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More than 9,000 hate incidents targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) were reported in the US in the first 15 months of the pandemic, according to a Stop AAPI Hate report.
Stop AAPI Hate is a nonprofit organisation that tracks and responds to racially motivated hate crimes towards Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the US. It was set up in March 2020 due to escalating xenophobia and bigotry resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The number of hate incidents reported to our Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Centre increased from 6,603 to 9,081 during April-June 2021. A total of 4,548 hate crimes occurred in 2020 and another 4,533 occurred in 2021," the organisation said in a report Thursday.
Verbal harassment accounts for 63.7% of the incidents, with shunning and physical assault making up another 16.5% and 13.7% of cases. Online harassment and civil rights violations, including workplace discrimination, refusal of service or transportation, were also reported.
Most hate incidents occurred in public places and targeted women. Half of the cases involved anti-Chinese or anti-immigrant rhetoric, according to the report.