Asian community leaders in Western Pennsylvania are reeling with emotion and striving to quell fears days after a gunman stormed three Asian-run spas in the Atlanta area, killing eight people.

“We’re anxious, we’re heartbroken, we’re raging,” said Marian Lien, president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Organization for Chinese Americans. “We’re still in disbelief.”

Tuesday’s deadly attacks — which were not described by police as racially motivated but claimed the lives of six Asian women — were especially upsetting to Lien and other advocates who had been warning of a surge in anti-Asian hate for months.

Two weeks ago, a national report found at least a 150% spike in reported hate crimes against Asians in the past year, for more than 3,800 incidents since last March. The AAPI Stop Hate tracker found that Asian women were targets of hate incidents 2.3 times more than Asian men.

More than 40 organizations from the Pittsburgh region — faith-based groups, labor unions, nonprofits, Black and Latino groups and others — signed a March 3 letter condemning anti-Asian violence, asserting the problem is “part of the same inequitable system that affects Black, Indigneous and Latino American communities.”

“We’re angry beyond belief that it took the lives of at least six of our community (of Asian descent) and another two in the greater community to bring awareness to something that we’ve been trying to say has been going on for over a year,” Lien said. “We’re tired of having to prove that these things are happening.”

Pittsburgh law enforcement officials say they have not observed a recent uptick in incidents targeting Asians.

“Police have not informed of us any specific incidents, increased attacks or threats against the Asian community in Pittsburgh,” Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Cara Cruz said by email Thursday. “The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police takes threats of violence, ethnic intimidation or hate crimes against any minority group extremely seriously and strongly encourages anyone who experiences this or witnesses suspicious behavior to report it to police immediately.”

But oftentimes incidents go unreported or don’t get tracked, with reporting among individual police departments spotty and voluntary.

The FBI estimates at least two-thirds of all hate crimes don’t make it into their databases.

Lien said other times incidents may not involve violence or reportable crimes but still signal worrisome trends.

Among examples: She’s been told to “go back to China with the virus” while shopping for groceries. A vandal scrawled “Nuke China!” on a sign in Squirrel Hill. On Thursday, she accidentally bumped into a man while walking in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, and the man fired off a racial slur.

“We may not have deaths or homicides on our hands yet, but I can tell you that there have been within the community reports of those who’ve been physically attacked,” Lien said. “The types of racism that we faced prior to the pandemic were more subtle. It’s an intensity now that is scary.”

Signs of solidarity

Efforts are in the works to demonstrate support for the region’s Asian community.

On Saturday afternoon, a “Stop Asian Hate” rally is planned at the intersection of Forbes and Oakland avenues, promoted by the region’s social justice advocates and organized by a group called Thrash the State.

In the city’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood — where 17% to 20% of residents are Asian, compared to closer to 6% of the population in the greater metro area — the Center for Loving Kindness at the Jewish Community Center has been prepping anti-hate and love-your-neighbor signs of solidarity to hang in the windows of Asian-run businesses.

“In this last year, we have seen our neighbors and community members face increasing amounts of anti-Asian hate crimes and we will not allow hate in our community,” the center’s leaders said in a statement. “While we may not be able to offer direct aid to the victims and their families, we can offer support to our Asian neighbors, who, as a group, have been experiencing growing anti-Asian bigotry and violence in the past several months.

“We can show our support in many ways such as shopping at Asian-owned businesses and reaching out to our neighbors and friends who may be frightened and traumatized to listen to them and comfort them.”

Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life synagogue — whose congregation was among those attacked by a gunman who killed 11 people on Oct. 27, 2018 — issued a statement in support of his Asian and Asian American neighbors.

“We know the pain and stinging loss produced by hate-fueled violence, and offer our friendship and support in this terrible moment,” Myers said. “We are firm in our resolve and commitment to building bridges of understanding so that we may work together to end all forms of racism, xenophobia and bigotry.”

Earlier this week, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh announced partnering on a project to track online hate via the newly formed Collaboratory Against Hate Research and Action Center.

“Our Asian and Asian American communities are vital threads of the Pitt fabric, contributing greatly to our enrichening, multicultural experience and excellence,” said Clyde Pickett, Pitt’s vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion. “Our racial diversity is our strength, and it is crucial that everyone feel safe and supported here at Pitt.”

Lu-in Wang, vice provost for faculty affairs and a Pitt law professor who researches discrimination, said that when analyzing the data and individual incidents, “It’s important to understand that bias crimes are not always driven by a single, ‘pure’ motive like hate.”

“They are often crimes of opportunism,” Wang said. “That is, what motivates a perpetrator is the very thing that makes these crimes so frightening and harmful: the idea that the members of particular social groups are suitable or acceptable targets for violence and harassment.”

Lien said one of the subtler forms of discrimination involves being treated like the “forever foreigner,” no matter how many decades or generations people of Asian descent have lived in the region.

Advocates had started sounding the alarms of a surge of negativity toward Asian Americans at the start of the covid-19 pandemic. Prior to the statewide lockdown, some Asian-run restaurants reported suddenly losing as much as 40% to 50% of their business because of misplaced notions that Asian businesses posed a higher risk of the novel coronavirus.

Reports of anti-Asian discrimination to civil agencies have continued to climb in the region and statewide since the arrival of covid-19 last March.

Just last week, days before the attack in Atlanta, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission held a town hall on anti-Asian discrimination that involved policymakers, state police, community representatives and researchers who already expressed mounting concerns over escalating xenophobia.

“As state and national reports of discrimination, hate crimes, racial slurs and bias against the (Asian American Pacific Islander) community are rising exponentially, the PHRC has become increasingly concerned and alarmed for Pennsylvania’s residents,” said Chad Dion Lassiter, the state commission’s executive director. “We are taking this disturbing trend very seriously and have been actively meeting with colleagues, leaders and representatives of the AAPI community to address this issue head-on.”

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