August 12, 2021
CONTACT
Sara Braun, stopaapihate@fenton.com
The new reports received over the past month include reports of incidents that took place in 2020, as well as those that have taken place throughout 2021. Of 9,081 incident reports, 4,548 hate acts occurred in 2020 and 4,533 of hate acts occurred in 2021.
Examining the totality of incidents received since Stop AAPI Hate began tracking on March 19, 2020, the data indicates:
- Verbal harassment (63.7%) and shunning (16.5%) — the deliberate avoidance of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders — continue to make up the two largest proportions of the total incidents reported. A majority of incidents are traumatic and harmful, but not hate crimes.
- A majority of incidents reported take place outside of the home and in spaces often open to the public. Public streets (31.6% of incidents) and businesses (30.1% of incidents) remain as the top sites where anti-AAPI hate occurs.
- Women are still reporting at a disproportionate rate than men — hate acts reported by women make up 63.3% of all reports.
“Our data clearly shows that Asian Americans across the country continue to be attacked, and that the hate acts that we have been tracking since March 2020 are not going away,” said Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and executive director of Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council.
Stop AAPI Hate received reports of incidents from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. They include the following first-hand accounts:
I was taking a walk with my friend around Oak Mesa. An old man yelled at us, saying we should all stay home. I did not know why, so I asked him if I was talking too loud. He then said, “everyone in your country is spreading the virus, killing millions of people,” and “You should stay home too.” He even insulted us with F words. [Reported in Chinese] (La Verne, CA)
I went to the store with a mask, the staff kept ignoring me and went to serve others that were behind me in the waiting line. I politely asked to order but he called me “A**hole”! There also was a lady in the store who pointed at me and said, “Covid is all because of you!” (Bloomington, IL)
I’m an eighth-grade student. In an online group chat with five other students, I was harassed for being Chinese. I was repeatedly told to “f*** off the planet with my viruses” and that I equaled the virus. (Chesterfield, MO)
I asked the gentleman to put his mask over his nose at my workplace. He then came over, pulled his mask completely off, coughed on me, and said, “Asian motherf****r, probably brought this thing here in the first place.” (New Braunfels, TX)
I was out on a COVID leave and the day before my return, I was notified that I was not allowed to go on work property or contact any employees and they put me on administrative leave for no reason. They ended up transferring me 1 1/2 hours away without hiring another nurse to take my position, and left my site without a licensed nurse. When I arrived at my new site, I was taken to a room and given no work duties. There was a noose-like rope hanging next to my chair. (Fallbrook, CA)
A colleague hit my face with her cellphone after seeing that I was wearing a face mask. She said “all Chinese are sick.” I was in shock and left with a bleeding lip. (Chicago, IL)
This report comes ahead of the release of the findings from Biden Administration’s investigation into COVID-19, which has AAPI activists concerned that potentially legitimizing conspiracy theories about China’s involvement will catalyze a new surge of hate, racism, and discrimination against the AAPI community.
“Throughout the pandemic, rhetoric about the Chinese government’s potential role in COVID-19’s origins has inspired hate, racism and discrimination towards our Asian American and Pacific Islander community,“ said Russell Jeung, Ph.D., co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University. “Unfortunately, our data shows this trend is continuing today. Of 9,081 hate act reports included in this report, 48.1% included at least one hateful statement regarding anti-China and/or anti-immigrant rhetoric.”
“The United States’ relationship with China has long influenced how Chinese Americans, as well as others of Asian and Pacific Islander descent, are treated throughout the nation,” said Cynthia Choi, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action. “When the U.S. vilifies China with words and policy, our data shows it endangers the lives of the AAPI community. To protect AAPIs living in the U.S., we must condemn the anti-China rhetoric and discriminatory policies that undermine our civil rights and ultimately our multiracial democracy.”
“It’s important to note that most of the incidents reported to our coalition are hate acts, not hate crimes. As we look for ways to address hate against our community, we must look for solutions that address non-criminal, but similarly painful and damaging acts of racism and discrimination,” said Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and executive director of Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council. “California’s API Equity Budget, which will allocate $156.5 million to largely community based organizations to provide victim services and prevention, NYC’s AAPI Community Support Initiative, which will drive $4 million in funding to organizations that are led by and serve AAPIs in the city, and advocating for additional funding tied for the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act are strong examples of policymakers taking action to address hate acts.”
The Stop AAPI Hate coalition encourages any member of the AAPI community who has experienced hate during the pandemic to report the incident at: https://stopaapihate.org/reportincident/.
Stop AAPI Hate is a national coalition addressing anti-Asian racism across the U.S. The coalition was founded by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON), Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), and San Francisco State University’s Asian American Studies Department. Between March 19, 2020 and June 30, 2021, Stop AAPI Hate has received 9,081 reported incidents of racism and discrimination targeting Asian Americans across the U.S. Visit stopaapihate.org.
The Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON) is a coalition of more than forty community-based organizations that serve and represent the 1.5 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the greater Los Angeles area, with a particular focus on low-income, immigrant, refugee, and other vulnerable populations.
Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) was founded in 1969 to protect the civil and political rights of Chinese Americans and to advance multiracial democracy in the United States. Today, CAA is a progressive voice in and on behalf of the broader Asian American and Pacific Islander community. We advocate for systemic change that protects immigrant rights, promotes language diversity, and remedies racial and social injustice.
SF State Asian American Studies (AAS) is the oldest and largest such academic program in the nation. Founded after the 1968-69 Black Student Union and Third World Liberation Front student strike, it maintains the strike’s values of student activism, social justice, and community self-determination.