Asm. Jackson AB 1079 Bill To Fight Hate
By Dianne Anderson
Once again, hate crime against Blacks top the charts, this year over three times higher than any other groups in California — and there has never been a state hate crime report where Black people haven’t been the most victimized.
Dr. Corey Jackson wants to equalize the situation.
“We’re just so used to it that when there are other groups that were not used to having hate crimes, [society] amplifies that, but we have normalized hate against black people,” said Assemblymember Jackson, author of the anti-hate bill, AB 1079.
Newsom has until October 14 to sign the rest of a flurry of bills to cross his desk in recent weeks.
The good news is that Gov. Newsom hasn’t requested that Jackson hold off on the bill, indicating no policy concerns around it. If it doesn’t pass, Jackson said he is prepared to fight next session.
“If the Governor signs it, this year we will create the structure. Next year, I have to now advocate for the funding,” he said.
If passed, he said AB 1079 requires the Public Health Department to establish the Hate Crimes Intervention Program within the Injury and Violence Prevention Branch and work closely with community leaders and organizations in communities with the highest hate crimes based on Department of Justice data.
Under the bill, whenever a hate crime occurs, the public health department would send out teams to reach out, to train and support communities in pushing back against hate.
Outreach and help are from a public health perspective, rather than law enforcement, and different race and ethnic communities will implement according to the level of their need.
While the Attorney General is in charge of prosecuting hate crimes, the public health department will be tasked with supporting and empowering local communities to prevent hate.
Following the murder of George Floyd, many public health agencies nationwide made a public declaration that racism is a public health crisis.
“The reason I came up with this bill is that when we started declaring racism as a public health crisis, no one knew what to do after. This is me saying, this is what the next step should be,” he said.
The bill also pays close attention that funding matches the need within most impacted communities, automatically adjusting resources the following year, according to the groups facing the highest hate crimes.
He said one reason his bill is important is that it stipulates that the number of resources should correlate with the number of hate crimes in California.
Last month, the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Civil Rights, Accessibility and Racial Equity (CARE) Office announced the recipients of Stop the Hate Funding for Fiscal Years 2022-23 and 2023-24. Of the allocated $91.4 million in funding, 173 organizations were awarded, covering July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2026.
Although Asian Pacific Islander (API) hate has dropped dramatically in the past year, hatred against Blacks continues to soar.
To level the funding field, AB 1079 requires that if hate crimes go up against Blacks, funding for resources and anti-hate messaging also goes up. If it decreases, it will keep pace and be commensurate with the needs of the most targeted groups.
“Conversely, if Muslim or Jewish hate goes up their percentage will go up too in the following year. The idea is that it keeps current with the data that is available. It’s equitable,” Jackson said.
State Attorney General Rob Bonta’s latest hate crime report finds a 20% surge in hate. Of those, Blacks took the worst hit, suffering over three times the impact of other groups, an increase of 27% to 652 cases for the year ending 2022.
Latinos also took a big impact. Anti-Hispanic bias crimes rose from 197 in 2021 to 210 in 2022.
During that same period, Anti-Jewish bias events increased 24.3% from 152 to 189. Anti-Protestant bias events rose from 2 to 12 events. Anti-Islamic (Muslim) bias crimes rose from 18 in 2021 to 25. Anti-transgender bias events increased from 38 to 59. Anti-gay male bias events increased 28.4% from 211 to 271, and Anti-lesbian bias crimes rose from 27 to 33.
Anti-Asian bias, which fell from 247 in 2021 to 140 in 2022, represents a decrease of 43.3%.
As part of AB 1079, Jackson said the bill looks to implement a California Ads Council, which allows a greater influence and expansion of anti-hate messaging through social media, and impact on young people.
“An ad council will go a long way to ensure that anti-racism is a part of our daily consumption and humanizing the most targeted groups at any given time. If racism is systemic, then anti-racism must be systemic,” he said.
Jackson, who is a Christian, also authored AB 1078 to End Book Banning and Reject Extremist Agendas in California’s Education System. It passed both houses last week and set to fight Christian extremist white nationalism.
With so much education suppressed regionally and nationally, he said the bill represents important preservation of history and truth.
Earlier this year, the American Library Association reported a record 2,571 unique titles were targeted for censorship, representing a 38% increase from 2021. Of those titles, most were written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color.
Jackson is also working on ACA7, which moved off the Assembly Floor on path to amend Proposition 209, the anti-affirmative action law passed during the 1990s. It now goes to the Senate side.
“Working on issues of racism, hate and xenophobia are the top three priorities I had coming up here and I intend to do this every year,” he said.
He said it is just the beginning of embedding anti-race, anti-hate and anti-xenophobic structure into the state of California.
“This is not going to be all. There is going to be more to come,” he said. “If we don’t tell our own stories as people who suffer from hate with other people then there is no way people are going to learn and empathize.”
To see the state’s funding for groups that address hate,
To see more of Assemblymember Jackson’s bills, https://a60.asmdc.org/
This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to https://www.cavshate.org/.
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