Survey: 22% of Americans Have Experienced a Hate Crime
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Although Americans of all races report experiencing hate crimes, Black and multiracial people experienced the most and white respondents the least, according to a new report.
A report from researchers at AAPI Data shows that 22% of more than 16,000 people surveyed said they had been victims of a hate crime, meaning were verbally or physically abused or that their property was damaged because of their race or ethnicity.
However, some groups experienced hate crimes disproportionately: 34% of Black and 34% of multliracial respondents said they were victims of hate crimes, while Asian Americans (27%), Latinx (27%), Native Americans (25%) and Pacific Islanders (24%) experienced hate crimes at similar rates. Only 17% of whites surveyed said they had been the victim of a hate crime.
The SurveyMonkey/AAPI Data survey results come on the heels of rising incidents of hate crimes against Asian Americans, including a recent mass shooting in Atlanta that included six Asian American women, and heightened national interest in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, which sparked major racial protests throughout the country last summer.
In the survey, when asked if people have acted if they were afraid of you, nearly half of Black respondents said yes, followed by Pacific Islanders (38%), multiracial (30%), Native Americans (29%), Latinx (24%), Asian Americans (18%) and whites (15%).
About six in 10 Asian Americans reported being asked where they are from, assuming that they were not from the U.S. Roughly one-third of those in the Native American, Black and multiracial communities said people have questioned their country of birth as well, and 51% of Pacific Islanders and Latinix respondents reported the same thing. Only 7% of whites said they were asked what country they were from.
The researchers said that the myth of the “perpetual foreigner” remains strongly associated with Asian Americans. This is reflected in the recent street crimes against Asian Americans, including where bystanders look on. Also, systemic violence by police remains a constant threat for Black people in the U.S., authors Janelle Wong and Karthick Ramakrishnan wrote.
The survey was conducted online March 18 to 25 with a total sample of 16,336 adults ages 18 and older living in the U.S. Respondents included an oversample of Asian Americans (1,831), Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders (186), Black (1,848), Latinx (1,278) and Native Americans (265).
More information about the survey can be found here.
Brent Woodie is an associate editor at Route Fifty.
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