How Asian Americans Fought Back Against Hate – and Won

Congress determined that hate crimes have reverberating effects, not only for the targeted community but also for the nation. The Supreme Court has held that the widespread, systemic effects of hate crimes are significant enough to justify the use of enhanced sentences. . . . Additionally, these enhanced sentences for hate crimes are often seen as symbolically important because these laws have a signaling effect in sending a “message to society that criminal acts based upon hatred will not be tolerated.”

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, The Federal Response to Anti-Asian Racism in the United States (Sept. 2023).^[1]

I am proud to serve with Brian Cohen as co-chairs of the NYSBA Task Force on Antisemitism and Anti-Asian Hate. We are grateful to NYSBA President Richard Lewis for convening this task force of talented and dedicated individuals and for shining a spotlight on this pressing problem.

For decades the dominant narrative about Asian Americans has been that they are a “model minority,” not subject to the same discrimination and other tribulations to which other diverse groups are subject.^[2] This oversimplified stereotype was shattered during the pandemic when hate crimes against Asian Americans soared by 800% in the first year of the pandemic.^[3] As a result, as the U.S. Congress stated: “Following the spread of COVID-19 in 2020, there has been a dramatic increase in hate crimes and violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islander . . . [An] alarming surge in anti-Asian hate.”^[4]

The Response to Anti-Asian Hate Crimes

The Atlanta spa murders in March 2021, in which six Asian spa workers were murdered, catalyzed the nation’s attention on the problem of anti-Asian hate crimes.^[5]

On March 18, 2021, for the first time in more than 30 years, a congressional hearing on discrimination against Asians was conducted.^[6] On May 20, 2021, approximately two months after the Atlanta spa murders, President Biden signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act in recognition of the dramatic increase in hate crimes and violence against AAPI victims. The legislation, introduced by U.S. Rep. Grace Meng and Sen. Mazie Hirono, improved reporting of hate crimes, expedited the review of hate crimes related to COVID-19 and authorized grants to state and local governments to conduct hate crime-reduction programs.^[7]

This hate crime legislation was passed on a fast track on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis with majorities of 94-1 in the Senate and 364-62 in the House during a period when bipartisanship was rare. As President Biden remarked, the legislation represented “a significant break” in an otherwise hyper-partisan political climate.^[8]

The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act has been described as “the single most significant piece of legislation to improve federal hate crime data since the Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990,” according to Michael Lieberman, Southern Poverty Law Center senior policy counsel for hate and extremism.^[9]

How was such a bipartisan result possible, and what are the lessons for future hate crimes legislation?

First, the crisis atmosphere surrounding the Atlanta spa murders undoubtedly played a decisive role.^[10] As the Asian American Bar Association of New York chronicled, President Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Representatives Grace Meng, Judy Chu, Young Kim and Ted Lieu issued statements supporting the Asian American community.^[11] In New York City, the issue of anti-Asian hate incidents became a campaign topic in the mayoral and the Manhattan district attorney races, with all candidates pledging to invest resources and attention to combating hate.

Notably before the spa murders, in 2020, there was significant opposition to even non-binding resolutions condemning anti-Asian hate crimes.^[12] The Atlanta murders provided an impetus for hate crimes legislation that did not previously exist.

Second, Asian American lawmakers played a pivotal role in securing the passage of the act. Asian American Representatives, most notably Rep. Grace Meng, spearheaded the historic March 2020 congressional hearing, the first hearing held on Asian hate crimes in 30 years. Congresswoman Meng focused on the Atlanta murders, noting “we saw the terrible news about the six Asian women who were shot and killed in the Atlanta area. Our community is bleeding, we are in pain, and for the last year, we’ve been screaming out for help.”^[13]

Third, a broad coalition of Asian and non-Asian groups supported the act. The legislation was endorsed by Asian Americans Advancing Justice, National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations, Oxfam America and Muslim Advocates.^[14]

Among the non-Asian groups supporting the act were the Anti-Defamation League, the American Civil Liberties Union,^[15] the American Medical Association,^[16] the National Education Association^[17] and Amnesty USA.^[18] ADL in particular “advocated tirelessly for these bills, including by organizing petitions in support, which have garnered thousands of signatures.”^[19]

Fourth, bar associations added their voices in support of the Asian American community. Before the passage of the 2021 legislation, the National Asian Pacific Bar Association and the Asian American Bar Association of New York, the American Bar Association^[20] and the New York County Lawyers Association,^[21] as well as a coalition of diverse bar associations,^[22] condemned the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes. Notably, the National Asian Bar sponsored a historic resolution in the ABA House of Delegates urging action on Asian hate crimes.^[23]

The New York State Bar Association convened this task force partially in response to the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes.

In short, the combination of a crisis atmosphere and strong leadership from a broad coalition of elected officials and Asian and non-Asian groups, including bar associations, helped produce the historic 2021 hate crimes legislation.

The History of Anti-Asian Hate Crimes

The 2021 legislation followed centuries of inattention to hate crimes against Asian Americans.

As Second Circuit Senior Judge Denny Chin and Kathy Hirata Chin emphasized: “This is nothing new, for there is a long history of hostility and violence against Asian Americans in this country, a history that is not well known.”^[24] As U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gonzalez noted: “From the LA Chinese massacre of 1871 to the murder of Vincent Chin, anti-Asian hate has been a stain on our nation’s history.”^[25] Harvard’s Courtney Saito explained that Asians have often been scapegoated during times of national distress: “This is really not an exceptional moment by any means . . . But it’s really part of a much longer genealogy of anti-Asian violence that reaches as far back as the 19th century.”^[26] As Judge Chin and Kathy Chin documented,^[27] anti-Asian hate crimes took such forms as:

• The October 24, 1871 lynching of at least 18 Chinese Americans (10% of the Chinese American population of Los Angeles at the time) by a mob of hundreds.
• The murders of 28 Chinese coal miners on September 2, 1885, in Rock Springs, in what was then the Wyoming territory.
• The massacre in 1887 in Hells Canyon, Oregon, in which at least 31 Chinese miners were murdered, their gold stolen, their camps burned, and their bodies thrown into the Snake River.
• The attacks on Vietnamese fishermen in 1981 by the Ku Klux Klan in Galveston.
• The brutal murder of Vincent Chin in 1982 in Detroit at a time when American auto companies in Detroit were threatened by competition from Asian companies.

Specific Instances of Recent Anti-Asian Hate Crimes

The foregoing instances of anti-Asian hate are not often taught in our nation’s classrooms. Before the pandemic, hate crimes against Asian Americans were generally underreported and under-recognized. However, recent hate crimes perpetrated against Asian Americans have been so widespread and so brutal that they have been impossible to ignore. From New York to San Francisco, hate crimes against Asians erupted nationwide, accompanied by denunciations of Asians as responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.^[28] And anti-Asian hate crimes did not stop when the pandemic did. The following is a small sampling of some of the most brutal, and/or most recent, anti-Asian hate crimes in New York City alone over roughly the last two years. (Over 40% of the anti-Asian hate crimes in large cities nationwide took place in New York City in one recent time period.^[29])

• On Oct. 19, 2023, Jasmer Singh, an Indian American Sikh man, was beaten to death in a New York road rage attack. His family seeks hate crime charges against the killer.^[30]
• On Sept. 2, 2023, a crime suspect caught on camera in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, yelled anti-Asian remarks at a man, then hit him with a stick repeatedly before running off.^[31]
• On Aug. 7, 2023, an Asian woman from Nevada was punched repeatedly as “anti-ethnic remarks” were directed toward her on a Manhattan subway train.^[32]
• On May 23, 2023, an indictment was handed down for an Asian hate crime in Koreatown in which an Asian man was pulled out of his car and assaulted. The man sustained bruising, pain in his elbow, a cut on his knee and a laceration on his forehead.^[33]
• On March 2, 2023, an 18-year-old woman grabbed Cecile Lai, pulled her to the ground and punched and kicked her, according to the district attorney’s office. A 44-year-old male bystander tried to pull her off the victim and then was himself attacked by two men who were with her. Before leaving the scene, the assailants’ SUV swerved and came within inches of the female victim.^[34]
• On Feb. 27, 2022, during a three-hour period, seven Asian American Pacific Islander women were attacked in seven separate incidents in midtown Manhattan.^[35]
• On Feb. 22, 2022, GuiYing Ma died from her injuries after she was smashed in the head with a rock in Queens.^[36]
• In February 2022, Christina Yuna Lee was followed and then stabbed more than 40 times in her apartment in Manhattan’s Chinatown.^[37]
• On Jan. 15, 2022, Michelle Go died when she was shoved to her death in front of a moving subway train.^[38]
• In July 2021, Than Than Htwe died from head injuries after an attempted robbery caused her to fall down subway stairs.^[39]
• On April 23, 2021, Yao Pan Ma was stomped on the head and killed in Harlem.^[40]
• In May 2021, a video showed a stranger attacking an Asian woman with a hammer in Manhattan. The victim was hospitalized with head lacerations.^[41]

The foregoing list is, unfortunately, far from exhaustive. Scores of other hate crimes took place before, during and after the roughly two-year time period covered above. This list is confined to New York City and thus does not cover crimes such as the 2022 Atlanta spa murders.^[42]

Statistical Analysis of Recent Anti-Asian Hate Crimes

The evidence of hate crimes and hate incidents directed against Asian Americans is not merely anecdotal. While hate crimes and hate incidents are notoriously underreported, particularly when they were committed against Asian Americans,^[43] statistical evidence further demonstrates the magnitude of the problem.

One group studied internet activity and reported a rise of 1,662% in anti-Asian hate speech in 2020 compared with 2019. This peaked with the announcement of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[44]

At the most basic level, public opinion poll data sheds light on the statistical scope of the hate crime problem, showing that 1 out of 4 Asians has experienced a hate incident.^[45] And these statistics carry over into 2023. About 2 in 10 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (23%) say they have experienced being verbally harassed or abused in the last year, and 22% have been called a racial or ethnic slur.^[46]

Earlier surveys showed that fully one-third of Asian Americans feared threats and physical attacks and most said violence against them was rising.^[47] A joint report by Columbia University and Committee of 100 found that about 3 out of 10 of the nearly 6,500 Chinese Americans it surveyed in 2022 were verbally or physically harassed.^[48] Stop AAPI Hate reported about 11,500 acts of hate between March 2020 and 2022.^[49] More than half of Asian respondents report that they know someone who has been victimized.^[50]

The foregoing data relates to hate incidents, which are not necessarily hate crimes, but the statistics on hate crimes are equally alarming. In 2021, 746 anti-Asian hate crimes were reported to the FBI by law enforcement agencies. Reports of hate crimes against Asian Americans jumped 342% from 2020 to 2021, continuing a pattern from the previous year: Anti-Asian crimes increased 124% between 2019 and 2020.^[51] The Bureau of Justice Assistance reported that the first quarter increases in 2021 followed a “historic surge” in anti-Asian hate crimes that started in 2020, with anti-Asian hate crimes increasing 149% in 16 of the largest cities.^[52]

The Asian American Bar Association of New York, including our task force members, Professor Elaine Chiu and Chris Kwok, performed perhaps the most extensive statistical analysis of anti-Asian hate crimes, thoroughly reviewing over 200 New York City cases. Notably, the study found that assault was the most common offense – 58% of all incidents – indicating that hate crimes are generally serious violent crimes. But the study found that prosecution of hate crimes remains difficult. Out of the 64 criminal prosecutions the database studied, only seven resulted in hate crime convictions. At the time, 20 other prosecutions were still pending.^[53]

The Profound Effect of Hate Crimes on Asian American Communities

The surge in hate crimes has resulted in fear and isolation in Asian American communities:

“For the Asian American communities that are experiencing this, it just feels like an all-out assault,” said William Ming Liu, PhD, a counseling psychologist and chair of the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education at the University of Maryland.

Early research has linked the uptick in anti-Asian discrimination to increases in anxiety, depressive symptoms, and sleep problems among those who are targeted.^[54]

A recent study showed that “having experienced or witnessed a hate crime incident was associated with higher levels of serious psychological distress . . . [and] having had to forgo necessary care . . .” ^[55] Another study that surveyed over 5000 people, including 575 Asians, found that more than 72% of AAPIs who experienced a hate incident believed that anti-Asian discrimination is the greatest source of stress^[56] and 70% of AANHPIs believed that discrimination against Asians became more common during the pandemic,^[57]

As a result of the fear and stress arising from anti-Asian hate, many AAPI persons changed their behavior in response to bias-motivated attacks and harassment, including closing shops early, avoiding community events or public transportation. Some opted not to report incidents to the police because they feel that their concerns would not be adequately addressed.^[58] Stop AAPI Hate commissioned a nationally representative survey of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and found that 45% indicated discrimination negatively changed their sense of belonging, and 31% stated that discrimination impacted their behavior, such as causing them to switch schools, jobs or where they shop.^[59]

Conclusion

Our task force is studying further ways to address hate crime and will report to the NYSBA House of Delegates in 2024. Although the hate crime epidemic of 2020–22 against Asian Americans has subsided somewhat, hate crimes persist, and we should continue to push for measures to address the scourge of hate crimes. As President Biden has stated:

For centuries, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders . . .  have helped build this nation only to be often stepped over, forgotten, or ignored . . . [they have] lived here for generations, but still considered, by some, the “other” . . . It’s wrong . . . it’s simply un-American.

Vince Chang is co-chair of the NYSBA Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Asian Hate and a partner at Wollmuth Maher & Deutsch. He is immediate past president of the New York County Lawyers Association, past president of the Asian American Bar Association of New York, member of the NYSBA Task Force on Advancing Diversity, co-chair of the New York Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, and member of the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary.

[1] The commission cited 18 U.S.C. § 249; Wisconsin v. Mitchell, 508 U.S. 476, 487–88 (1993) (holding that “bias-motivated crimes are more likely to provoke retaliatory crimes . . . and incite community unrest”); Valerie Jenness and Ryken Grattet, Making Hate a Crime: From Social Movement to Law Enforcement, Russell Sage Foundation (2002), 3.

[2] “Though sometimes understood as a positive preconception, the model minority stereotype erases lived experiences and collapses members of heterogenous groups into an inauthentic, Pan-Asian caricature.” U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, The Federal Response to Anti-Asian Racism in the United States (Sept 2023), citing Robert G. Lee, Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture, Philadelphia: Temple University Press (1999); see also, Yuko Kawai, Stereotyping Asian Americans: The Dialectic of the Model Minority and the Yellow Peril, Howard Journal of Communications, vol. 16, no. 2, 2005.

[3] Rep. Grace Meng: How to Stop the Hate, Clinton Foundation podcast, Mar. 18, 2021, https://www.clintonfoundation.org/podcast/rep-grace-meng-how-to-stop-the-hate/.

[4] S. 937 – COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/937/text.

[5]  Nicole Chavez and Natasha Chen, Assaulted. Harassed. This Is the Reality for Asian Americans a Year After the Atlanta Spa Shootings, CNN, Mar. 16, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/16/us/atlanta-spa-shootings-anniversary/index.html.

[6]  Lisa Desjardins and Patty Gorena Morales, Congress Holds First Hearing on Asian American Violence in Decades Amid ‘Crisis Point,’ PBS, Mar. 18, 2021, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/congress-holds-first-hearing-on-asian-american-violence-in-decades-amid-crisis-point.

[7] S. 937 – COVID-19 Hate Crimes Bill, https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=20784480-bills-117s9.

[8] Libby Cathey, Biden Signs Anti-Asian Hate Crime Bill Marking ‘Significant Break’ in Partisanship, ABC News, May 20, 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-sign-anti-asian-hate-crime-bill-law/story?id=77801857.

[9] Rhonda Sonnenberg, One Year Later: COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act a Promising Work in Progress, SPL Center, May 20, 2022, https://www.splcenter.org/news/2022/05/20/one-year-later-covid-19-hate-crimes-act-promising-work-progress.

[10] Chavez and Chen, supra note 5.

[11] A Rising Tide of Hate and Violence Against Asian Americans in New York During Covid-19: Impact, Causes, Solutions, Asian Am. Bar Ass’n of N.Y. & Paul Weiss (2021) (hereinafter AABANY REPORT), https://www.aabany.org/resource/resmgr/press_releases/2021/A_Rising_Tide_of_Hate_and_Vi.pdf, at 9.

[12] Saloni Gajjar, Asian Americans Call Out Republicans Who Opposed Anti-Racism Measure, NBC News, Sept. 23, 2020, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/asian-americans-call-out-republicans-who-opposed-anti-racism-measure-n1240870

[13] House Hearing on Discrimination and Violence Against Asian Americans Transcript March 18

[14] Press Release: Meng Introduces Legislation to Combat COVID-19 Hate Crimes, Congresswoman Grace Meng, May 7, 2020, https://meng.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/meng-introduces-legislation-to-combat-covid-19-hate-crimes.

[15] Press Release: ACLU Statement on Senate Passage of COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, ACLU, Apr. 22, 2021, https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-statement-senate-passage-covid-19-hate-crimes-act.

[16]. Kevin B. O’Reilly, Bill Targets Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Tied to COVID-19, AMA, May 4, 2021, https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/population-care/bill-targets-anti-asian-hate-crimes-tied-covid-19.

[17]. Letter: Pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act (S 937), NEA, https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/action-center/letters-testimony/pass-covid-19-hate-crimes-act-s-937.

[18]. Press Release: The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act and NO HATE ACT Are Critical to Ensure the Justice System Will Address Hate Crimes, Amnesty Int’l, Apr. 15, 2021, https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/the-covid-19-hate-crimes-act-and-no-hate-act-are-critical-to-ensure-the-justice-system-will-address-hate-crimes/.

[19] Press Release: ADL Applauds Bipartisan U.S. Senate Passage of COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act and No Hate Act, Anti-Defamation League, Apr. 22, 2021, https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/adl-applauds-bipartisan-us-senate-passage-covid-19-hate-crimes-act-and-no.

[20]. Statement of ABA President Patricia Lee Refo Re: Bias and Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans, ABA, Mar. 13, 2021, https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2021/03/statement-of-aba-president-patricia-lee-refo-re–bias-and-hate-c/.

[21]. NYCLA Statement on Violence Against Asian Americans, NYCLA, Aug. 1, 2022, https://www.nycla.org/resource/statement-letter/nycla-statement-on-violence-against-asian-americans/.

[22]. National Diverse Bars Condemn Recent Acts of Anti-Asian Hate, Nat’l Native American Bar Assoc., Apr. 2021, https://www.nativeamericanbar.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/20210401-National-Diverse-Bars-Condemn-Recent-Acts-of-Anti-Asian-Hate.pdf.

[23]. NAPABA Co-Sponsors Resolution on Hate Crimes Adopted by the ABA in Historic First, NAPABA, Aug. 10, 2021, https://www.napaba.org/news/583940/NAPABA-Co-Sponsors-Resolution-on-Hate-Crimes-Adopted-by-the-ABA-in-Historic-First.htm.

[24]. The Honorable Denny Chin & Kathy Hirata Chin, “Kung Flu”: A History of Hostility and Violence Against Asian Americans, 90 Fordham L. Rev. 1889 (2022), https://fordhamlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Chin_April.pdf. See also Gillian Brockell, The Long, Ugly History of Anti-Asian Racism And Violence in the U.S., Wash. Post, Mar. 18, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/03/18/history-anti-asian-violence-racism/.

[25] Press Release: Rep. Gomez, Ambassador Tai Hold Roundtable Discussion With Ca-34 Congressional Task Force To Stop Anti-Asian Hate And Violence, Rep. Jimmy Gomez, May 6, 2022, https://gomez.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?Documentid=2632.

[26] Liz Mineo, The Scapegoating of Asian Americans, Harvard Gazette, Mar. 24, 2021, https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/03/a-long-history-of-bigotry-against-asian-americans/.

[27] The Honorable Denny Chin & Kathy Hirata Chin “Kung Flu”: A History of Hostility and Violence Against Asian Americans, 90 Fordham L. Rev. 1889 (2022). https://fordhamlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Chin_April.pdf.

[28] According to the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), anti-Asian hate crimes rose 164% in 16 of the largest cities and counties in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. Bureau of Justice Assistance, Dep’t of Justice, Interrogatory Responses to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Mar. 16, 2023, at 5.

[29] 47 of the anti-Asian hate crimes in the first quarter of 2021 out of a total of 110 in the nation’s largest cities took place in New York City. https://www.csusb.edu/sites/default/files/AAPI%20City%20Chart_As%20of%20May%2028%202021%205%20PM.docx.

[30] Amanda Woods, Sikh Man, 66, Beaten to Death in Road Rage Attack; Family Calls for Hate Crime Charges, N.Y. Post, Oct. 23, 2023, https://nypost.com/2023/10/23/metro/sikh-man-66-beaten-to-death-in-nyc-road-rage-attack-cops/.

[31] Hate Crime Suspect Caught on Camera in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, KION, Sept. 6, 2023, https://kion546.com/cnn-regional/2023/09/06/hate-crime-suspect-caught-on-camera-in-prospect-park-brooklyn/.

[32] Allie Griffin, Teen Girl Allegedly Slugs Asian Woman, Attacks Witness in Possible Hate Crime on NYC Subway, N.Y. Post, Aug. 7, 2023, https://nypost.com/2023/08/07/teen-girl-allegedly-slugs-asian-woman-in-possible-hate-crime-on-nyc-subway/.

[33] Brahmjot Kaur, Man Indicted on a Charge of Anti-Asian Hate Crime in NYC Koreatown Attack, NBC News, Aug. 16, 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/man-indicted-anti-asian-hate-crime-nyc-koreatown-attack-rcna100214.

[34] Peter C. Mastrosimone, Two Arrests Made in Anti-Asian Attack, Queens Chronicle, Mar. 16, 2023, https://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/two-arrests-made-in-anti-asian-attack/article_f6d97b2c-b916-509d-a4de-233a801312d6.html#.

[35] Marlene Lenthang and Tim Fitzsimons, NYPD Arrests Suspect in 7 Attacks Against Asian Women on Same Day, NBC News, Mar. 9, 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/man-wanted-7-attacks-asian-women-1-day-nypd-says-rcna18247.

[36] Amir Vera and Liam Reilly, Asian Woman Attacked Last Year in New York by Man With Rock Has Died, Family Says, CNN, Feb. 28, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/28/us/guiying-ma-death-new-york-asian-hate-crime/index.html.

[37] Stef Manisero, NYPD: Man Charged With Murder in Stabbing Death of Woman in Chinatown, NY1, Feb. 13, 2022, https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2022/02/13/woman-fatally-stabbed-chinatown.

[38] Myles Miller, Asian Woman Pushed to Her Death in Front of Oncoming Train at Times Square Station, NBC News, Jan. 15, 2022, https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/woman-killed-after-being-pushed-onto-tracks-at-times-square-subway-station/3497589/.

[39] Than Than Htwe Dies After Being Critically Injured in Subway Robbery Attempt, CBS News, July 28, 2021, https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/newyork/news/family-says-than-than-htwe-woman-critically-injured-in-subway-robbery-attempt-wont-make-it-out-of-this/.

[40] Artemis Moshtaghian, An Asian Man Injured in an Unprovoked Attack in New York Last April Has Died, Officials Say, CNN, Jan. 9, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/09/us/asian-man-new-york-attack-death/index.html.

[41] Emily Shapiro, Suspect Caught on Video Attacking Asian Woman With Hammer in New York City, ABC News, May 4, 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/US/suspect-caught-video-attacking-asian-woman-hammer-york/story?id=77482337.

[42] Alexis Stevens, Spa Shootings: A Timeline of Events That Left 8 Dead in Metro Atlanta, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Mar. 15, 2022, https://www.ajc.com/news/spa-shootings-a-timeline-of-events-that-left-8-dead-in-metro-atlanta/UH5ZJVXV3FCY3LUPW4T6CUCSC4/.

[43] In 2020, nearly 25% of large cities did not report any hate crimes. This likely reflects an issue with reporting, as it is “a statistical near-impossibility” that none of those cities experienced a single hate crime in that year. U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, The Federal Response to Anti-Asian Racism in the United States at 9 (Sept 2023).

Only about half of states have laws that require the state to collect and analyze data on hate crimes via mandatory reporting from law enforcement agencies. The problem of underreporting is more severe in Asian communities. See Catherine Thorbecke, Why Anti-Asian Hate Incidents Often Go Unreported and How To Help, ABC News, Mar. 18, 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/US/anti-asian-hate-incidents-unreported/story?id=76509072.

The Asian American Bar Association discussed the problem of underreporting of hate crimes in Asian American communities. AABANY REPORT.

[44] Emma Woollacott, Anti-Asian Hate Speech Rocketed 1,662% Last Year, Forbes, Nov. 15, 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2021/11/15/anti-asian-hate-speech-rocketed-1662-last-year.

[45] Poll: 1 out of 4 Asian Americans Has Experienced a Hate Incident, Axios, Mar. 30, 2021.https://www.axios.com/2021/03/30/poll-1-in-4-asian-americans-experience-hate-incident.

[46] Terry Tang and Linley Sanders, 1 in 3 US Asians and Pacific Islanders Faced Racial Abuse This Year, AP-NORC/AAPI Data Poll Shows, WNCT, Nov. 14, 2023, https://www.wnct.com/news/politics/ap-1-in-3-us-asians-and-pacific-islanders-faced-racial-abuse-this-year-ap-norc-aapi-data-poll-shows/.

[47] Pew Research Center, Apr. 21, 2021.

[48] The Fight for Representation: The State of Chinese Americans 2022, Committee of 100, Columbia University,

https://www.committee100.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Comm100.23_SOCA_FullReport_V4_FINALsm.pdf.

[49] Data from Momentum and AAPI Data found 10% of AAPIs reported being a victim of a hate crime or hate incident in the March 2021 survey. Their March 2022 survey shows that 15% of AAPI adults had reported the same experience. aapidata.com/blog/discrimination-survey-2022/.

[50] Brendan Lantz and Marin R. Wenger, Anti-Asian Xenophobia, Hate Crime Victimization, and Fear of Victimization During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Nat’l Library of Medicine, May 11, 2022,

Similarly, approximately 30% reported fear or worry about being the victim of a hate incident. Neil G. Ruiz, Khadijah Edwards and Mark Hugo Lopez, One-Third of Asian Americans Fear Threats, Physical Attacks and Most Say Violence Against Them Is Rising, Pew Research Center, Apr. 21, 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/04/21/one-third-of-asian-americans-fear-threats-physical-attacks-and-most-say-violence-against-them-is-rising/. About 75% of Asians believe that the United States has become more dangerous for their racial/ethnic group (AA & NHPI COVID-19 Needs Assessment Project).

[51] Rachel Tillman, Hate Crimes Rose 44% Last Year in Study of Major Cities, NY1, Feb. 14, 2022, https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2022/02/14/hate-crime-increase-2021-asian-american-. See also Kimmy Yam, NYPD Reports 361 Percent Increase in Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Since Last Year, NBC News, Dec. 10, 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/nypd-reports-361-percent-increase-anti-asian-hate-crimes-last- year-rcna8427.

[52] Bureau of Justice Assistance, Dep’t of Justice, Interrogatory Responses to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Mar. 16, 2023, at 5.

[53] AABANY Report at 5.

[54] Zara Abrams, The Mental Health Impact of Anti-Asian Racism, APA, July 1, 2021, https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/07/impact-anti-asian-racism.

[55] Id.

[56] https://stopaapihate.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Stop-AAPI-Hate-Mental-Health-Report-210527.pdf.

[57] Riti Shimkhada and Ninez A. Ponce, Surveying Hate and Its Effects During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Asian Americans and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, Am. J. Public Health, Oct. 2022, 112(10): 1446–53, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9480473. (Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders COVID-19 Study).

[58] AABANY Report at 12.

[59] Barriers to Justice: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Want Greater Protection of Their Civil Rights, NORC, May 2023, https://norc.org/content/dam/norc-org/pdfs/AAPI_Civil_Rights_Report_FINAL.pdf.