How to stop the dangerous rise in hatred targeted at Asian Americans

News about the deadly shooting in Atlanta broke almost one year to the day since we created the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center.

Twelve months ago, our country was in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most Americans were entering their first quarantines and watching a virus spread faster than government systems could track.

But Asian Americans were watching something spread even faster than COVID-19: Widespread hate and discrimination against members of our community.

In early February, even before a single COVID-19 case was recorded in Los Angeles, a 12-year-old Asian American child in the city was physically assaulted in his school by a classmate who said he was a coronavirus carrier and that he should go back to China.

At the time, incidents like these weren’t broadly reported. But they were widespread — they were happening to our neighbors, colleagues, our family members and ourselves.

We created Stop AAPI Hate so there was a way to capture the increasing attacks on our community.

One year later, the vaccine provides a light at the end of the tunnel for the pandemic. But it seems there’s no end in sight for anti-Asian hate. 

In the two weeks since our country watched in horror as eight people — six of them Asian American women – were killed in Atlanta, we’ve been repeatedly asked why this is occurring. Many Asian Americans do not view these shootings in a vacuum.

In the days leading up to the shooting, there were what seemed to be daily reports of violent, public attacks against Asian Americans — especially elderly Asian Americans — in places that included Oakland, San Francisco and New York City.

People stand in solidarity during a vigil and rally against Asian hate crimes, Friday, March 26, 2021, at Chicago's Horner Park. The event is organized by local Chicago organizations led by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. (AP Photo/Shafkat Anowar) ORG XMIT: ILSA106 (Photo: Shafkat Anowar, AP)

The Atlanta shootings took place, in fact, hours after we published a report documenting nearly 3,800 self-reported hate incidents from the AAPI community.

Anti-Asian hate and the scapegoating of immigrants is nothing new. But in looking through the thousands of reports that we received, several things came to the fore.

Trump’s rhetoric normalized hate

For one, former President Donald Trump’s and other government officials’ widespread use of slurs like “Kung Flu,” his anti-China rhetoric and his exploitation of existing xenophobia played a major factor in normalizing and spreading hate against Asian Americans, both during the Trump administration and even now that his term is over.

Asian Americans reported hearing these slurs like “China virus” thrown at them while they were refused business, harassed, spit on or attacked.

There was also a devastating intersection between racism and misogyny. In our data, women reported incidents 2.3 times more often than men did. The reports and stories from these women often described being sexually harassed and COVID-19 being weaponized as part of the sexual harassment.

“You Asian c—,” one man yelled at Vietnamese American Hong Lee after she declined his offer of lunch last August. “What is the matter with these hoes … Help her go back to f—– Asia.”

This month, we’ve also been asked about what can be done. In the shadow of the Atlanta-area shooting, there is, understandably, a strong urge to focus on hate crime enforcement.

For example, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, authored by U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono and U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, would require a Department of Justice employee to facilitate fast reviews of federal, state and local COVID-19 hate crimes for one year as well as mandate guidance to local enforcement to establish an online hate crime reporting form in multiple languages.

Certainly, steps such as these can help address the lack of hate crime reporting. But the fact remains that 90% of the incidents reported to us are not hate crimes because no underlying crime was committed. Many are civil rights violations involving discrimination in the workplace, restaurants and retail venues and can be prosecuted in civil court.

Multiple solutions are needed

Racism against Asian Americans is longstanding and complex, and requires a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach.

We need resources dedicated to local communities, including community safety programs and in-language support for those in need of mental health, legal and immigration services.

We need to build a strong civil rights infrastructure at the local level by fully funding community-based groups, which are often the first responders to incidents of hate.

We need to increase exposure to the voices and histories of all communities by expanding ethnic studies and education.

And finally, we need stronger federal civil rights laws that address discrimination in public accommodations — businesses where we buy our groceries, refill our prescriptions and eat our meals.

These solutions may neither complex nor out-of-reach.

A number of groups across the country are already moving this work forward. In Los Angeles, LA vs. Hate provides direct assistance to victims of hate through a 211 reporting system for all marginalized community members.

The San Francisco-based Coalition for Community Safety and Justice  Cofocuses on victim services, intervention and prevention programs, community mediation and restorative justice practices.

We founded Stop AAPI Hate to not only raise awareness about anti-Asian hate but also to fight against it.

The outpouring of support and solidarity from all racial groups that has risen up in the days since this tragedy gives us every reason to be optimistic. With the energy and calls for change we are seeing now, we are fundamentally hopeful that there is a true path forward in ending anti-Asian hate.

To report an anti-Asian hate incident or to learn more about what you can do to help, visit: stopaapihate.org.

Manjusha Kulkarni, executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, and Russell M. Jeung, professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, are cofounders of Stop AAPI Hate.

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