By Carolyn Bick
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
One of the biggest mistaken assumptions Sim J. Singh Attariwala sees among the general public is the idea that anti-Asian hate crimes have subsided since the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the reality is much different. While hate crimes against Asians declined 6.8%, 2024 still marked the second-worst year for anti-Asian hate crimes on record. Anti-Asian hate crimes are at least three times as high as they were pre-pandemic, and have remained at elevated levels—and that’s just what’s been recorded in federal databases.
Attariwala is the director of the anti-hate program at Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, a group dedicated to working for equal and equitable treatment of Asian Americans.
In response to rampant anti-Asian sentiment, following racist political rhetoric pinning the COVID-19 pandemic to Asians and Asian Americans—particularly East Asians—Advancing Justice | AAJC started Stand Against Hatred, where community members could report potential hate crimes. It also started tracking the increase in hate crimes against the Asian American community, both through the website and through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s hate crimes database.
“When we look at the [pre-pandemic] data between 2013 to 2018, on average, we’re looking at about 133 incidents that were happening a year,” Attariwala said of the anti-Asian crimes recorded in the FBI’s hate crimes database. “And now we’re just at three times that, which tells us that we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to countering anti-Asian hate.”
But even the number of recorded crimes is fairly subjective, he said. The FBI only records crimes it receives from local law enforcement—and it’s not a sure bet that local law enforcement will report such crimes. Attariwala said that this happens even with law enforcement that serve populations of more than 100,000 people. This is “an extreme problem,” he said.
“There might be many reasons for that as to why some law enforcement agencies may not want to share their data. There could be this mistaken idea that if they share their data, that people will think that their locality may not be safe,” Attariwala said. “And that’s actually not true. When you’re not reporting the data, it doesn’t really signal to the communities that you’re taking these kinds of matters seriously or that you’re actually measuring whether your efforts potentially have any tangible results in preventing and reducing hate crimes within the community.”
Moreover, initial reports to local law enforcement only come in if a survivor chooses to report it, which they might not, due to fears of retaliation.
“The one thing that people need to know about hate crimes is that they’re essentially messaging crimes,” Attariwala said. “People are being targeted because of their identity. And that is meant to send a signal to that entire identity group: They are not welcomed in the community.”
Because of underreporting, Attariwala said, the real numbers regarding hate crimes against Asians are likely much higher.
For instance, he said, the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that there are about 250,000 violent hate crime victimizations every year. In contrast, the FBI’s 2024 database recorded 11,679 hate crime incidents.
“So that gives you, I think, an understanding of two different data sets that tell us of the prevalence of hate crimes in our nation,” Attariwala said. “The FBI hate crime statistics are a good start, but they are not the ceiling. They are just a peek into what is happening.”
In addition to offering resources to those who have been targeted in anti-Asian hate crimes, and who are looking for support, Advancing Justice | AAJC also offers free bystander intervention training for everyone, Asian or not, that is meant to teach participants how to de-escalate a potential hate crime and keep people safe.
Attariwala also said that state and local governments and advocacy organizations must coordinate with communities to understand their needs and experiences, and that the targeted communities should not be the only ones shouldering the burden of protecting themselves. Support can look like offering victim services and prevention resources in multiple languages, so that communities can better understand what is happening. It can also look like partnerships at the local, state, and federal levels.
“[Working against anti-Asian hate] doesn’t always mean only police-based solutions. We need to look at additional ways, including mental health and social service solutions,” Attariwala said. “This requires consistent dialogue and engagement and community level leadership that we want to make sure that we’re able to support.”