More than 9,000 anti-Asian incidents have happened in the United States since March 2020, according to a nonprofit organization tracking incidents of hate and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
From March to December of last year, there were 4,548 incidents, a number that was nearly matched by this year’s total of 4,533 incidents so far, a report released by the nonprofit group Stop AAPI Hate on Aug. 12 revealed. The most common incidents were verbal attacks (63.7% of incidents), shunning (16.5%), which is defined as “the deliberate avoidance of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders,” and physical assault (13.7%). The group attributed the number to “anti-immigrant nativism” due to COVID-19’s origins in China.
“From red-baiting to scape-goating to anti-immigrant nativism, it is clear that political rhetoric about China’s potential role in COVID-19’s origins has inspired hate, racism, and discrimination towards our AAPIF communities,” the group tweeted following the release of the report on Thursday.
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The report did not mention the number of incidents in years prior to 2020. Representatives for Stop AAPI Hate did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for data from 2019 and earlier.
The U.S. has seen a spate of nationwide anti-Asian hate crimes since the outset of the pandemic. A March study revealed hate crimes against Asian Americans spiked almost 150% throughout 2020, which some attributed in part to COVID-19’s original discovery in Wuhan, China, and the decision by many, including former President Donald Trump, to refer to the disease as the “China virus.”
Authorities are investigating some of the incidents as hate crimes. In New York City, authorities are reportedly investigating whether an attack on an Asian mother that resulted in her undergoing brain surgery last month was racially motivated.
California, home to nearly a third of all Asian Americans, also saw several violent clashes, with a 94-year-old Asian woman stabbed multiple times in San Francisco in June and an Asian woman assaulted in Culver County, an incident that is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
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The issue has attracted bipartisan support, with President Joe Biden signing the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which expedites the review of coronavirus-related hate crimes, into law on May 20.
