By Arie Perliger
It’s widely known that Asian Americans felt – and were – persecuted during the pandemic. But the extent of this violence, and its uneven geographic distribution across the U.S., is now much clearer, thanks to research I conducted with collaborators at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and the independent research firm Development Services Group.
The Asian American-Pacific Islander Equity Alliance, a nonprofit based in California, has collected reports of 10,370 “hate incidents” from March 2020 through September 2021. The categories of those incidents include verbal harassment, refusal of service at a business and online abuse, as well as assaults and property damage.
My collaborators and I looked more specifically at violent attacks against Asian Americans or their property from 1990 to 2021. In the 30 years before the pandemic, we identified public reports of 210 anti-Asian violent attacks in total, an average of 8.1 per year. But during 2020 and 2021, there were 163 attacks, averaging out to 81.5 a year – or more than 11 times the previous average.
Pandemic sparks violence
Minorities and other vulnerable groups have been targeted for persecution during public health crises throughout history. In 14th-century Europe, Jews were blamed for the bubonic plague. In 1900, Chinese people were unfairly blamed for a plague outbreak in San Francisco’s Chinatown. And in the 1980s, Haitians were wrongly blamed for bringing HIV/AIDS to the U.S.
Our data found that before 2020, the average number of Asian Americans killed or injured in anti-Asian attacks was just over eight per year. In 2020 and 2021, however, 49 were physically harmed, an average of almost 25 per year.
We found that almost half of the anti-Asian attacks in 2020 and 2021 were motivated, at least partially, by anger and animosity associated with COVID-19, a disease first identified in Asia. For instance, in June 2020, an Asian restaurant in New Jersey was vandalized with graffiti reading “coronavirus” and “COVID-19.” And in February 2021, Denny Kim, a 27-year-old Korean American veteran of the U.S. Air Force, was beaten by two men who shouted anti-Asian slurs at him and called him “Chinese virus.”
Continuing previous trends of violence
The additional anti-Asian attacks in 2020 and 2021 tended to be in the same places that had seen high levels of anti-Asian violence before the pandemic.
Before 2020, about half of these attacks happened in the New York City metropolitan area and in urban centers in California. During the pandemic, almost 60% of the attacks happened in those same regions. With higher numbers of Asian American residents, those might seem more likely places for anti-Asian violence to happen, but they aren’t home to 60% of Americans of Asian descent, so the level of anti-Asian violence is still disproportionately high.
Most anti-Asian violence, both before and during the pandemic, happened in urban and suburban areas in typically progressive states.
Regardless of when they happened, the attacks were of similar types as well. Before the pandemic, more than 70% of anti-Asian hate crimes targeted people of Asian descent personally, such as a 2016 attack on a Chinese exchange student by an alleged white supremacist.
About 20% of attacks were aimed against property owned or regularly used by Asian Americans, such as in 2008 when someone painted racist graffiti on a trash can behind an Asian market in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in a nearby park.
During the pandemic, the proportions were similar: About 60% of anti-Asian attacks were against people, and about one-third were against their property.
Some changes in trends, too
During the pandemic, more of the violence was spontaneous, rather than preplanned, than it had been before 2020, according to our analysis. Most other hate crimes are unplanned.
We also found that a higher proportion of attacks were carried out by a single person than had been normal before the pandemic.
Overall, our findings support and confirm the experiences of Asian Americans who reported being targeted by violence more often during the pandemic.
Arie Perliger is Director of Security Studies and Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.
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Jimbo99 says
So California & New York aren’t as tolerant as Texas & Florida ? Imagine that, the racism coming from those that claim they are more/most progressive ? Hover over the 4 states and look at the dates & actual numbers as Pink vs the Red. Why would they choose colors associated with Republican & conservative to represent where the Anti-Asian intolerance is happening ? Is that some lame attempt to tie racism back to R’s of Bush & Trump and not D’s of Clinton, Obama & Biden ?
Dennis says
Strong democratic populations. Doesn’t surprise me with all that hate.
Alonzo says
Look at those percentages of hate crimes against The Asians. What about the percentages of hate crimes against African Americsns. The common denominator here is white people are committing these crimes. Look at the history of this country, lynching, churches blown up, houses blown up against the Black Man from the White Man. This will never stop because the laws were made for the white man by the white man. In my opinion it got worse during the Trump years as Pres. The tide need to turn. Let the white man feel the pain of seeing your love ones being killed for nothing. Present day lynching against Black People. The Republican states probably don’t report the hate crimes like the Blue states. Please don’t paint the Asians as the only people that are targeted by the white people. Don’t pretend the red states are clean and never committ crimes against Asians. This is a way to get the Asian votes. Yall need to stop the half truths.
Alonzo says
To be completely honest, white people are not the only group committing crimes against Asians, other people are too. The majority of the crimes are committed by white folks against Asians and other groups of people.
Sherry says
We Must Never Forget trump’s role in Asian Attacks, along with the massive increase in gun ownership:
UNDER ATTACK: The deadly shooting rampage in Atlanta, which killed six Asian women and two others, has sparked a broader discussion about racial attacks, misogyny, inflammatory political rhetoric, mental health, and gun violence on the Hill.
Concerns that this shooting was a racially motivated crime renewed conversations about how lawmakers should respond to hate fueled attacks, specifically amid a surge in attacks in the U.S. against the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), who heads the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), blamed Donald Trump for his pandemic rhetoric after Robert Aaron Long, a white man, took eight lives on Tuesday: “[Trump] used these terms — China virus, Wuhan virus and even kung flu — and as a result the anti-Asian hate crimes and incidents increased exponentially,” she said during a Wednesday press conference.
Jackson1955 says
Over 4000 lynchings occurred primarily in RED States from 1900 to 1980. (A large portion of those RED States being in the South- you know- FL, GA, AL, MS,…..)
What does this say?
Please tell me?
Alonzo says
Good comment. They act like they forget about the lynching years. They act like Repubs, and white people are perfect. They are far from being good people, let alone perfect. Jackson 1955 thank you for the #s.
Mark says
“The common denominator here is white people are committing these crimes.” ? Pray tell, where do you get your facts?
Kjell says
“The deadly shooting rampage in Atlanta, [in] which…six [East] Asian women and two others [were killed]…”
By his own admission the killer targeted massage parlors because many of them are fronts for prostitution and he couldn’t stop himself from patronizing them. It just so happens that such businesses are owned and staffed by East Asians.
So much for your argument.