Anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States went up by a whopping 339% in 2021, according to a new report, with the majority of cases reported in Los Angeles and New York City.
The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism revealed on Monday that the number of such racial offenses boomed in 2021, with Los Angeles recording “the most hate crimes of any US city this century” in the past year alone.
New York City came second for the number of recorded anti-Asian hate incidents, experiencing a 343% rise from 30 reported cases to 133. Anti-Asian hate crimes in San Francisco went up in 2021 by an enormous 567%, from nine to 60 incidents. Hate crimes in 2020 were already elevated – up 124% in the US from 2019.
“Reports of increased anti-Asian hate in 2021 are, sadly, not a surprise,” said Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC) President John C. Yang in a statement. “Again, our communities are still under attack, and we must continue our efforts to address anti-Asian hate.”
Non-profit organization Stop AAPI Hate claimed last year that more than 9,000 incidents of anti-Asian hate had been recorded in the US since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some 48% of cases reportedly involved “at least one hateful statement regarding anti-China and/or anti-immigrant rhetoric,” while 8.5% of incidents consisted of being “coughed at or spat on.” In nearly 1% of cases, victims were associated by attackers with the Chinese Communist Party.