New Stop AAPI Hate report reflects ongoing anti-Asian discrimination

The Stop AAPI Hate reporting center released a new report Tuesday documenting nearly 1,000 additional incidents of hate and violence against Asian Americans.

The latest data showed 503 new incidents reported to the center during the first two months of 2021 and 484 incidents that occurred last year but had not yet been reported.

Stop AAPI Hate has been reporting incidents of anti-Asian harassment and violence resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. The reporting center is a collaboration between the Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council, Chinese for Affirmative Action and the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University.

Since the site launched on March 19, 2020, the center has recorded a total of 3,795 incidents, with 68 percent of involving some sort of verbal harassment and 20 percent involving avoidance or shunning of Asians.

The center reported one incident in Florida where an Asian person entered a coffee shop and other customers began leaving the area where the person sat. As other customers entered, they also avoided sitting in the same area.

In the Bay Area, community organizations and advocates for the Asian and Pacific Islander communities have held rallies in recent week to call for an end to hate crimes and recent high-profiled attacks against Asian seniors in San Francisco and Oakland.

California tops the list with 1,691 incidents reported to the Stop AAPI Hate since March 2020.

Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and executive director of Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, said in a statement that the Asian community needs policy solutions, adding:

“We ask policymakers at the local, state and national level to partner with us on implementing community-based solutions that will help ensure Asian Americans have equal rights and access to opportunities.”

President Joe Biden last week condemned recent attacks against the Asian community in an address to the nation. Biden said:

“So many of them are fellow Americans. They are on the front lines of this pandemic trying to save lives, and still they are forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in America. It’s wrong. It’s un-American and it must stop.”

In January, the president also signed a memorandum condemning racism and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Among the asks from the Stop AAPI Hate coalition, the organization wants to see more concrete solutions from local, state and federal officials, including “the expansion and enforcement of civil rights protections for individuals experiencing discrimination.” They also urge U.S. Senate passage of the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act,  a bill that would provide law enforcement grants for additional resources to address hate crimes and improve reporting of hate crimes nationally. 

Last month, Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) was able to secure $1.4 million in state funding for the Stop AAPI Hate’s continued research and data reporting efforts.

The reporting center continues to encourage the public to report incidents of hate and violence on its website.