Anti-Asian Hate Is On the Rise in Minnesota

One weekday evening in January, a Korean-American man identified only as Matt (for fear of his safety, we are protecting his full identity) parked his car in a commercial lot in Brooklyn Park to go to dinner at a nearby restaurant. When we returned, he found his car vandalized with a disturbing message.

"[It was] spray-painted there all the way back, and they wrote "China virus" from here, and the back window and side mirror they broke as well." Matt motioned where the black lettering was displayed across the side of his white car.

[Reporter]: "It must have been really upsetting."

"Oh, absolutely," he said.

Brooklyn Park police investigated, but the case is now inactive with no leads. The 37-year-old says he feels like he could be targeted because of his race again.

"When something happens like that, you're more hyper-vigilant of your surroundings. I have a son, he saw it as well, which is unfortunate," he said.

Police say the case wasn't charged as a hate crime because there wasn't a suspect. Asian-American groups say that's one of the problems with accurately tracking hate crimes.

"Hate crime is a very specific thing," said Nick Kor, who works with the Council of Asian American Leaders. "Sometimes an incident of hate does not fall into a specific definition of hate crime. And police officers often don't know how to identify hate crime, so often when it is, it does not get tracked," he added.

But there's mounting evidence that hate crimes are on the rise. The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism says anti-Asian hate crimes nationwide were up 260% in the beginning of 2021 over 2020. In Minnesota, the most recent FBI data shows overall hate crimes climbed by 39%. The FBI recorded a dozen anti-Asian hate crimes in the state in 2020. Kor said that number is grossly underreported.     

"People are just telling us, they aren't reporting to police or to the Department of Human Rights. They are just telling us and they're telling other organizations," he said.

"There are a lot of reasons why people don't report. They don't trust the government, they don't trust police. They don't trust that anything will happen if they report it."

"We heard many stories of being attacked, being verbally abused, of hateful messages, there is no way to report that," said state Senator Samantha Vang (DFL-Brooklyn Park).

A bill introduced last year would expand the definition of a hate crime. It also would allow victims to report hate crimes to community groups as well as police. Vang is the author of the bill. The House debated it on the floor, but a companion bill was never discussed in the Senate. Vang said she has questions.

"I would like to ask my Senate Republicans why there hasn't been a hearing? We did the process in the House and are waiting for the Senate to take it up as well. We've seen during the pandemic Asian Americans have been killed, as recently as six Asian American women [in the shootings in Atlanta]. When we don't hold people accountable, people get hurt."

A spokeswoman for Senate Republicans said the bill has not made it to the Senate this session, which therefore makes it difficult to comment on. Meanwhile, Asian Minnesotans on the ground say rhetoric from the last US President has stoked bias.  

Not far from the Capitol is a sprawling Asian shopping center called Hmong Village. Xue Lor runs an electronics and computer business there. He said President Trump's rhetoric has left a damaging stigma.

"A lot of people are tired of COVID and such and crimes against Asians ... it's just something that's going to keep continuing unless we have meaningful dialogue. Education is part of that," he said.

Houa Lee was stocking her vegetable stand nearby. She said she does feel more frightened for her safety these days.

"I'm pretty much concerned, since we're Asian, when we go out, they target us, they don't want to offer us help because we're Asian," she said, through her mask.

"Every single one of my Asian-American friends has experienced some anti-Asian racism since COVID-19," said Minnesota-based filmmaker Naomi Ko.

The Korean-American was born and raised in the state. She recently took to social media to report threats and harassment towards herself and her family.

"Like for so many people, it's been stressful, and [I've had] bouts of depression, but with this constant fear of what someone might do to me or my mom, has now taken a toll on my physical health," she said.