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California To Put State Funds Toward Stopping Pandemic Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans

By Chris Greenspon
Published Feb 24, 2021 4:55 PM
6036ef1e61a57b000a816954-eight.jpg
(Screenshot from Stop AAPI Hate)
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Governor Newsom has signed into law a bill that provides $1.4 million in state funding to help combat the rise in attacks against Asian Americans since the start of the pandemic.

Of the total amount, $300,000 will go to the nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate and its online reporting tool to track assaults on members of the Asian American community, the group said in a press release.

Manjusha Kulkarni of the Asian Pacific Policy Planning Council, one of the groups behind "Stop AAPI Hate," told us she wants the data collected to spur community groups to action:

"We really do hope that they'll use the information, really as a galvanizing force to both address what's happening right now, but also to engage more civically with their elected leaders."

Stop AAPI Hate recorded 2,800 incidents of racism and discrimination against Asian Americans nationwide between March and December of last year; 245 incidents occurred in L.A. County between March and October.
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There's been a spike in assaults on elderly Asian Americans recently in the Bay Area, including the deadly attack on an 84-year-old Thai man in San Francisco in January.

The rest of the state funds will go to the UCLA Asian American Studies Center.

You can read AAPI's report on hate incidents in L.A. County here.

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