A new study revealed hate crimes against Asian Americans spiked almost 150% throughout 2020, a year ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic that is speculated to have fueled some of the violence after the virus was first discovered in China.
An analysis released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, looked into hate crimes in 16 of the country’s biggest cities and how they compared from 2019 to 2020.
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In New York City, the study found crimes targeting Asian Americans went up 833%. Around 14.5% of the city is part of the Asian American community. Philadelphia and Cleveland both went up 200%, while Los Angeles went up by 114%.
The first spike in anti-Asian hate crimes started in March and April of last year, when the pandemic began to send the country into lockdown. In March, the FBI warned of an increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans in light of COVID-19.
“The FBI assesses hate crime incidents against Asian Americans likely will surge across the United States, due to the spread of coronavirus disease … endangering Asian American communities,” an FBI intelligence report said, according to ABC News.
“The FBI makes this assessment based on the assumption that a portion of the U.S. public will associate COVID-19 with China and Asian American populations,” it continued.
In recent weeks, a number of crimes targeting older Asian Americans have shed light on the issue, prompting local officials to ramp up their calls to report racist incidents.
New York City launched the Asian Hate Crime Task Force to focus on the entire city with a special eye on the transit system after a number of incidents occurred on the subway.
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“Every community suffered, but there’s been a particular pain, a particular horrible challenge, faced by the Asian American community,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “Because on top of all the suffering from the coronavirus itself, on top of losing loved ones losing businesses, people have had to confront horrible discrimination and hatred.”
The coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 29 million people in the United States, with over 525,000 deaths attributed to the virus.
