In his New York Times op-ed “Rogues, Robes and Racists” (May 30, 2009), Charles M. Blow shares some riveting government statistics on hate crime, particularly the number of offenses committed in 2007 broken down by motivation of bias. Highlights the fact that anti-Hispanic hate crime has risen continuously over the past four years, he exhibits how difficult it would be for critics of Sonia Sotomayor to portray the victims, as personified by the Supreme Court nominee herself, as offenders. “Oh, the hypocrisy”, Mr. Blow decries.
The FBI data itself is quite revealing. The rise in hate crimes directed at Hispanics is indeed higher than those directed at other groups, blacks, gays, whites, Jewish, and Asians/Pacific Islanders. It is difficult to ignore that hate crimes against blacks remain to be the highest and that is has also risen in the time period. And, of course, it is hard to miss equivalent statistics related to Asian Americans.
Anti-Asian/Pacific Islander hate crimes appear at the bottom of the list. In fact, it shows a downtrend over the past four years with only 219 offenses reported in 2007 (down from 277 in 2003). The numbers suggest that hate crimes committed against Asians/Pacific Islanders hardly exist considering their estimated population in 2007 exceeds 14 million. That does not make sense! Looking back at the number of hate crimes relative to the size of each population group victimized, I could only guess all these statistics are under-reported.
There are many factors why victims do not report a crime, such fear of retaliation, shame, distrust of authorities, inconvenience, among others. It could also very well be a cultural trait. C.N. Le, a sociology professor, shares in his blog called Asian-Nation a recent study by the Department of Justice. It finds that “Asian Americans are the least likely to report violent crimes committed against themselves to the police.” Such finding holds a lot of ground particularly for this minority’s particularly distinct disposition to lie under the radar. This is exemplified by a Chinese proverb, one of many pertaining to a similar message: “Beat your drum inside the house to spare the neighbors.”
In this merry month of May, we beat our drums in celebration of our heritage, along with our compatriots from other tribes who remain proud of their own background, yet like Asian Americans, are still waiting to sound their rhythm in this ever-evolving orchestral masterpiece called the USA. Everyone, louder please!