(KGTV) — A new report released on Thursday found that more than 9,000 anti-Asian incidents, from taunts to assaults, were reported in the U.S. since March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic began.
The report by the nationwide coalition Stop AAPI Hate included data on racially motivated attacks related to the pandemic, totaling 9,081 incidents between March 2020 and June 2021.
Of those incidents, 4,548 occurred last year and 4,533 in this year alone. Stats in the report include:
- Verbal harassment: 63.7%
- Shunning: 16.5%
- Occurred on public streets: 31.6%
- Occurred in businesses: 30.1%
- In 48.1% of reports, at least one hateful statement regarding anti-China and/or anti-immigrant rhetoric was made
- Women targeted at a disproportionate rate (63.3% of all reports)
One of those incidents, the report cited several first-hand accounts of AAPI hate, including an incident from Fallbrook:
"I was out on a COVID leave and the day before my return, I was notified that I was not allowed to go on work property or contact any employees and they put me on administrative leave for no reason. They ended up transferring me 1 1/2 hours away without hiring another nurse to take my position, and left my site without a licensed nurse. When I arrived at my new site, I was taken to a room and given no work duties. There was a noose-like rope hanging next to my chair."
Since the COVID-19 pandemic started last year and was traced back to China, thousands of incidents across the U.S. have been reported of people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent being treated as scapegoats based on their race.
"Our data clearly shows that Asian Americans across the country continue to be attacked, and that the hate incidents that we have been tracking since March 2020 are not going away," said Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and executive director of Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council.
In California, $156.5 million has been allocated to the state's API Equity Budget to provide victim services and prevention to largely community-based organizations.
