New survey finds nearly half of Asian Americans will be victims of hate speech by 2023

A new survey released Wednesday shows that 49% of Asian Americans in the U.S. experienced an act of hate last year, with most of them occurring under the radar due to diminished national scrutiny and lack of reporting to law enforcement.

A wave of high-profile hate crimes at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic sparked national outrage over attacks on Asians, but a new poll shared exclusively with USA TODAY on Wednesday shows the Asian American community faces widespread levels of hate that are under the radar, from parking lots and public transportation to workplaces and universities.

Report prepared by Stop AAPI Hate And National Opinion Research Center The University of Chicago surveyed 1,005 Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adults nationwide — to be released Wednesday afternoon at a press conference with members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus in Washington, D.C. — and found that nearly half of respondents faced discrimination in 2023, but they were fighting back at unprecedented levels.

U.S. Representative Judy Chu, who chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific Americans Caucus, told USA TODAY the report helps fill a data “gap” and will inform lawmakers and the public about future trends in anti-Asian racism. Hate incidents against Asians When COVID-19 first spread, he said former President Donald Trump was “putting a target on our backs” with his inflammatory rhetoric.

But Chu said that while the wave of attacks during the pandemic has subsided, society still faces alarming levels of discrimination.

“Since then, the crimes and hate incidents haven’t been as visible, but they’re still there,” Chu explained. “They’re still happening, and that’s why it’s important for Stop AAPI Hate to release this report.”

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‘It didn’t start or end with COVID’

Stephanie Chan, director of data and research at Stop AAPI Hate, told USA TODAY that the discourse around COVID-19 has highlighted a history of racism against the Asian community. She said there has been a shift in rhetoric fueling hatred against Asians from blame related to the pandemic to more general xenophobic and anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“This did not start or end with COVID. We need to address the real systemic causes of racism against Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States,” Chan said.

The survey also found that racism is one of the top issues for the Asian American community, with 85% concerned about the racial climate in the US.

Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, noted that forms of anti-Asian racism may have shifted from individual attacks on people in the early years of the pandemic to increased institutional discrimination. The new survey found that 51% of victims experienced hate in a work, employment, housing, healthcare, education or government environment.

“Hate is a bigger problem than hate crimes,” Kulkarni said.

This very month, The House of Representatives passed a bill aimed at revitalizing “China Initiative” A surveillance program to prosecute suspected Chinese spies during the Trump era. The Justice Department scrapped it in 2022, saying it fueled bias against Asians and hindered U.S. efforts to attract top scientists for critical research across business and academia.

Chu said the bill, which he called “the new McCarthyism,” would result in Chinese-American academics losing their jobs over false allegations that they were spying for China.

In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law last year banning anyone associated with the Chinese government, political parties, business organizations and people “residing” in China who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. Buying property in Florida. The U.S. Justice Department said in court filings last summer that the law violated the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The ban remains in effect.

But attacks against individuals in the Asian American community remain common, with 26% of respondents reporting physical attacks. This month, Indiana woman pleads guilty He faces federal hate crime charges after he repeatedly stabbed a Chinese-American teenager while yelling profanities on a city bus last year.

Stop AAPI Hate also highlighted the rise in hatred towards South Asians since the war in Gaza began. In October, prosecutors charged that an argument involving a young child fender bend spiral A hate crime escalated in New York City after a driver called a Sikh Indian man “turban man” and hit him in the head, causing him to fall to his death.

‘We will not sit and think about this’

The new survey aims to paint a more comprehensive picture of racism against Asians and Pacific Islanders. For example, the survey asked respondents about criminal acts such as physical assault, property damage and violent verbal threats. But it also looked at non-criminal attacks such as racial slurs, which are protected under freedom of expression and institutional discrimination.

Stop AAPI Hate began in March 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, amid a wave of high-profile hate incidents. The coalition of three organizations — Chinese for Affirmative Action, the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University, and the AAPI Equity Alliance — launched the coalition as a hate incident reporting center for Asian Americans. It received 735 reports of Asian/Pacific Islander hate acts in 2023, but the new study said that number is “just the tip of the iceberg.”

The report shows that most hate incidents go undocumented, with nearly half of respondents saying they did not tell anyone about the incident and even fewer (16%) reporting it to law enforcement.

The report noted that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders may not report incidents to authorities due to distrust of law enforcement, lack of information or fear of retaliation. Chan also noted that some community members face language barriers when communicating with police.

FBI releases its own report 2023 crime report This week saw a slight increase in overall hate crimes Compared to the previous year. The data is compiled from incidents reported to law enforcement agencies across the U.S. Some of the discrimination identified in Stop AAPI Hate’s survey, such as nonviolent verbal attacks or denial of service at a business, may not be illegal and are less likely to be detected in law enforcement data.

Stop AAPI Hate plans to conduct the survey annually to get a holistic picture of discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Chan also said he has seen an unprecedented wave of action to combat hate, with nearly 3 in 4 Asian Americans participating in actions against racism, such as educating others, attending protests, engaging with lawmakers or donating to racial justice organizations.

“It’s encouraging that we’re not just sitting around thinking about this, but AAPI communities are taking action at levels we’ve never seen before,” Chan concluded.

This article was originally published on USA TODAY: Stop AAPI Hate report shows widespread anti-Asian hate in 2023