A new survey released Wednesday shows a staggering 49% of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were victims of a hate act in the U.S. last year, much of it happening under the radar amid a drop in national scrutiny and lack of reporting to law enforcement.
A wave of high-profile hate crimes at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic drew national ire over anti-Asian attacks. But the new survey, shared exclusively with USA TODAY, shows that the Asian American community faces pervasive levels of hate under the radar, from parking lots and public transit to workplaces and colleges.
The report by Stop AAPI Hate and the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago − set to be released Wednesday afternoon at a news briefing in Washington with members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus − surveyed 1,005 Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adults across the nation. The report found that nearly half of respondents faced discrimination in 2023, but they also fought against it at unprecedented levels.
Rep. Judy Chu, who chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, told USA TODAY the report helps fill a data “vacuum” and will inform lawmakers and the public on trends of anti-Asian racism in the future. She noted a spike in hate incidents against Asians when COVID-19 first spread and said former President Donald Trump “put a target on our backs” through inflammatory rhetoric.
Stephanie Chan, director of data and research at Stop AAPI Hate, told USA TODAY that rhetoric around COVID-19 spotlighted a history of racism against the Asian community. She said there has been a shift in the rhetoric that is fueling anti-Asian hate, from pandemic-related accusations to more general xenophobic and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Stop AAPI Hate co-founder Manjusha Kulkarni noted that the forms of anti-Asian racism may be shifting from individual assaults on people in the early years of the pandemic to a rise in institutional discrimination. The survey found that 51% of victims experienced hate in a business, work, housing, health care, educational or government setting.
“Hate is a bigger problem than just simply hate crimes,” Kulkarni said.
Just this month, the House passed a bill aimed at reviving the “China Initiative,” a Trump-era surveillance program to prosecute perceived Chinese spies. The Justice Department axed it in 2022, saying it fostered anti-Asian bias and discouraged U.S. efforts to attract top scientists for crucial research across business and academia.
