Assessing Impact of the Hope Against Hate Campaign
The rise in anti-Asian violence during the COVID-19 pandemic exposed both the deep roots of structural racism and the lack of resources for and information about Asian Americans experiencing anti-Asian bias incidents in New York City. Anti-Asian hate crimes reported to the NYPD rose from 28 in 2020 to 134 in 2021, an increase of 375%. In total, there have been 251 reported anti-Asian hate crimes to the NYPD from January 2020 to March 2023. However, hate crime and bias incident data released by the New York Police Department (NYPD) is just a fraction of actual incidents that have occurred. For Asian Americans, longstanding distrust of law enforcement, as well as language barriers and uncertain immigration status, are among the major deterrents to reporting a crime. To address these challenges to reporting, a number of local and national organizations, including the Asian American Federation (AAF), created online, self-reporting tools for victims of hate and bias incidents.
