Cynthia Choi, Russell Jeung & Manjusha Kulkarni, AAPI Protectors

Even before the Covid-19 crisis was officially a pandemic, Jeung, a sociologist at San Francisco State University, knew what was coming. He remembered how Asian Americans were stigmatized during the SARS outbreak. So as anti-Asian incidents increased in spring 2020, he teamed with Choi (of the group Chinese for Affirmative Action in San Francisco) and Kulkarni (of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council in Greater Los Angeles) to keep track, because the government wasn’t doing so. Victims self-report at stopaapihate.org, describing how they were targeted and what physical and mental effects the interactions had. In May, President Joe Biden signed the Covid‑19 Hate Crimes Act, which aims to address pandemic-related discrimination; the legislation cited the coalition’s data. And in July the group worked closely with California lawmakers to pass the $157 million Asian and Pacific Islander Equity Budget, which will provide community groups with funds to help victims. Stop AAPI Hate will get $10 million from this pool over a three-year period.