Visualize Asiaphobia
Using data visualization to dig into the surge of hate crime toward Asians
This is part of the group project analyzing the logistical relationship between media and Asiaphobia. I am specifically in charge of visualizing hate crimes, studying Trump’s Twitter posts, and researching the potential casualty of Anti-Asian crimes in New York City.
#STOP ASIAN HATE# #STOP HATE CRIME# #EQUALITY# #LOVE WINS#
Anti-Asian Crime Timeline
Anti-Asian crimes have a significant surge after January 2020. While the pre-Jan-2020 span has barely any crime incidents due to Asian hatred, the post-Jan-2020 span holds a considerate amount of them. Secondly, Jan-2021 to Apr-2021 is another span when many anti-Asian crimes happened.
Anti-Gay Crime Timeline
By comparing with the anti-gay crime timeline, we found anti-Asian crimes happened in a more concentrated period instead of just scattering over the time like anti-gay crime. It suggests that anti-Asian crimes could be possibly triggered by specific incidents.
Anti-Black Crime Timeline
Likewise, I further compare anti-black crimes, anti-gay crimes, and anti-Asian crimes. The previous two show fewer temporal patterns than the last one, supporting my assumption that anti-Asian crimes may be related to particular incidents.
Hate Crime Heatmap
Three different hate crimes show some variance in geographical distribution. Lower Manhattan and the West Brooklyn area have many crime incidents for anti-Asian crimes. And Flushing also shows a vivid concentration of crimes since many Chinese families live there, and it is a primary Asian community.
Comparison Study with Trump’s Tweets
In contrast with Trump's tweets, these two spectrums have shown that, especially after 2020, Trump increasingly tweeted about China, especially after Covid-19 broke out. There is an apparent gap in crimes. The reason may be the quarantine resulting in the decrease in in-person travel, which directly led to the decline in hate crime.
After that, there was a significant surge in anti-Asian crimes, and because of the suspense of Trump's Twitter account, it is hard to tell their casualty. However, it is reasonable to suggest that Trump's hate and hostile and aggressive comments on China have something to do with increasing anti-Asian crimes.