Stand Against Hatred is the first comprehensive tracker of Asian-American hate crimes
Much of the fallout of the 2016 election won’t be totally quantifiable for a while. But unfortunately, there’s one stat that’s been steadily rising since November: That of hate crimes. Hate crimes are defined as such:
“a crime motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, typically one involving violence”
In the first ten days alone after November 8, the Southern Poverty Law Center counted over 800 incidents. These incidences cover a variety of marginalized identities. But, it’s anti-Muslim hate groups and hate crimes that have had the sharpest rise. Anti-Muslim hate groups tripled through 2016, with hate crimes rising by 67%.
The new organization Stand Against Hatred enters this political landscape. Stand Against Hatred has one goal: To become the first tracker of Asian-American hate crimes.
The non-profit Asian Americans For Justice (AAFJ) launched Stand Against Hatred shortly before January’s inauguration. The project aims to document instances of hate crimes against all Asian-Americans, which does include much of the Muslim community. Though it’s unclear how many submissions Stand Against Hatred have collected already, three are public now. All of them demonstrate an attitude AAFJ director John Yang describes as the view of Asians as “perpetual foreigner[s].”
AAFJ plans to share this information with the SPLC to build a comprehensive record of hate crimes against Asian-Americans. And though we wish this kind of project wasn’t necessary in 2017, it’s important to rise to the problems we do face now, rather than the imaginary ones that seem to grip “our” leader.
