ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — The Orange County Board of Supervisors passed two resolutions Tuesday to try to curb acts of hate against Asian Americans. They're next steps, not final ones, toward limiting what county officials call a surge in anti-Asian-American sentiment.
Lisa Bartlett, the county's 5th District Supervisor, plans to ask for more money at the board's next meeting on April 13.
She's working with her staff to iron out details like how much money should be on the table and precisely what it should be used for. Right now, Bartlett says she plans to ask for a minimum of $100,000, and the county's capacity to receive reports of incidents isn't enough. While some communities of Asian Americans may be unlikely to report instances of hate speech, hate crimes, or harassment, language may be preventing others. Bartlett said additional translators could be a good use of additional money.
The county's OC Human Relations Commission is its volunteer entity, consisting of 11 appointed members. But the legwork is farmed out to a nonprofit, the OC Human Relations Council, which is tasked with outreach and collecting reports from community members. The nonprofit has about 25 members, but three of the staff are under contract with the city. The others aren't included in any county-mandated work.
The OC Human Relations Council is working on a $126,000, six-month extension.
"They've gotta have that bandwidth of resources where they have interpreters to take reports of hate crimes," Bartlett said.
According to U.S. Census data, about 21% of Orange County's more than 3 million residents identify as Asian American.
Officials report a surge in anti-Asian-American sentiment, and hate crimes have surged to the top of the news cycle.
"There are some individuals who are afraid to go out of their house," Bartlett said. "Nobody should be afraid to go out of their house and go to the grocery."
The high-profile shooting that led to the deaths of eight spa workers in Atlanta has led officials around the nation to make statements on Asian American hate crimes and hate rhetoric. Former President Donald Trump regularly referred to COVID-19 as "the China virus" or "Kung Flu."
In response, organizers have mobilized rallies to counter racist language.
Allison Edwards, CEO of the nonprofit OC Human Relations Council, said her staff offers support for three languages and needs to expand.
A lot of the focus, she said, is on education and informing people of all the resources available to them. Instances of hate don't have to be crimes, she said. But police departments aren't equipped or able to process hate incidents that don't violate the law. The prime example, Edwards said, is hate speech, which is protected by the First Amendment.
Edwards' staff has also been assigned the duty of publishing a monthly incident report that seeks to quantify the instances of hate speech or crimes county-wide. Edwards said her team writes this report based on data from local police departments, which is submitted to them on an annual basis. They're still developing a plan for how to collect data more quickly.
But ultimately, lasting change comes from an engrained connection with the community.
"Really, the ability to be effective in this work are relationships of trust, and you just can't build that enough," she said.