NY Times – Cynthia Choi, 55, is one of the three activists who co-founded Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition that tracks, documents and responds to incidents of hate, violence and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

Once lockdowns started in March 2020, and the pandemic’s presence became an undeniable reality, you were immediately able to get Stop AAPI Hate up and running. What made you conceive the site?

In early 2020, my co-executive director at Chinese for Affirmative Action and I became deeply concerned there would be a new wave of anti-Asian hate as a result of racist rhetoric coming from elected leaders and hostile U.S.-China relations, and that our community would be scapegoated, harassed, discriminated against and attacked. After discussions with Manjusha Kulkarni at AAPI Equity Alliance and Dr. Russell Jeung at the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University, we decided to establish the coalition.

What goals did you have for Stop AAPI Hate and what have you been able to document?

We set out to understand the nature of the hate, who was being affected and where this was occurring. Between March 2020 and September 2021, more than 10,300 incidents of hate against Asian and Pacific Islanders across the U.S. have been reported on the site. Our most recent national report showed that there is a sustained high number of racist attacks against Asian Americans.

Stop AAPI Hate Aims a Spotlight at Rising Anti-Asian Racism – The New York Times (nytimes.com)