NOTE: Faculty, if you are interviewed and quoted by news media, or if your work has been cited, and you have an online link to the article or video, please let us know. Contact us at news@csusb.edu.  

CSUSB professor interviewed about recent mass shootings in Colorado and Georgia
KTTV Fox 11 Los Angeles
March 23, 2021

The newscast’s coverage of the mass shooting at a Boulder, Colo., supermarket on March 22 and the mass shooting in the Atlanta area on March 16 included an interview with Brian Levin, director of CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. Authorities in both cases have not said what motivated the shooters.

Levin said that it appeared the pause in such incidents ended about the time that stay-at-home orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic were being eased.

“The people who are now gathering will include a decent number of individuals who say that they have some kind of emotional distress,” he said. Added to the social isolation, “we have gun sales that have increased significantly.”  

And the attention both incidents have received can be a problem. Levin said, “When something gets a lot of publicity, for people that may be unstable, that give them another push towards what they might have been planning to do already.”

He urged people who are experiencing stress get the help that they need, and that they not have access to firearms.

Anti-Asian hate crime crosses racial and ethnic lines 
VOA News
March 23, 2021

In New York City, where anti-Asian hate crime soared nearly nine-fold in 2020 over the year before, only two of the 20 people arrested last year in connection with these attacks were white, according to New York Police Department data analyzed by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. Eleven were African Americans, six were white Hispanics and one was a Black Hispanic.  

"I thought it was jarring," said Brian Levin, executive director of the center and a Cal State San Bernardino professor of criminal justice, noting that the finding runs counter to assumptions made by many that perpetrators of anti-Asian hate are mostly angry white men who blame China for the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Several factors may explain the relatively high number of non-white arrests in New York City, Levin said.  One is the city’s racially diverse urban population.  Proportionally, the city has 57% more Latinos, 81% more African-Americans, 139% more Asians and about 50% fewer whites than the nation as a whole, with whites often living in less racially mixed neighborhoods, according to Levin. What’s more, African Americans are more frequently arrested than whites, and many whites involved in anti-Asian hate crimes may be at large, he noted.

Read the complete article at “Anti-Asian hate crime crosses racial and ethnic lines.”

 

The center's latest report on anti-Asian American hate crimes was also cited in the following:  

Asian Americans In St. Louis raise community awareness of reporting hate incidents
St. Louis Public Radio
March 23, 2021

Asian American leaders in St. Louis are encouraging their communities to report hate speech, assaults and possible hate crimes to authorities. The focus on raising awareness follows a weekend vigil for the Atlanta shooting victims and efforts by Asian American leaders to urge federal officials to address the rise in violence against their communities.

According to a recent report from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino, racial incidents against Asian Americans in 16 cities rose 150% in 2020.

 

Peoria's Asian American community disturbed by rise in hate crimes
WCBU Peoria Public Radio, Peoria, Ill.
March 24, 2021
Hate crimes directed toward Asian Americans have spiked sharply over the past year. After last week's shootings in Atlanta, the issue is under a magnifying glass.

The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino found a 150 percent jump in hate crimes directed toward Asian Americans in 16 of America's largest cities last year.

 

Who is Danny Yu Chang? Asian man whose face was fractured in attack wants to leave SF: 'Nothing is safe here'
MEAWW
March 24, 2021

An article about a 59-year-old Asian American man being assaulted in San Francisco mentioned the work of CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism: “A study released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino, which examined police records in 16 of the country’s largest cities, found that in 2020, reports of hate crimes were down seven percent nationally but increased 150 percent against people in the Asian community. A report released by the national coalition Stop AAPI Hate documented 3,795 anti-Asian hate incidents from the beginning of the pandemic through February 28, and of those, 1,691 took place in California.”

 

Yelper brings #Asianhate to Long Beach restaurant owner
Los Angeles Times
March 23, 2021

Columnist Jenn Harris’ piece on a false review of a restaurant owned by an Asian American woman included the recent research on hate crimes targeting Asian Americans: “The Cal State San Bernardino Center for Study of Hate and Extremism found a total of 122 anti-Asian hate crimes last year, according to a survey of police departments in 16 major U.S. cities. That’s an 149% increase from 49 crimes in 2019.”

 

CSUSB center’s report cited in segment about online hate speech and increase incidents targeting Asian Americans
KPBS San Diego
March 23, 2021

A segment on the program Marketplace about online hate speech and the increase in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans cited CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism’s work. “Researchers at Cal State San Bernardino looked at police data from 16 American cities and found that anti-Asian hate crimes more than doubled in 2020. At the same time online hate speech against Asians has also spiked.”

These news clips and others may be viewed at “In the Headlines.”