘White Power.’”
Woman, Korean, Texas
“Person was saying hate speech in a public area. When he saw me enter a restaurant, he said, ‘Enjoy your last meal. You are getting deported.’”
Man, Taiwanese, California
- We found that hate was similarly high across gender, geographic region, income, party identification, birthplace, language, education, citizenship, and regional ethnic group.
- Young adults (18-29) experienced the most hate at 72%, compared to other adults aged 30-44 (54%), 45-59 (46%), and 60 and over (44%).
- Harassment and institutional discrimination were the most common types of hate acts. Around half (48%) of those surveyed experienced some form of harassment and around a quarter (24%) experienced institutional discrimination.
Anti-AA/PI hate took a toll on people’s mental health and sense of belonging, among other broad-ranging impacts.
40% of AA/PI adults who experienced hate said it had negative effects on their health, while nearly as many (36%) said it decreased their sense of belonging. Over a quarter (29%) said they took steps to enhance their safety — e.g., taking a self-defense class – and/or altered their behavior (27%) — e.g., switching jobs or even moving.
When we took a deeper look into the mental health challenges that people faced, we discovered stark differences between AA/PI adults who experienced hate and people who did not. For example, 70% of AA/PI adults who experienced hate reported frequent stress, compared to the 49% who did not — and 59% of those who experienced hate reported frequent anxiety, compared to 39% of those who did not.
One key takeaway: Hate can be bad for your health — more so than than people realize.
My daughter has been a victim of systematic and continuous racist bullying, discrimination, and harassment between 2023-2024. The school’s principal covered up for the bully … My child … became suicidal. The school intentionally withheld information that it was racist bullying.
Parent of Girl, Central Asian, U.S.
At the same time, people are not getting their needs met. Over one-third (38%) of AA/PI adults who experienced hate needed some form of support but did not receive it — indicating a major resource gap for impacted individuals. Of those who received support, 68% said at least some of it did not meet their needs — including mental health resources, safety trainings, community support, and legal help.
Over three-quarters of AA/PI adults who experienced a hate act (77%) did not formally report it.
When it comes to formal authorities or agencies, underreporting is a persistent problem — even among AA/PI adults who could have experienced a potential hate crime or civil rights violation. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of adults did not think the hate act they experienced was serious enough to report. However, of these people, we actually found that half (51%) may have experienced a hate act that was possibly unlawful.
Another common reason that people did not report: a lack of trust in institutional responses, whether from the local police or civil rights agencies. Of those who experienced a hate act and did not report it, 60% said they did not report because they didn’t think it would make a difference, while 46% said they didn’t trust institutional actors to do anything at all. In some cases, an institution itself (e.g., a supervisor at work) may have been the offender, which makes it difficult to report to that same institution.
WHY DON’T PEOPLE REPORT HATE ACTS?
- My experience isn’t serious enough to report.
- Reporting won’t make a difference.
- I don’t trust institutions to do anything.
- Reporting takes too much time and effort.
- I don’t want to bring attention to myself or to my family.
I was taking a run to the mailbox when I was assaulted by a woman screaming obscenities at me. She spat on me and tried to hit me. She only stopped when I brandished my pepper spray at her. We called the police but they told me there was nothing they could do and actively discouraged me from filing a report stating that this would give the woman a way to find me. It’s taken a long time for me to feel comfortable talking about this let alone report it.
Woman, Vietnamese, California
Activation against hate has remained high and AA/PI adults have continued to push back against hate.
The majority of AA/PI adults are concerned about the racial climate (83%), optimistic about AA/PI power to end racism (82%), and motivated to get involved in justice and equity efforts – although stronger attitudes fell. Two-thirds (66%) of AA/PI adults participated in activities to reduce or resist racism in 2024.
Also encouraging: Belief in the importance of both intra-racial solidarity among AA/PI communities and cross-racial solidarity across communities of color remains very high. 91% of AA/PI adults express belief in the importance of intra-racial solidarity among AA/PI communities, while 87% express belief in the importance of cross-racial solidarity across communities of color to end racial discrimination.
Between the rise of anti-immigrant scapegoating and the political ascendance of South Asian political figures like Usha Vance and Kamala Harris, it should come to no surprise that anti-AA/PI attacks continued unabated throughout 2024. Still Under Fire shows that the hostility of the current political climate helped to fuel hate against Asian Americans and Pacific Islander communities.
This disturbing trend shows no signs of stopping as the Trump administration continues its reign of terror against immigrants, people of color, and other vulnerable groups. And it’s clear that our communities need our support more than ever. We call on elected officials, philanthropic institutions, community leaders, and everyday people to invest in and advocate for culturally competent mental health care, trauma recovery services, and legal assistance that will help our communities through this challenging moment.
Right now, our research and data funding is under attack — to sustain this work, we’re need your help.
AA/PI communities have long been overlooked and underserved. And to make things worse, the Trump administration just unlawfully terminated two million dollars in critical funding for Stop AAPI Hate, leaving our communities more vulnerable during a time when targeted hate is widespread. With your support, we can continue to conduct research into AAPI experiences, build resources to keep our communities safe, and support victims of anti-AA/PI hate and violence.
Learn More
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