Hate incidents against Asian Americans have increased dramatically over the last year.
A report from the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism found Anti-Asian hate crimes increased 145 percent in 16 of the largest U.S. cities last year, while hate crimes overall decreased.
The alarming increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans, along with last week's deadly shootings at three Atlanta-area spas that killed eight people, six of them Asian women, prompted more calls for solidarity with the Asian American community and an end to racial violence across the country, including in Pittsburgh.
Police in Cherokee County, GA say the suspect in the spa shootings claimed the attack was not racially motivated, which has been met with skepticism.
Sarah Souri, a therapist out of Wexford who specializes in working with Asian Americans, says the increase in violence against Asian Americans over the past year has had a major impact on her clients.
"I've seen an uptick in terms of depression, anxiety," she said. "I also have noticed just a sense of loss."
Nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate launched on March 19, 2020 to track and respond to hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States, according to their website.
The group reports they received nearly 3,800 reports of hate incidents between their launch and February 28, 2021. Some of the reports included being turned away from a business, verbal harassment and physical violence.
Souri adds acts of racism can also be more subtle.
"It might be a look, a glance, a comment, a Facebook post," she said. "Those type of things that might be more subtle, but it still hurts, and it's still scary to those who are affected by it."
She suggests anyone in the Asian American community struggling to seek help from a professional or from support groups.
"Finding even informal support groups, finding people that can relate to you, I think can be really powerful," she said.
Pittsburgh-area resources for Asian Americans include the Pittsburgh Chapter of the OCA and the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance.