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 comments on reports of bomb threats made against HBCUs as Black History month opens
WBUR (Boston)/NPR
Feb. 1, 2022

A growing number of historically Black colleges and universities began Black history month in security lockdowns. More than a dozen HBCUs received bomb threats on Feb. 1, which follows similar incidents in late January. Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernadino, was interviewed for a segment on the topic for the program “Here & Now.”

The center, which track hate crimes, showed that 2020 was the worst year in decades for such incidents, and Levin was asked whether the threats made against the HBCUs was a continuation of that trend.

“It certainly appears to be. Listen to this: 2020 itself was the worst year for hate crime going back to the horrible time of 2001 (the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.),” Levin said. “Fast forward to this year, what are we seeing? We’re seeing double-digit increases in major cities. … Bottomline is, we got a big increase not only in hate crimes, but in the proportion of the hate crime that are directed towards African Americans.”

Listen to the interview at “Black History month opens with bomb threats against HBCUs.”

Hate crimes in L.A. and other U.S. cities jump to levels not seen in decades, CSUSB center study finds
Los Angeles Times
Feb. 1, 2022

Los Angeles recorded the most hate crimes among large U.S. cities last year, posting a 71% jump in the incidents, a study found.

Data gathered by the Center for Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino show there were 615 hate crimes reported to police in Los Angeles city in 2021 — the third-highest annual total in any U.S. city since the 1970s.

“The invective on the internet of hate is being followed by vile acts on the streets,” Brian Levin, the Center’s executive director, said in an interview.

Other major cities across the U.S. also saw sharp increases in reported hate crimes, the center found. The number of reported incidents in New York City nearly doubled over the 2020 tally, to 538 cases, and doubled in San Francisco, to 112. San Jose saw a 29% increase and San Diego rose from 25 reported crimes in 2020 to 46 last year.

Levin cautioned that the increases recorded by the Los Angeles Police Department could be partly a result of the department’s efforts to improve how it investigates alleged crimes in which the suspect is driven by racial animosity or some other bias. The LAPD, Levin said, should be viewed as a model for other large city police departments.

Read the complete article at “Hate crimes in L.A. and other U.S. cities jump to levels not seen in decades, study finds.”

Hate crime increased 71% in LA in 2021, new CSUSB center report finds
Los Angeles Daily News/Southern California News Group
Feb. 2, 2022

Los Angeles saw a 71% increase in hate crimes in 2021 compared to the previous year, which is the highest the city has registered this century and the most it’s seen since the mid-1990s, according to report released Tuesday, Feb. 1, by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.

One reason for the high number of hate crimes in LA, according to Brian Levin, the center’s director and author of the report, is an effort by the Los Angeles Police Department and the county Human Relations Commission to make it easier for victims and witnesses of hate crimes and hate incidents to report them.

“It’s like having great fog lights where you pick up more images,” Levin said. “Yes, hate crimes went up. But that’s because Los Angeles has set a gold standard by increasing its investigative abilities and putting a seasoned detective in place to run the hate crimes unit.”

Read the complete article at “Hate crime increased 71% in LA in 2021, new report finds.”

In some terrorist organizations, American women who join are ‘highly prized’ because they engender less suspicion, CSUSB professor says
USA Today
Feb. 2, 2022

Brian Levin, director of CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, was interviewed for an article about Allison Fluke-Ekren, a former teacher from Kansas who is accused by federal authorities of having a senior role with the terrorist group ISIS, allegedly plotting bomb attacks at a college or shopping mall.

Levin, a former New York police officer who monitors extremist groups, said having an American woman as a member of such an international Islamic terrorist organization is considered highly advantageous because they are familiar with the United States and engender less suspicion.

“Not only was she radicalized from the heartland and traveled overseas for one, but she actually participated in an all-female fighting force,” said Levin, a professor of criminal justice. “While there is debate in some extremist circles about the role of women and Americans, in some organizations they are highly prized because they are not the 'stereotypical' terrorist.'”

Read the complete article at “Allison Fluke-Ekren is a rarity to experts: a woman alleged to have a senior role in ISIS.”

In addition, research by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism was cited in the following articles:

Latest report by CSUSB center on hate crimes in U.S. finds anti-Asian hate crimes spiked by 339% in 2021
NBC News
Jan. 31, 2022

New research released Monday finds that hate crimes targeting the Asian American community have reached some unprecedented levels.

The compilation of hate crime data, published by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, revealed that anti-Asian hate crime increased by 339 percent last year compared to the year before, with New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities surpassing their record numbers in 2020.

Read the complete article at “Anti-Asian hate crimes increased 339 percent nationwide last year, report says.”

CSUSB center finds increase in hate crimes against Asians as Lunar New Year begins
NPR
Feb. 1, 2022

As the first day (Feb. 1) of the Lunar New Year was being celebrated by many Asian communities in the U.S. NPR reported that “there's a disturbing backdrop” to the festivities: The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino collected data from a dozen major American cities. And it showed that anti-Asian hate crime increased more than 300% last year.

Listen to the segment at “Rise in hate crimes is a disturbing backdrop to San Francisco's Lunar New Year.”