Study Finds Deadly Spike in Racial Violence Against Asian Americans

Racist attacks against Asian Americans spiked significantly nationwide after Sept. 11, claiming two lives and causing injuries to dozens more, according to a report released today by the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium.

The study, “Backlash: When America Turned on Its Own,” tracked 243 incidents in the three-month period after the terrorist attacks. By contrast, bias-based attacks against Asian Americans for typical 12-month periods number around 400, according to the report.

Victims included a Sikh American from Mesa, Ariz., who was shot and killed by a gunman who yelled “I stand for America all the way,” and a Pakistani American grocer who was killed in Texas.

Nonviolent crimes against Asian Americans ranged from vandalism to verbal harassment. Businesses have been pelted with Molotov cocktails and homes burned to the ground, according to the report. Among those targeted have been women and children.

Singled out as targets, according to the report, have been South Asian Americans, including Indian and Pakistani Americans, but especially Sikh Americans, a religious group often mistakenly perceived to be Arab because many of their men wear turbans and long beards.

“Unfortunately, some Americans have fallen into the grave misconception that all Arab Americans and Muslim Americans are terrorists, and therefore, anyone who even looks Arab or Muslim has become a potential target for violent retribution,” the report reads.

The study is a compilation of hate crime statistics provided by law enforcement agencies and supplemented by hate incident reports from individuals, community groups and media reports. The statistics were gathered by the consortium and its affiliates: the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Asian Law Caucus and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

The consortium recommends that law enforcement step up its collection of data on hate crimes and urges the passage of a measure that would expand the federal hate crimes law, which would allow prosecutors to seek additional penalties for hate crimes in states that lack such laws.

The study also recommends that the government and law enforcement officials provide diversity and sensitivity training to all employees. It also criticizes the U.S. Justice Department for interviewing and detaining thousands of Arab Americans, saying such practices arouse suspicion of wrongdoing.

In one case cited in the study, a 20-year-old Pakistani college student detained in a Mississippi jail was beaten by inmates while guards allegedly ignored his cries for help.

Nearly 80% of the incidents during the three-month period occurred in the first weeks after the attacks. Twenty-seven percent occurred in schools; 29% in the workplace, the study reported.

Southern California victims included a 51-year-old Sikh American woman who was stabbed twice in the head by two motorcyclists at a stoplight in San Diego, and a Northridge liquor store owner who was beaten by two men with metal poles.