By Dianne Anderson

Hate crime reporting could be lagging because some people do not trust the government, or some may be afraid of calling the police for fear of getting shot, yet others may not report because they do not know where to call.

From what Dr. Regina Patton Stell can see, none of those issues are stopping racism and discrimination complaints at her branch NAACP.

In recent years, she and colleagues at other branches have seen a similar increase, but not at this level for as long as she can remember.

“There’s no question, I get calls every day. I get them from the education committee. I get them from people going into grocery stores, from the public sector. I get them from housing sections, HOAs that are racial profiling and discrimination, every day,” said Dr. Stell, president of the Riverside Branch NAACP.

The local branch addresses the hate across all sectors, but also takes its anti-hate campaigns to interface with school districts. Along with Stell, who has served 32 years in K-12 education, they also rely on their education committee chair, UCR Professor Dr. Carolyn Murray, for help and guidance.

“We constantly get complaints and work with families. We realize and are joining together to engage and empower parents to understand the problem and the solution,” she said.

She is concerned as the country has taken a hateful turn. In the coming months, she will push to prepare voters in a way that will count the most, at the ballot.

“We have returned to a battle we thought was over,” she said. “We’re going to continue and we’re going to win.”

Blacks continually disproportionately make up the highest target for hate crime over all other races and groups, yet only a small handful of identifiable Black-led organizations received anti-hate funding from the state to address the problem.

Recently, Attorney General Bonta’s Office released the 2023 Hate Crime in California Report, showing hate crime events decreased 7.1% in the prior year down 1,970 in 2023 and hate crime offenses also decreased 8.9% down to 2,359 in 2023.  While events involving a racial bias decreased 21.6% to 1,017 in 2023, they report that Anti-Black bias events remained the most prevalent, despite a 20.6% decrease from 652 in 2022 to 518 in 2023.

Terrance Stone with Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy did receive some “Stop the Hate”  funding, less than half of what he requested. He intends to stretch those dollars as far as possible to reach students with an anti-hate campaign.

Students are also impacted in ways that don’t always talk about or report.

Today, he said there is ignorance of the meaning of the N-word, but somehow racist slurs seem more acceptable when used against Blacks than what other races would tolerate.

Inside the schools, someone calls another the N-word, and when students try to complain, they say that nobody cares.

“When we brought it to the attention of the district, they [at the district] say everyone is saying that. But, if that was a derogatory remark against LGBTQ, Asian, Latino, they wouldn’t be taking it so lightly,” he said.

He feels that different nationalities need to understand the N-word is not a term of endearment.

“Or, they try to justify it and say —  it’s a hard “r” or a soft “a” at the end. It’s the same word. Young people think it’s a hip hop word, without knowing the hateful connotation behind it,” he said.

In a recent webinar, the California Civil Rights Department emphasized that nonprofits and governmental agencies must encourage more reporting, and reach those who would not necessarily call the government or police.

In the state’s webinar, Becky Monroe highlighted the importance of reporting hate crimes, also responding with resources, and developing policies to support the community. She said their department’s mission is to prevent wrongful discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, hate violence and human trafficking.

“We recognize that all of this, enforcement across the board is essential to combating hate, and encouraging people to report acts of hate. If we have an effective response and effective enforcement of civil rights laws and civil rights protections. We create a climate where people are more likely to report,” said Monroe, Deputy Director of Strategic Initiatives & External Affairs for the department.

Last year, Governor Newsom launched California vs Hate, a multilingual statewide hotline and online portal for victims and witnesses of hate acts to report anonymously. So far, data shows about 1,020 acts of hate were reported to the California Civil Rights Department, which operates the hotline.

Through that effort, people called in and were connected with over 100 different types of resources, including social services, how to reach out to law enforcement, or connect with advocates who work with law enforcement.

Ultimately, Monroe said that reporting is important to develop good data-driven policies and agendas, as well as earn enough trust to collect the information to get people resources.

“The mistrust of government or law enforcement, there is a huge overlap between communities targeted for hate and communities that don’t trust govt or law enforcement,” she said.

On July 1, AB 499, went into effect to address how that data is reported. The bill, authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), now requires all law enforcement agencies in California to have a hate crimes policy and follow specific guidelines when responding to incidents.

Ting reports on his website that in 2018, the State Auditor found that California’s hate crimes are under-reported by 14% due, in part, to outdated or non-existent policies – all of which contribute to an incomplete picture of hate in the state.

“It’s ridiculous that some jurisdictions in our state are reporting zero hate crimes. Problems can’t be solved without the true depth and frequency of these incidents. Once we have accurate data, we can use that information to guide us in implementing preventative measures, more services for victims and stronger education programs,” said Ting.

To report a Hate Crime and for other resources, see https://www.cavshate.org/

To see the 2023 California Hate Crime Report, https://bit.ly/3LR8oPL