New data on anti-Asian hate incidents reveals an even more alarming increase than before. According to a national report by Stop AAPI Hate, the total number of anti-Asian incidents reported during the pandemic year last year has doubled by March alone. Meaning within the first three months of 2021, the number of anti-Asian hate crimes reported increased by 50% from 3,795 cases reported in March to December 2020, to 6,603 reported between January to March 2021.

The increase in reported crimes is likely linked to increasing awareness of the issue and a rise in COVID-19 restrictions being uplifted, Russell Jeung, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and professor and chair of the Asian American studies department at San Francisco State University told NBC News.

Jeung also noted that an understanding of what hate is and what consists of a crime contributed to the rise in reports. According to the data, verbal harassment made up the majority of reports at 65% with shunning at 18% and physical assault at 13%.

“What we’ve always said is that racism could have been dampened because the quarantine has sort of protected us. But now, we’ve had a year’s worth of anger focused on Asians, the year’s worth of economic distress, the year’s worth of political rhetoric, vilifying Chinese and Asians,” he said. “And so now that we’re beginning to interact and all that anger and fear and racism is getting directed at us more.”

Overall he noted that women made up a majority of the reports and within 22% of the incidents, gender, language, and religion were cited as motivating factors.

“Originally, businesses were the top site of racism, because that’s the only place we would interact with people during quarantine — we go out shopping, and then we would interact with people,” he said. “Now we’re seeing more incidents in public places like streets and sidewalks. So it seems to me as we come out of the pandemic, everybody is interacting more in the broader public and Asian Americans are experiencing racism there as well as businesses.”

The report follows multiple others that have indicated an alarming rise in AAPI targeting crimes. Hate crime data from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino found that hate crimes against Asian Americans surged in 2020 in at least 15 cities, Daily Kos reported. As the cities were further reviewed, a new report indicated that crimes against Asian Americans rose by 169% when comparing the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021.

While hate crimes against the AAPI community are not new to America’s history, spikes can be traced back to the start of the pandemic last year. COVID-19 misinformation and the use of xenophobic language like  “Chinese virus,” “Wuhan virus,” and “Kung Flu” have been connected to a rapid surge in hate crimes nationwide.

As of this report, crimes against Asian Americans continue nationwide with at least one incident reported on a daily basis, in nearly every state. Most recently, police arrested a Virginia man accused of attacking an Asian worker at a restaurant. According to Fox 5 DC, the suspect allegedly verbally harassed the restaurant employee and her son, also an employee, before pushing her to the ground and attempting to leave without paying. The man identified as 28-year-old Jordan Bevan was charged with defrauding an innkeeper, along with felony assault and battery.  

While not declared as such yet, the incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

“He said – “You Asians, get out of my face. I don’t want the coronavirus from you guys,” Henry Kim, one of the employees said. “I was a little bit frustrated, but at the same time – it’s not the first this has happened to me.”

In a separate incident, a woman who feared for her immigrant employees, but didn’t consider herself vulnerable to violence was the victim of a racist attack. In video footage shared by police officials, Fashion CEO and Know Your Value contributor Lisa Sun was seen being harassed by two men, one which poured beer on her in New York as another told her to “go back to China,” NBC News reported. Sun noted that while a few bystanders saw the incident they did not intervene.

“One of my seamstresses said that people were moving away from her on the subway. My head designer said that someone screamed at him and blamed him for the ‘China virus,’” Sun told NBC News. “You don’t understand it. And then, it happens to you.”

Additionally, Sun noted that had she not had a “reporter friend” she would have felt powerless as to how to report the crime.  An AAPI survey found that just 30% of Asian-American respondents said they felt “very comfortable” reporting incidents to the police.  Women and the elderly have been particularly more vulnerable to racist anti-Asian attacks. According to Stop AAPI Hate, of the 3,800 anti-hate incidents reported in the last year, 68% have targeted women. The number is likely to be higher the organization said due to the number of those crimes that go unreported.

Researchers and advocates have connected a decline in hate crime reported to both cultural norms and mistrust of officials.  “There is a sense in this community that we need to survive and move forward,” Joo Han, deputy director of the Asian American Federation said. “And until we have access to services in certain Asian languages, the quality of help is not going to be great all the time. Many don’t trust law enforcement because they haven’t had the best experiences with them. They don’t think they’ll be listened to.”

The AAPI community needs our support now more than ever, whether it be checking in on our family and friends, spreading awareness of COVID-19 misconceptions, or contacting members of Congress to do more against anti-Asian hate. Check out this guide on resources and ways to support the AAPI community and our Asian friends. Hate is the real virus and we must end it.