On Tuesday, December 20, OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates launched its new hate incident reporting website on Tuesday.
The goal of the website is to help maintain a database of incidents of hate against the AAPI community. It features an online form where victims and advocates can report hate incidents that will be tracked by the OCA National Center. Though users should always report any hate crimes to the law enforcement first, the data tracked from this project will help expose hate incidents and inform community responses.
The launch for the reporting tool took place during a national call that brought together community leaders from around the country. OCA chapters discussed the importance of tracking hate incidents and strategies they use to fight hate in their local communities. Speakers on the call included: Bill Lann Lee, former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, and OCA chapter leaders David Fung, Greg Jung, Linda Ng, Aryani Ong, and Elizabeth OuYang.
The OCA – Sacramento chapter shared their experiences working with local law enforcement, as well as cross-culturally with other community based organizations, to solve community crime issues. The OCA – New York chapter shared their work with students through the hate crimes art project, which draws attention to hate crimes and encourages law enforcement to elevate these issues. A recording of the session can be found here.
“After Vincent Chin was murdered in a hate crime in 1982, he could have been easily forgotten. Instead, the Asian American community came together to demand justice and our community emerged stronger than ever. Similar to the time preceding Vincent’s murder, we are now living in a time when we must choose between doing nothing or fighting back. In just the past few days we have seen a Korean Church vandalized with Nazi symbols, a noose hung in a Southeast Asian youth center, and ‘build that wall’ written on a receipt for a Filipina American waitress. These intolerable acts cannot be allowed to continue. We must show that our community will fight for fair and equal treatment for all,” said Leslie Moe-Kaiser, OCA National President.