Dear LAAUNCH friends,

Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!

This year’s APAHM marks a critical time for our community, as we’ve seen hate crimes against Asian Americans rise nearly 164% in the first quarter of 2021. In an effort to uncover the root causes of this increased violence, we are proud to release the findings of our STAATUS Index, a measurement of Americans’ attitudes towards Asian-Americans in the U.S. – one of the first surveys of its kind in 20 years.

With this scientific, non-partisan data, we can better understand the reasons for bias against Asian Americans, and work with other organizations to change American attitudes toward the AAPI community.

Here are some critical takeaways from the 2021 STAATUS Index:

• Nearly 80% of Asian Americans say they do not feel respected and are discriminated against in the U.S.
• 37% of white Americans say they are not aware of an increase in hate crimes and racism against Asian Americans over the past year, with 24% saying anti-Asian American racism isn’t a problem that should be addressed.
• The classic Asian American stereotypes – “model minority,” “perpetual foreigner,” and “yellow peril” – still persist as toxic myths in the U.S. today.
• While Asian Americans are significantly under-represented in senior positions in corporate America, politics, and media, 53% of white Americans believe Asian Americans are fairly or over-represented.
• 42% of Americans could not come up with the name of a prominent Asian American when asked, despite several (e.g., Kamala Harris, Andrew Yang, Daniel Dae Kim) being in the news this year. Jackie Chan (11%) and Bruce Lee (9%) were second and third most frequently mentioned.

We would like to thank Congressman Ted Lieu for allowing us the opportunity to present the key findings of the STAATUS Index study to members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. From Congressman Lieu:

“I applaud LAAUNCH for their objective, non-partisan report that surveyed attitudes towards Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. This study adds to the growing body of evidence about how insidious and dangerous anti-Asian American sentiment can be in this country. We’ve seen a growing number of hate crimes and hate incidents perpetrated against the AAPI community since the beginning of the pandemic. We can have an academic, theoretical discussion about whether systematic racism exists, but the actual data is clear: 8 out of 10 Asian Americans report being discriminated against.

“Many Americans of Asian descent simply do not feel safe right now. We need to do more to address this issue in government and in society at large. I’m pleased the Senate passed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, and we will pass it in the House this month. We also need to change the very restrictive standard in the federal hate crime law by passing my bill, the Stop Hate Crimes Act. I look forward to continuing to work with groups like LAAUNCH to combat discrimination and racism against the AAPI community.”

A press release outlining key findings from our study can be found here. You can also download the full report and see more resources on how to get involved and partner with us on our newly redesigned website https://www.laaunch.org.

Thank you for all your support!

Warmest regards,

The LAAUNCH Team
Norman Chen, Ming & Wah Chen, Ed King, David Ting, Richard Ting, Eric Toda