Program Areas

• 9.11 Disaster Response
• Affirmative Action
• Anti-Asian Bias
• Anti-Trafficking Initiative
• Economic Justice
• Educational Equity
• Equal Access to Services
• Immigrants' Rights
• Leadership Development
• Voting Rights

What is a Hate Crime?

Congress, in Section 280003(a) of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (28 U.S.C. 994 note), defines a hate crime as a crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in the case of a property crime, the property that is the object of the crime, because of the actual or perceived race, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person.

Racial prejudice, war, economic competition and, media stereotypes frequently are the triggers for acts of hate. Many of us remember the intense anti-Japanese sentiment of the 1980's when radio stations sponsored events for angry auto workers to "bash" Japanese-made cars. The widely-touted phrase, "Made in America," took on a sinister anti-Asian undertone. It was during this period of heightened anti-Asian sentiment that Chinese American Vincent Chin was brutally beaten to death in Detroit by two white auto workers who called him "a jap" and blamed him for their unemployment and the recession of the American auto industry. His attackers never served any jail time.

Historical Background

This 1982 incident bore frightening similarities to the anti-Chinese hysteria of the 1880s, when a nationwide recession led to the Exclusion Act of 1882. This 1882 Act barred immigration of Chinese laborers, denied citizenship to all resident Chinese, and prompted angry mobs to attack and destroy Chinese American communities across the West.

Exclusionary immigration policies continue to be used today, whenever there is a perceived economic, social, or political threat. In 1994, Proposition 187 was passed in California, denying public social services, publicly funded healthcare and public education to people who were suspected of being undocumented immigrants. As the Asian American community continues to grow in population and profile, it is even more imperative to make sure that the scapegoating of Asian immigrants does not increase as well.

Access to the legal system and knowledge of civil rights have been essential ingredients in preventing and educating others about anti-Asian violence. An important lesson was learned in 1942, when President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 9066. This Order forced more than 120,000 persons of Japanese Americans into ten euphemistically-named "relocation centers." The 77,000 Japanese Americans who were American citizens by birth were referred to as "non-aliens" rather than as "American citizens." After losing jobs, homes, and their dignity, Japanese Americans realized how easily they could be stripped of their civil rights because of associations with their native countries.

Current Issues

Better documentation and awareness of hate crimes play in important role for instigating change. Anti-Asian violence is widely underreported at both the individual and state level. Some Asian American victims of hate crimes aren't comfortable with or capable of reporting their experiences because of lack of bilingual law enforcement personnel, mistrust of local police, and an ignorance about hate crimes and other civil rights protections. There is also the problem of non-identification or mis-identification of hate crimes by law enforcement officers who either don't take them seriously or deliberately avoid a thorough investigation.

Despite the passage of over a decade since the collection of federal hate crimes statisitics, some states and localities still have not made rigorous efforts to prosecute and collect data on anti-Asian violence. This prevents any real recognition of the problem, which reinforces the underlying problem. If victims are left feeling that they have no recourse, and if the attacks they suffer are not categorized as hate crimes, then the cycle of silence will persist.

AALDEF's Activities

While Asian Americans of all national origins continue to face hate violence, New York City's South Asian and Muslim youth have faced especially high levels of hate violence and discrimination more than two years after the 9-11 attacks, especially in public schools. Many of these incidents have gone unreported and have not been properly addressed by school administrators and teachers. Most Asian American youth do not know where to turn for legal assistance, and are not aware of their right to a safe learning environment. To address these issues, AALDEF intensified its outreach to the legally underserved Asian American youth population, especially recent immigrants who are non-English proficient and are unaware of available resources.

AALDEF met with staff at several youth groups and social service agencies, including Council of Pakistan Organization, the Brooklyn Chinese American Association, South Asian Youth Action, Flushing YWCA, and Chinese Progressive Association, to discuss strategies to address hate violence and discrimination against youth. In our meetings, many youth groups expressed an overwhelming interest and need for youth legal rights information and legal resources for Asian American youth who increasingly face hate violence and discrimination in their schools. AALDEF immediately began a series of 20 interactive youth workshops and presentations on hate violence, discrimination, and youth legal rights, reaching hundreds of Asian American youth.

AALDEF's increased youth outreach and community education activities resulted in numerous requests for legal assistance from South Asian parents and youth. For example, AALDEF represented an 11th grade South Asian Muslim student who was suspended for telling his teacher he feared a terrorist attack. We succeeded in getting the school to remove from his permanent school record the charge that he made a "terrorist threat," on the grounds that it was protected speech under the First Amendment.

AALDEF also provided legal advice and consultation to an Afghani immigrant student in Queens, who was repeatedly harassed and profiled by school security and administrators. For a period in early spring, the student had been searched for weapons at least once a week, and nothing was ever found on him. The student believed that he and his peers were targeted because of their ethnicity and appearance, since his friends experienced the same searches. AALDEF provided legal advice to the student and his parents regarding his rights related to the racial profiling incident, and also discussed the option of filing a complaint against school officials. We also assisted an undocumented Korean immigrant student in Queens, who was assaulted near school grounds and feared reporting the incident to school officials or police due to his undocumented immigrant status.