New Report Documents Increased Hate Crimes and Intolerance
Feature Story by Suzanne Lee - March 11, 2002
WASHINGTON—While America’s official response to the tragic events of September 11th seems to be a message of unity and patriotism, a new report from the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC) indicates that some have turned against our own, particularly the Asian Pacific American (APA) population.
Backlash: When American Turned On Its Own, released March 11, documents the alarming increase in bias-motivated incidents of violence and intimidation against APAs in the three months following September 11.
The NAPALC report details 243 racially-motivated crimes perpetrated against APA during the three-month period after the attacks, cataloguing incidents that occurred in schools and the workplace involving a high degree of physical violence and even arson and vandalism. These figures are particularly shocking considering that just 400-500 such incidents normally occur annually. The study also illustrates how the backlash from September 11 involves all types of people. Though overwhelmingly young males, victims as well as perpetrators are also women, senior citizens, and children.
In addition to specific incidents of violence against Asian Pacific Americans, the intolerance following September 11 has come in subtler forms as well. Discrimination in the workplace, in housing, and in education has also increased since the terrorist attacks.
NAPALC suggests that the media and the federal government have only compounded the severity of the increased attacks on Asian Americans. The report maintains, “While some members of the media have taken action to help stem the tide of misunderstanding and violence, there were are others whose coverage of the national tragedy served to fan the flames of intolerance.” The media’s portrayal of the attacks and the responses by Bin Laden supporters misrepresented the sentiments of the Asian Pacific American population as a whole and was unsympathetic to the plight of APAs.
The report charges that since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, some elected officials have seemed to encourage intolerance toward South Asians. “[R]epresentative John C. Cooksey (R-Monroe) referred to Arab and South Asian Americans as “towel heads” who need to be racially profiled, stating, ‘If I see someone [who] comes in that’s got a diaper on his head and a fan belt wrapped around the diaper on his head, that guys needs to be pulled over.’” The report also points out the discriminatory and unconstitutional actions by a number of federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, and state and local law enforcement officials.
Along with descriptions of insults and assaults, Backlash also offers several recommendations to protect APAs against further discrimination, emphasizing the need to pass the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act (LLEEA). Such legislation would expand federal hate crimes laws to add gender, sexual orientation, and disability as criteria for hate crimes as well as allow for additional penalties to be applied to hate crimes. On the whole, a greater effort needs to be made by all sectors of government, law enforcement, the media, employers, and the public in general to end the increasing mistreatment of Asian Pacific Americans.
NAPALC’s annual Audit of Violence Against Asian Pacific Americans follows a slew of reports on the American response to September 11th against Asian Americans. South Asian Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT) also issued a special report, American Backlash: Terrorists Bring War Home In More Ways Than One, which likens the xenophobia and discrimination against Arab-Americans in the wake of September 11th to the Alien and Sedition Acts in the 18th century and the Japanese internment camps during World War II. The Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) released its
report in October 2001, World Trade Center and
Pentagon Bombings: The Anti-Asian American Backlash, around the same time Amnesty International came out with
The Backlash-Human Rights at Risk Throughout the World to warn America of the dangers of its violation of human rights.
