Countering Hate Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Founders of a reporting center for anti-Asian hate highlighted the importance of visibility and resources during their panel

Holly Gilvary

On March 16, 2021, eight lives were taken during a shooting spree across three spas in the Atlanta suburbs. Among the eight people killed, six were women of Asian descent: Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Hyun Jung Grant, Soon Chung Park, Young-Ae Yue, and Suncha Kim. Unfortunately, this act of terror against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community is just the latest demonstration of the centuries of systemic racism and oppression that has plagued the AAPI community in the United States. In the wake of this tragedy, many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are pointing out that hate crimes against the AAPI community are nothing new and that a lot of their calls for help–from government, businesses, self-proclaimed “allies,” and more–have fallen upon deaf ears. 

This sentiment and more were discussed in the online event hosted by the Raben Group on March 25, Countering Hate Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The event moderator was Margaret Huang, President, and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The panelists in the event were Cynthia Choi, the co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), and Manju Kulkarni, executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON). Choi and Kulkarni are also founders of the organization Stop Asian American & Pacific Islander Hate (SAAPIH), a reporting center launched with CAA, A3PCON, and San Francisco State University in March 2020 to track cases of hate and violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. 

During the panel, Choi and Kulkarni shared the feeling of somber recognition regarding the Atlanta shooting, as well as all other reports of hate against the AAPI community they’ve received at Stop AAPI Hate. In March, SAAPIH released a report that showed that nearly 3,800 incidents of hate and bias against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were reported to the organization within the past year. 

In terms of this hate and bias against the AAPI community, “We have been sounding the alarms for over a year now,” Choi said. She referenced the pandemic and former President Donald Trump’s racist, anti-Asian rhetoric as contributors to a rise in racist attacks and incidents. “What we’ve seen is a surge, unprecedented levels of hate directed at our community.”

Kulkarni echoed this position, saying that the Atlanta shooting “is just the latest iteration of the hate directed at Asian American communities.”

The panelists also emphasized that tragedies like the Atlanta shooting are not one-off incidents but rather a continuation of historic racism and violence. Their hope, however, is that despite the tragedy, the community can use this as a chance to increase the visibility of the problem of racism against the AAPI community. Choi and Kulkarni expressed that public officials at every government level should be doing more to combat the issue and spread awareness of how common violence and bias against the AAPI community is an essential step in achieving that. Choi called for the support and funding of community groups on the ground who are already working to combat racism and violence. Groups like these, she said, are typically the “first responders” in all racist incidents, including the one in Atlanta. Kulkarni, meanwhile, emphasized the importance of cities implementing resources and services for dealing with incidents of bias and hate that don’t involve a criminal aspect. 

“90% or more of what’s reported to us does not involve an underlying criminal element. It’s a hate incident and not a hate crime,” Kulkarni said. Unlike hate crimes, hate incidents involve noncriminal discriminatory actions, such as making an insult or making fun of someone’s culture. “So we really need to look at broader solutions outside just simply the law enforcement context.”

For instance, Kulkarni said that in LA, noncriminal cases of bias are referred to 211, and she encouraged the implementation of this nationwide. All cities and counties, she said, can implement human resources commissions and civil rights infrastructure that have the ability to respond to noncriminal instances of bias against marginalized people. 

“We’ve seen in a lot of metropolitan areas that when police become the only option for people to call, there actually isn’t resolution,” she said. 

When an audience member asked what the rest of us (specifically allies) can do to help, Choi referred to the SAAPIH website's resources at stopaapihate.org. She urged people to promote their reporting center, emphasizing that you don’t have to be Asian American or Pacific Islander to report a bias incident. Kulkarni recommended attending local public meetings, such as city council meetings or school meetings, to weigh in on matters related to race and marginalized communities and advocate for more education and resources to protect them. 

Kulkarni made her last piece of advice to allies simple: “Say something when you see something.”