AAPI community leaders met new hate crime data with trepidation and caution – though reported anti-Asian hate crimes decreased in 2022, the number was still the second-highest since at least 2001, and anti-Asian rhetoric and violence are still widespread.
But they also noted, the drop may be because efforts to thwart anti-Asian action are having a positive effect.
The California Department of Justice released the latest figures last week and the 2022 Hate Crimes Report revealed the number of reported anti-Asian hate crime events dropped 43% – from 247 to 140 – from 2021 to 2022, even as the number of reported overall hate crime events rose by 20%.
“Data will always depend on who is reporting the crimes,” said ARI Executive Director Rejie Baloyos. The report is only “one data point,” she said, affected by under-reporting because of language barriers and victims’ hesitancy to engage with law enforcement. It also does count non-criminal hate events.
But even though the hate crimes data can’t be taken at face value, the numbers affirmed the value of state-funded community safety initiatives, Baloyos said.
“The state has invested money into our system,” she said. “When you actually invest into something, you can also see the difference and the impact of that.”
She was referring to the Asian and Pacific Islander Equity Budget, sponsored by the AAPI Legislative Caucus and signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021. It devoted $166.5 million over three years to help agencies combat Asian hate that surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
API leaders said the easing of COVID-19-related restrictions and hardships may have played a role in the decrease in reported hate crimes. David Yee, California commissioner on Asian and Pacific Islander affairs, also said the equity budget contributed to the change.
“This is a powerful example in how state government can make a real difference in people’s lives when implementing good public policy,” he said.
Anti-Asian hate spiked in 2020 and 2021 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of reported anti-Asian hate crime victims jumped from 58 in 2019 to 107 in 2020 and 294 in 2021, according to the Department of Justice report.
From March to June 2020, the community organization Stop AAPI Hate recorded an average of 10 self-reported hate incidents per day in California.
“The pandemic exacerbated the xenophobia and bigotry against the AAPI community,” said Yee. “We’re often stereotyped as perpetual foreigners, anti-American…and these stereotypes fueled the racist belief that Asians are responsible for introducing COVID-19 to the U.S.”
In response to the surge, community organizations and lawmakers successfully pushed for the passage of the API Equity Budget. The state provided funding to various organizations for hate crime reporting and prevention, as well as providing healthcare, education and other resources to low-income AAPI communities.
Stop AAPI Hate, AAPI Data and other organizations received block grants of up to $10 million, while most of the money – $110 million – was given to the California Department of Social Services to be given to smaller organizations in coordination with the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs.
The commission looked for organizations who had a proven record of providing community services, Yee said. Beyond hate crime prevention and victim support, grantee services vary from providing vehicles to transport seniors safely to art and culture events promoting understanding of Asian American history.
Grantees also reflect a diversity in geography, age groups, religions and ethnicities served, ranging from youth programs to senior services, said Nilda Valmores, a senior program officer at the Center at Sierra Health Foundation. The Center is the lead organization for 18 Northern California/San Joaquin Valley grantees, providing staff training and helping coordinate shared response plans between them.
In the Sacramento area, Asian Resources, Inc. received a $1 million grant.
Hmong Youth and Parents United, ACC Senior Services, My Sister’s House, and other local organizations received between $65,000 and $250,000 each in “Stop the Hate” grants.
Asian Resources Inc. runs a community center in South Sacramento that provided training on how to prevent becoming a victim of hate crimes. It also hosted COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites and provided language access help for law enforcement, job placement, health care, tax filing and other services.
Even as reported hate crimes in California decrease, elected officials and candidates across the country continue to use “racist, anti-China, anti-Asian rhetoric,” said Cynthia Choi, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate. In May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill prohibiting certain Chinese citizens from owning property in the state, saying it would counter “the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party.” A similar bill passed the Texas State Senate but failed in the state’s House of Representatives.
Recent spikes in anti-Asian hate are not new but “actually history repeating itself,” Choi said. In 1913, California lawmakers passed the Alien Land Law, barring Asian immigrants and later even their American-born children from owning land in the state.
Yee pointed to the incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII and discrimination against Americans of Middle Eastern descent after 9/11 as more recent examples of national crises serving as “a spark that exacerbates xenophobia and bigotry.”
U.S.-China tensions and anti-immigrant sentiments are long-term phenomena, subjecting Asian Americans to scapegoating for economic and national security reasons, but the communities have historically not had the resources to combat hate, Choi said.
“We have battled the model minority myths for so long and the effect of that has been an under-investment in our communities by government, by philanthropy, by the private sector, and that has to change,” she said.
Although reported anti-Asian hate crimes decreased significantly in the Department of Justice data, the trend was not necessarily true for other communities of color.
Hate crime events targeting Black people were by far the most commonly reported in 2022. Unlike anti-Asian hate, the number of reported victims increased 26%, from 596 to 752, from 2021 to 2022. Anti-Latino hate crimes were also reported at a higher rate than anti-Asian hate crimes, with 265 reported victims in 2022.
Choi emphasized the importance of addressing root causes with community solutions, not just relying on law enforcement, especially when addressing violence “between or within communities of color.”
In a Stop AAPI Hate partner organization’s work in San Francisco, “we have seen that there are racial tensions in particular with the Chinese and the Black community,” Choi said.
Even though Stop AAPI Hate’s work prioritizes resources for victims and survivors of hate crimes, Choi said that the organization has “taken the time to define community safety as not just the absence of violence, but the presence of economic opportunities,” including access to housing and substance abuse and mental health support.
The number of reported anti-LGBTQ hate crime victims also spiked 31%, from 404 to 528, from 2021-22, the second-most reported type of incident in both years.
On June 27, after advocacy by members of the AAPI Legislative Caucus, Stop AAPI Hate and other community organizations, Newsom signed off on an additional $40 million “Stop the Hate” funding package within the $227 billion 2023-24 state budget.
“Investing in nonprofits and community-based organizations to provide care to victims and strengthen hate prevention programs has transformed communities across the state, and I’m proud we’re able to make additional investments to support this work,” said Assemblyman Evan Low, chair of the AAPI Legislative Caucus, in a Stop AAPI Hate news release.
The last year of Stop the Hate grants were originally to be distributed in fiscal year 2023-24, but the new funding comes with an extension to June 2026, according to a Stop AAPI Hate spokesperson. While future funding for services funded by the API Equity Budget is an open question, advocates said they have always seen their work as being long-term.
“The bottom line is, while racism exists or is present and is hurting people in our communities,” Valmores said, “programs dealing with hate are important to help prevent hate and help strengthen people to deal with them.”
