SAN MATEO, Calif. and RIVERSIDE, Calif., March 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- One year ago, on March 16, 2021, a lone white gunman entered three spas in the Atlanta area and killed eight people—including six Asian American women, one white woman, one white man—and injured one Hispanic man. The Atlanta killings built on a backdrop of increased violence and hate incidents targeting Asian Americans, with findings from our survey last year indicating that about one in six Asian American adults had experienced hate incidents since the start of the pandemic.
New data on the anniversary of the Atlanta spa killings reveal that hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) remain a serious issue. With 16 percent of Asian American adults and 14 percent of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islander adults reporting a hate incident since the beginning of 2021, these proportions suggest that nearly 3 million AAPI adults have experienced a hate incident in a little over a year.
The 2022 survey data reveal that Asian Americans are not alone in experiences of hate violence. Critically, all non-white groups report experiencing hate crimes or hate incidents in the period from January 2021 through early March 2022—from 17 percent among Black adults, to 16 percent among Asian Americans, 15 percent among Native Americans, 14 percent among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, and 13 percent among Latinos. Only 6 percent of White adults report experiencing a hate incident over the same period.
As we reflect on the anniversary of the 2021 shootings of 6 Asian women in Atlanta, it is also impossible to ignore the role of gender in shaping how we understand hate crimes and hate incidents. The 2022 Momentive/AAPI Data survey results show that Asian American women and men experience hate crimes and hate incidents at similar levels—28 percent and 30 percent, respectively, report having ever experienced hate incidents and 16 percent, or about one out of six in each group, report having experienced hate incidents since the beginning of 2021.
This pattern, consistent over the past two years, is different from data from community reporting websites showing twice as many incidents involving Asian American women than men. This suggests that Asian American women are more likely than Asian American men to file incident reports with community organizations. More generally, accounts of self-reported incidents fail to capture the full scale of anti-Asian hate incidents—thus, for example, the Stop AAPI Hate organization had logged about 11,000 hate incidents involving AAPIs as of December 2021, far short of the 3 million estimated incidents based on our survey findings.
Key findings about Asian Americans’ and Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders’ experiences with hate crimes and discrimination include the following:
- All racial groups experienced a hate crime or hate incident in early 2022 at similar rates to one another (10% of Black adults, followed by 9% of multiracial adults, 8% of Pacific Islanders, 8% of Asian Americans, 8% of Native Americans, 7% of Latinos, and 4% of White adults say that have experienced a hate crime or hate incident this year).
- These numbers may increase in 2022 with the reopening of the American economy. In our March 2021 survey, 10% of AAPIs reported being a victim of a hate crime or hate incident since the start of the year. Our March 2022 survey shows that 15 percent of AAPI adults had reported the same over the 2021 calendar year.
- Similar to previous surveys, Black people are most likely to have ever experienced a hate crime or hate incident (35%). Nearly 30% of Asian and Native Americans say they have ever experienced a hate crime or hate incident.
- Nearly half (48%) of the general public believes that hate crimes against AAPI individuals have increased from the previous year, higher than what the general public believes for the Black (29%) or Latino (20%) community.
AAPI women and men experience similar rates of hate crimes, but express different concerns
- AAPI women and men report hate crime experiences at similar rates over the past two years. For instance, since the start of 2022 (16%) of both AAPI women and men say they have experienced a hate crime or hate incident.
- AAPI women are less confident that justice will be served (54%) if they reported a hate crime when compared to AAPI men (62%). Further, AAPI women are more concerned about future hate crimes (85%) compared to AAPI men (80%).
The survey also provides insights into a range of experiences with racial discrimination and racial identity among AAPIs and other groups.
- More than one-third (34%) of Black people, 28% of Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, 23% of Asian Americans, 18% of Latinos, and 16% of Native/American Indians say that their race is a very relevant aspect of their background when it comes to how they are treated at work.
- Two-thirds (63%) of AAPI adults consider themselves a person of color (compared with 87% of Black people, 48% of Latinos, 49% of Native or American Indians, 6% of whites).
- AAPIs who say they are a person of color are more aware of the increase of hate crimes against their community (58% vs 39%).
- AAPIs are among those most likely to say race is a relevant aspect of their identity at work (compared with 58% of Black people, 57% of AAPI, 41% of Latinos, 39% of Native Americans, 20% of whites).
“We are grateful for the partnership with the leadership at Momentive,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder of AAPI Data. “These data are much needed to inform our understanding of hate crimes, racial bias and racial discrimination in the United States,” he added.
“These trends help to add critical context and data to the ways in which hate crimes and more everyday experiences with racial discrimination affect all non-white groups in the country,” said Janelle Wong, AAPI Data’s co-director.
“These data provide new and essential context on the persistent impact of the tragic events of the past year,” says Jon Cohen, Chief Research Officer at Momentive. “Getting fresh insight into the incidences of hate crimes along with reports of day-to-day discrimination shine a spotlight on how AAPI individuals are thinking about and expressing their identities.”
The 2022 AAPI Data/Momentive survey results can be found in the blog sections of each organization’s web site: https://aapidata.com/blog/ and https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/aapi-data-2022/.
Methodology: This Momentive poll was conducted online March 2-9, 2022 among a total sample of 16,901 adults ages 18 and over, including 1,991 Asian or Asian Americans and 186 Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders living in the United States. Respondents for these surveys were selected from more than two million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. SurveyMonkey used a third-party panel provider to obtain additional sample with quotas for Asian or Asian American and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander respondents. The modeled error estimate for the full sample is plus or minus 1.0 percentage points and for the following subgroups: Asians+/- 3.0 percentage points, Blacks +/- 3.0 percentage points, Hispanics +/- 3.5 percentage points, Whites +/- 1.5 percentage points, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders +/- 8.0 percentage points. Data have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, citizenship status, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States age 18 and over. An additional smoothing parameter for political party identification based on aggregates of SurveyMonkey research surveys is included.
About Momentive
Momentive (NASDAQ: MNTV—maker of SurveyMonkey) is a leader in agile experience management, delivering powerful, purpose-built solutions that bring together the best parts of humanity and technology to redefine AI. Momentive products, including SurveyMonkey and Momentive brand and market insights solutions, empower decision-makers at 345,000 organizations worldwide to shape exceptional experiences. Millions of users rely on Momentive to fuel market insights, brand insights, employee experience, customer experience, and product experience. Ultimately, the company’s vision is to raise the bar for human experiences by amplifying individual voices. Learn more at momentive.ai.
