Asian American Communities Organize Against Rise in Hate Crimes, Say More Policing Is Not the Answer

Anti-Asian hate crimes have spiked across the U.S. over the past year, fueled in part by Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric about the coronavirus. One recent study found a 150 percent increase in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans in 2020, even though overall hate crimes fell last year. Ron Kim, member of the New York State Assembly representing the 40th District in Queens, New York, says anti-Asian sentiment tends to flare up during times of crisis.

“There’s a long history of Asian Americans in this country feeling targeted and scapegoated whenever we experience economic downturns,” says Kim. "Democracy Now!" also speaks with Kim Tran, an antiracist writer and organizer based in the Bay Area, who says anti-Asian violence is “diffuse,” affecting people in different ethnic and cultural communities in various ways, “but there is a common sense of racial scapegoating.”