Asian Americans Report Hundreds of Racist Incidents in Less Than Two Weeks

By N. Jamiyla Chisholm Mar 27, 2020

More than 650 reports of discrimination, mainly against Asian Americans, have been shared with Stop AAPI Hate, an online incident reporting site created by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON) and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), since A3PCON launched the form on March 18, according to NBC News in a March 26 report. 

“Numerous Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) have reported experiencing microaggressions, racial profiling, hate incidents and in some cases, hate violence. In Los Angeles, a child in San Fernando Valley was physically assaulted at his middle school and accused of having the coronavirus simply because he is AAPI. On a San Francisco street, a young AAPI woman was spat upon and blamed for bringing the coronavirus to the U.S.,” reads A3PCON’s “Coronavirus Anti-AAPI Racism Incident Report,” which also includes a form for individuals to submit racist incidents. 

"The data from our reporting center—both the numbers and the self-reported narratives—clearly reveal that Asian Americans are being racially profiled as threatening, disease-carriers," San Francisco State University’s professor of Asian American studies Russell Jeung said in an emailed press release. "Not only are Chinese Americans blamed and mistreated, but Asian Americans of other ethnic backgrounds are also being targeted." 

rn

“These numbers do not detail the hate and vitriol that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are experiencing. And they don’t make evident the fear and anxiety that community members feel when they leave their homes to buy groceries, pick up prescriptions, or just leave their homes for a walk in their neighborhoods," said Manjusha Kulkarni, executive director of Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON).  


According to NBC, Jeung based his findings on media reports which confirmed more than 1,000 cases occurred between January 28 and February 24, when reports of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. started emerging.  

Some politicians have condemned the rise of racism across the nation, as Governor Phil Murphy (D-N.J.) and Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-N.Y.) have done. John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, told NBC News he’s grateful for the support received from civil rights organizations like the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

“Unfortunately, we’ve all been there,” Yang said. “Whether it’s African Americans, Jewish Americans, Latino Americans, the LGBTQ community, all of us have been victims of hate at some point, and it’s important for all of us to stand up for each other.”

To report incidents of racism or discrimination, visit A3PCON’s site here, which is accepting submissions in English, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese and Khmer.