Attacks against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have steadily increased through the third quarter of the year, according to the latest national report by Stop AAPI Hate (SAH).
Key findings: A total of 10,370 hate incidents were reported to SAH between March 19, 2020 and Sept. 30, 2021. This marks a surge of 1,289 new cases from the 9,081 incidents reported as of June 30, 2021.
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- Verbal harassment (62.9%) and shunning (16.3%) made up the largest types of discrimination in the latest tally. Physical assault, which significantly rose in the previous quarter, comprised the third largest type (16.1%) of reported incidents.
- The majority of incidents (31.2%) took place in public streets or sidewalks, followed by businesses (26.8%), private residences (10.2%) and the internet (10.1%). Incidents on public transit, made up 8.4% of all cases.
- Across all ethnic Asian groups, Chinese reported the majority of incidents (42.7%), followed by Koreans (16.1%), Filipinx (9%), Japanese (8.2%) and Vietnamese (7.8%). Those who co-identified as white reported 7.7% of the total incidents.
- Women represented 62% of all incident targets, across genders. In terms of age, those between 26 and 35 reported the most cases, while those aged 1 and below and 76 and above each made up 1%.
- The new incident reports bring this year’s latest tally of recorded hate crimes to 5,771. This exceeds last year’s total of 4,599 reports.
Further insights: Aside from its standard incident tally, SAH released a national survey conducted from Sept. 21 to Oct. 8 in collaboration with the Edelman Data & Intelligence Team. The poll found that one in five AAPIs had experienced a hate incident in the past year.
- Based on findings that one in five AAPIs have experienced hate, the report estimates that, in total, closer to 4.8 million Asian Americans and 320,000 Pacific Islanders were victims of anti-Asian hate over the past year, versus the 5,771 that have been reported. This suggests that the vast majority of incidents remain unreported.
- Around 8.3% of Asian Americans and 9.4% of Pacific Islanders said they experienced multiple hate incidents. Meanwhile, 2.8% of Asian Americans and 10.6% of Pacific Islanders said they experienced one incident.
- The survey also found that Asian Americans with a high school education (41.2%) experienced hate twice as much as those with college degrees (19.8%). Additionally, one in three Asian American parents reported that their child suffered a hate incident at school.
- SAH Co-Founder and Chinese for Affirmative Action Co-Executive Director Cynthia Choi commented on the findings in a statement: “It’s tragic but not surprising that Asian Americans with lower education levels are experiencing more hate. Anti-Asian hate is tied to systemic racism against our community. Stopping hate is not about quick fixes like law enforcement but about deeper investment in our communities.”
- Co-Founder Manjusha Kulkarni, who also serves as executive director of Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, called for elected leaders to respond to the needs of the Asian American community: “Locally and nationally, they must make real investments in civil rights, community resources and education,” Kulkarni said.
Featured Image via Bloomberg Quicktake: Now
