The focus of this project will be on the rise in hate crimes and discrimination against Asian Americans in correlation with the COVID-19 pandemic.
As coronavirus spread from China to other areas of the world Asian peoples were cast as the villains and many began to blame them for the pandemic. Despite hate crimes decreasing overall in 2020, Asian hate crimes have increased. The increase is largely associated with the pandemic. New York City and Los Angeles have the most drastic increases in these hate crimes, however the uptick is apparent across the country, with a 150% increase in Asian hate crimes from the previous year.
In March of 2020, the Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council (A3PCON), Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), and the Asian American Studies Department of San Francisco State University launched the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center. They have been tracking incidents of hate towards Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders over the past year, and their findings can be seen on their website.
Stop AAPI Hate found that 68% of incidents were reported by women; more than twice that of men. The organization also tracks the types of discrimination, such as verbal abuse and online harassment. The way they collect data is by submissions on their website. AAPI hate crimes are very under reported, and this site has helped make that process a bit easier. If you have experienced an incident of AAPI hate, you can visit stopaapihate.org to report it.