CALIFORNIA IS FOR EVERYONE — Community Organizations Unite to Combat Hate
By Kim Johnson, Director of the California Department of Social Services
In California, we are committed to preventing incidents of hate and hate crimes while supporting victims and survivors. Recently, I had the privilege of joining state leaders and Stop the Hate Program grantees who convened at The California Endowment office in the heart of Chinatown in Los Angeles.
The theme of the convening was “Transformation through Collaboration.” I felt this theme resonating with each featured speaker, through each breakout session, and in the panel discussions. I heard attendees express solidarity across communities and sensed a commitment to systemic and lasting change to combat hate in California.
Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature have funded multiple rounds of grants to help victims of bias and hate through community-based, culturally responsive services that promote healing for victims and their families, and to prevent future hate incidents. The most recent round of grant funding was announced in August. The grants are administered by the California Department of Social Services (CDSS).
At this convening I met with new and current grant program community organizations from across California. We heard from the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Legislative Caucus, the Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs, the CDSS, and grant program regional leads to understand the background of the historic API Budget of 2021, the need for Stop the Hate funding, program parameters for utilizing the grant funding, and lessons learned from the first year of services. I also heard from powerful voices, about the impact of this work in their communities.
Manjusha P. Kulkarni (Manju), Executive Director of the AAPI Equity Alliance, which serves and represents the 1.6 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles County, opened the convening by welcoming the 180 grantee organizations and highlighting the significant investments California has made to combat hate.
In his message to the convening, Governor Newsom underscored California’s commitment to prevent hate across communities. He emphasized the importance of meeting communities where they are in ways that extend beyond dollars: legislation establishing the Commission on the State of Hate, a first-ever statewide commission to monitor and track hate crimes, as well as the CA vs. Hate hotline, requirements for social media companies to post public content moderation policies regarding harassment, and banning book bans in schools.
California Assembly Member Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) spoke about hate the API community experienced at high levels during the pandemic. The investment into the Stop the Hate Program allows for cross collaboration among organizations and community groups, building each other up for safer communities.
When it was my turn to address those in attendance, I spoke of the importance of acknowledging our challenging history. I acknowledged the strong hope I feel, not only regarding the many recent investments, but also hope for undoing mistakes of the past. I encouraged attendees to use a racial equity lens to lift up policy needs and changes that are needed to address past injustices.
Following the plenary speakers, participants heard from panelists who shared their experiences with cross-racial collaboration and attended break-out sessions to learn more about how organizations are delivering direct, prevention, and intervention services. Here is some of what was shared:
GRANTEES TAKING ACTION
James An of Korean American Federation of Los Angeles (KAFLA): Since the onset of the pandemic, the Korean American community has seen a large uptick in anti-Korean violence in and near Koreatown. KAFLA continues to assist community members with interpretation when filing police reports, translation of documents, and helping victims gain access to legal resources and victim benefits. KAFLA educates community members about non-violent alternatives when faced with a potential threat, has held community seminars to educate the public about the legal process, and we’re working with our local LAPD division to install a Korean language interpreter at our community’s police station. All of these efforts are aimed at making our community a better place for everyone.
Steve Kang of Koreatown Youth and Community Center: Our Environmental Services Program was able to launch a campaign in which we have worked with three local artists who were selected to paint utility boxes throughout Koreatown, using art to highlight the strength and beauty of our neighborhood, while also raising awareness about the rise in hate against our AAPI communities. These utility boxes will serve as public reminders of the importance of standing up for our community, protecting our elders, and fighting injustice.
Reyna Perez of Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment: We have utilized our grant funding to bring law enforcement, seniors, and LA County community members together to combat hate incidents and crimes. To remove barriers to accessing our services, we have implemented hybrid workshops through in-person and virtual platforms and paired them with online and printed resources. Additionally, we have provided resources and recorded trainings in Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, Mandarin, and Cantonese.
Heidi Lau of Asian Youth Center: We rolled out a series of Multicultural Art Popups to showcase the arts, crafts, games, and cultural histories of our diverse community. Our goal for this project is to promote diversity, inclusion, and understanding by using arts and games to connect community members with others from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds in the San Gabriel Valley, LA County, and beyond.
Reena Hajat Carroll of California Conference for Equality and Justice: The primary activity funded by Stop the Hate is our unique and transformative Building Bridges Camp. For the past 60 years, we have offered our Building Bridges camp which is three-day learning retreat in the mountains that brings together youth of all races, gender identities and sexual orientations from Southern California high schools to discuss bias, bigoty, racism. The camps are immersive opportunities for youth to grapple with the roots of prejudice and discrimination, to connect individual acts of hate to their context in larger systems of oppression, and to build skills to interrupt racism, sexism, heterosexism and other forms of oppression.
If you or someone you know has experienced a hate incident or hate crime, please report it to the CA vs. Hate Reporting Line. If the incident is an emergency or your safety is at risk, please call 911.
Visit the Stop the Hate Program webpage to see a list of program service providers and transformative grantees that provide services across the state, including in your area. For the latest hate crimes data, visit the California Attorney General’s 2022 Hate Crime Report.
