Asian hate incident data shows discrimination skyrocketing in pandemic: Report – Everett Post

Everett

(NEW YORK) – Hate incidents against Asian and Pacific islanders in the US continue to rise during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released Thursday by a national coalition fighting the problem.

The latest data from the Stop AAPI Hate group shows that 6,603 hate incidents against Asians and islanders in the Pacific were reported to the organization between mid-March 2020, when the pandemic began through March 31, 2021.

The study shows that 2,410 hate incidents were reported in the first three months of this year and 4,193 in the nine months of 2020.

While 12.6% of the incidents reported in the group as a whole were physical assault, 64.2% were verbal harassment. According to the report, women reported 64.8% of all incidents.

Another 7.3% of incidents related to online harassment, while 10.3% related to workplace discrimination, denial of service and blocking of public transport.

The increase in hate incidents shown in the report mirrors the cases identified by the Center for Hate and Extremism Research at California State University in San Bernardino, which found crimes reported against Asians in major U.S. cities increased by nearly 150%. increased from 2019 to 2020.

The Stop AAPI Hate report comes despite increasing attacks on Asians and islanders in the Pacific happening at an alarming rate across the country.

Two Asian women, aged 63 and 84, were attacked and stabbed to death on a busy street in San Francisco on Tuesday in broad daylight, police said. A 55-year-old man has been arrested and charged with the attacks that took both women to hospital with serious injuries, police said.

“This is something that happens specifically to Asians in our community. This is a pattern, ”San Francisco county director Matt Haney told ABC broadcaster KGO-TV in San Francisco.

The attacks in San Francisco came the day after a man hit a 31-year-old woman with a hammer in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

Among the incidents recorded in the Stop AAPI Hate report was a March 16 mass shooting in three spas in the Atlanta area that killed eight people, including six Asian women. The alleged shooter, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, allegedly told investigators that the shootings were not racially motivated but were triggered by a “sex addiction”.

Amid the wave of hate incidents, the FBI field office in San Francisco this week announced a public service campaign to get victims to report crimes.

“The FBI promotes reporting of all incidents of bias and hatred by expanding public education and outreach. The FBI San Francisco has launched a social media awareness campaign and is currently running an advertisement on a train from San Francisco Muni to encourage the public to report hate crimes to the FBI, “the office said in a statement.

The Stop AAPI Hate group said the incidents recorded in their report represent only a fraction of the abuse across the county, much of which is not reported.

Of the incidents reported since the pandemic began, 40% have occurred in California, 15.1% in New York, 4.8% in Washington state, 3.3% in Texas and 3.2% in Illinois.

According to the report, Chinese people made up 43.7% of the victims. Koreans accounted for 16.6% of the incidents, Filipinos reported 8.8% of the hate incidents, and Vietnamese reported 8.3% of the incidents.

The report also found that 37.8% of incidents occurred on public roads or in parks and 32.2% in companies.

ABC News’ Luke Barr contributed to this report.