US hate crimes reached record high in 2021, mostly targeting Blacks

The number of hate crimes in the United States rose dramatically in 2021 to set a record high of nearly 11,000 incidents, the FBI said in its annual hate crimes report.

The largest number of hate crimes, some 2,233 incidents, were motivated by bias against African Americans, the report found.

The most reported hate crimes in 2021 were intimidation, simple assault and destruction, damage and vandalism.

The FBI said 64.5% of hate crime victims in 2021 were targeted because of their race, ethnicity or ancestry, and 14.1% due to religion.

Anti-Black hate crimes rose 14% to 3,277 incidents, anti-white incidents increased 27% to 1,107, while anti-Asian bias incidents jumped 167% to 746.

Of the religion-based hate crimes in 2021 cited in the report, a little more than half targeted Jewish people.

"There was an explosion of racial hatred across the board," said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

"This represents a horrifying new era that we're in with elevated historic levels across many years and a broken record in 2021," Levin said in an interview with VOA.

The FBI’s annual hate crimes report is widely used by law enforcement, policymakers, experts and community leaders as a broad measure of bias offenses in America.

But critics say the report tends to undercount hate crimes in large part because it's based on voluntary data submission by police departments.

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