A historic $156 million investment to combat anti-Asian hate, part of a $100 billion state spending bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this week, is expected to help a number of grassroots nonprofits in Southern California that have been leading the charge to fight hate and provide services to Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
The Asian Pacific Islander Equity Budget, developed by the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, will allocate the funds over a three-year period to a number of victim support, mental health and educational resources to address the root causes of anti-Asian racism.
The bulk of this investment — about $110 million — will go toward services for victims of hate crimes and incidents, said Nkauj Iab Yang, executive director of Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs, which along with the Department of Public Social Services, will come up with a plan to administer the funds to nonprofits statewide.
“For such historic investment in AAPI communities to be approved at a state level, sends a strong message,” she said. “Our communities have been left out of conversations for a long time and this is an important step to change that.”
Combating anti-Asian hate
About 16% of California’s population — or one in six Californians — is Asian American. Anti-Asian hate crimes and hate incidents surged to unprecedented levels during the coronavirus pandemic. Stop AAPI Hate has received more than 6,600 reports of hate crimes and hate incidents nationwide since March 2020, and about half of these incidents were reported in California. These racist attacks, sometimes violent, have disproportionately affected the most vulnerable members of the community, particularly the elderly.
Here are some of the top priorities for the Asian Pacific Islander Equity Budget, as approved Monday, July 12:
— $110 million to community organizations providing victim services, healing and prevention.
— $10 million to Stop AAPI Hate to track, respond to and prevent hate incidents.
— $10 million to AAPI Data project to collect accurate data to better understand the needs of these communities.
— $10 million to create restorative justice and educational programs in schools.
— $10 million to ethnic media outlets serving Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
— $5 million for a peer social media network to address bullying and mental health for children and youth.
— $1.5 million to address access to higher education for first-generation, low-income AAPI college students.
Mental health programs are crucial to help communities heal from the effects of the pandemic and the surge in anti-Asian hate, said Mary Anne Foo, executive director of the Orange County Asian Pacific Islander Community Alliance based in Garden Grove. What surprises Foo is how each generation of Asian Americans has faced hate and discrimination.
“My mother was forced into an internment camp during World War II,” Foo said, referring to the internment of Japanese Americans in response to the attacks on Pearl Harbor. “I faced racism in the 1980s when there was a lot of anti-Japanese sentiment because many blamed Japanese automakers for the decline of the U.S. auto industry. And now my children face this surge in hate. I never thought what happened to my mom would ever happen again. It has caught me by surprise.”
Prioritizing marginalized communities
It was important to be “thoughtful and intentional” while putting together this funding package, said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a member of the Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs.
“This was not about reaching for policing as the dominant solution, but how to build resilience in the face of hate as well as economic and health challenges,” he said. “It’s also important to collect better data and evidence so we understand the problems these communities are facing and find more effective solutions.”
The mechanism of how exactly the money will be distributed still needs to be worked out, Ramakrishnan said.
“It’s important to ensure accountability, performance and equity while getting the dollars out in a timely manner,” he said.
This is the first time California’s budget has comprehensively funded efforts to target outreach to Asian Americans and address anti-Asian hate, said state Sen. Dave Min, R-Costa Mesa.
“Budgets are a reflection of what we value, and in the past Asian and Pacific Islander communities were not valued,” he said, adding that Orange County has a diverse Asian American population whose needs are often not served.
Speaking of anti-Asian hate, Min, who is a member of the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, said many of his Asian American constituents are scared and have been taken aback by how confrontational and violent their experiences have been in the past year.
“This is the first time we’re seeing people willing to invade our personal spaces, and a lot of it is not even reported,” he said. “Anecdotally, we’ve come to know that people are experiencing things that are very disturbing. While racist slurs may not be crimes, they are still deeply disturbing. We need to denounce such hate loudly and make such hateful behavior socially unacceptable.”
Long-term help and resources
Stop AAPI Hate, a national nonprofit that has been documenting hate incidents nationwide, is not just looking to provide data, but tangible help to those who have experienced hate, said Manjusha Kulkarni, the group’s co-founder.
“This could include accompanying seniors as they walk around so they feel safe,” she said. “When a hate crime or act of discrimination occurs, we help victims file a complaint with law enforcement. We also offer mental health support and even legal aid when necessary. Those were the types of resources that community members needed after the Atlanta shootings.”
Money from the statewide fund also will help smaller organizations, including several grassroots Pacific Islander groups in Southern California, which have a particularly difficult time getting grant money. Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities were devastated by the pandemic, which amplified issues such as health-care access.
“With this type of long-term funding, we can breathe a little bit,” said Lolofi Soakai, executive director of Ontario-based Motivating Action Leadership Opportunity (M.A.L.O). “Instead of chasing $500 here and $1,000 there, we can look at strengthening the work we do. We finally feel like we belong at the table.”
As the pandemic hit a peak in Southern California, many Pacific Islander organizations were paying out of pocket to fund desperately-needed programs in their communities, said Karla Thomas, policy director at the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Policy Lab at UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research.
“A lot of these nonprofits don’t have the infrastructure in place to sustain them long-term,” she said. “Often, we see people in these organizations working 9-to-5 jobs and then volunteering their time to help their communities. This money is going to help them, a lot.”
