According to data from Stop Asian American Pacific Islander Hate (AAPI), since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 9,000 anti-Asian hate crimes have occurred in the United States.
The organization reported that there were 4,558 hate crimes in 2020 and 4,533 in 2021. Since the virus was first discovered in Wuhan, China, there have been reports of abuse of Asian Americans. In May, President Biden signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which specifically emphasizes the increase in violence against Asian Americans.
Legislators and activists counter these hate crimes through social media campaigns and public gatherings.
Since March 2020, Stop AAPI Hate has collected nearly 10,000 anti-Asian racism reports. https://t.co/BEshXlXB89
— HuffPost Women (@HuffPostWomen) August 12, 2021
.@StopAAPIHate Said that since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been more than 9,000 incidents of hatred against Asian Americans pic.twitter.com/eh5CmZmw1x
— Scott Wong (@scottwongDC) August 12, 2021
“When you encourage hatred, it’s not like an elf in a bottle, you can take it out and put it back at any time,” said Manjusha Kurkani, Co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and Executive Director of the Asia Pacific Policy and Planning Committee.
Kulkarni added: “These belief systems exist too much to make them disappear.”
Kurkani said that with the opening up of the economy, it has given people more opportunities for public interaction and attacks, the most notable of which was a Korean spa shot in Atlanta in March. Six Asian women were killed in the shooting.
“Anti-China rhetoric has exacerbated America’s fear of pornography for Asians, and has led to policies of exclusion and racial attacks,” said @RussellJeung arrive @丽州 exist @VoxDotCom. Read the rest https://t.co/IjHFvQsNbf
— Stop AAPI Hatred (@StopAAPIHate) August 6, 2021
The report found that two-thirds of the reported incidents were verbal harassment, which is not a hate crime in law, and one-third were violent physical attacks. Women submitted 63% of incidents. Of the reported incidents, 31% occurred on the street, and 30% of them occurred in businesses.
Earlier this month, a U.S. Census survey found that Asian American families are twice as likely to admit that they do not have enough food as white families because they are afraid of being beaten and dare not go out.
