Summit explores multi-racial bigotry in America while finding creative ways to reduce it

“They fear each other because they don’t know each other, and they don’t know each other because they don’t communicate with each other, and they don’t communicate with each other because they are separated from each other.” Dr. Martin Luther King

To find creative solutions for combating hate, the California Civil Rights Department held a conference in San Francisco focusing on strategies to confront hatred in all its forms.

Individuals and participants from non-profit organizations gathered in person and online for the all-day May 11 summit, held at the Commonwealth Club and organized by CA vs Hate in partnership with the California Commission on the State of Hate and Stop the Hate. The event highlighted state programs including CA vs Hate, a reporting hotline and support connection network, and Stop the Hate CA, an anti-hate initiative — and addressed hateful acts against Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Californians in particular.

After a wave of anti-Asian violence from the COVID-19 era, and during this current period of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on American neighborhoods, many AAPI still fear the simple task of leaving their homes.

Almost half of AAPI adults say they experienced a hate act in 2025 — a figure that compares closely to 49% in 2023 and 53% in 2024, according to the nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate.

Attendees at the conference joined interactive workshops on dealing with different views, making cross-cultural connections, and spreading social justice through sharing lived experiences. Panels addressed the role of media and art in communicating positive messages as they inform the public.

In Sacramento, the fear is immediate. Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang, who represents District 8 in South Sacramento and is currently a candidate for the US House of Representatives in California’s 7th Congressional District, put it plainly.

“Despite the tireless efforts of community-based organizations including those that attended the CA vs. Hate conference, Hmong and Southeast Asian and immigrant communities are living in fear because of ICE and this authoritarian administration,” said Vang.

Vang referenced last January’s illegal ICE detention of Saint Paul, Minnesota resident Chong Ly “Scott” Thao, a U.S. citizen who was made to stand outside his home in freezing temperatures wearing only undershorts and a blanket.

“What we saw in Minnesota, in which ICE racially profiled members of our community — we need to stay vigilant and united against hate,” she said. “The way forward requires us to be unafraid in naming that we need to dismantle and abolish this racist rogue agency. It also demands that we find commonalities and our shared humanity to fight hate and racist institutions.”

Attendees at the conference joined interactive workshops on dealing with differing social views, making cross-cultural connections and spreading social justice through sharing lived experiences. Panels addressed the role of media and art in communicating positive messages to inform the public about why hate is not the answer to social differences.

Former Assemblymember Phil Ting was one of the first panelists. As chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, he helped create the CA vs. Hate and Stop the Hate CA programs.

Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang who is currently running for Congress in California’s 7th District. (Photo courtesy of Mai Vang)

Ting said that in recent years there has been a “concerted effort to roll back rights we have taken for granted” since the 1960s. His solution was to get more political.

“What we’ve been doing hasn’t been working, let’s just be frank,” said Ting. He encouraged nonprofit organization members in the audience to lobby Sacramento legislators more frequently, invite them to events and learn to communicate more effectively.

“Make sure you’re going to their events too, engaging them and sharing your point of view,” he said.

Two short films screened at the conference — one about the elderly and one about children — focused on viewing hate and discrimination from someone else’s point of view.

Asian Health Services presented Kevin Wong’s documentary “Love Has Two Meanings,” which follows 12 Chinese American elders from East Oakland’s Chinatown who fear their own neighborhoods due to a wave of post-pandemic robberies.

Watch: Love Has Two Meanings

After learning basic self-defense strategies, the elders are taken on a field trip to learn about other ethnic neighborhoods, including West Oakland, San Francisco and finally San Quentin State Prison — where they learn about how Asian youth, like others, become caught up in the criminal justice system in a sometimes lifelong pattern of recidivism.

San Quentin inmates on the Asian Prisoner Support Committee introduce the elders to the in-prison ROOTS (Restoring Our Original True Selves) program run by the Asian Prisoner Support Committee, which has helped over 250 young offenders rehabilitate themselves through ethnic studies curricula and reentry planning.

The Chinese elders wrote personal letters to the inmates they met, thanking them and encouraging them to keep moving forward. After the trip, most of the elders said they felt less fearful about the future.

In the second film, Daren Dien’s “Birth of a Mind,” three children play online games together without caring that one is white, one is African American, and one is Filipino — until their parents separately admonish each child to prioritize their own race first.

Watch: Birth of a Mind (Director’s Cut)

The film shows viewers how this parental misguidance feels from a child’s perspective. Dien, whose film was produced by LA vs Hate, told the conference the dialogue came from angry posts he found on social networks and things he had overheard firsthand.

Tony Douangviseth, executive director of Youth Together — a multiracial organization in Oakland that supports youth and families in creating transformative schools and communities — also spoke at the conference.

“When you’ve been in a community and you’ve been impacted, it creates harm, and that harm stays for a long time,” said Douangviseth. “It’s not only important to develop youth leaders, it’s important to inspire, to model what we have as adults.”

Get support for hate

The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) is the statewide agency that enforces the state’s civil rights laws, protecting Californians from unlawful discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations and state-funded programs, as well as from hate violence and human trafficking.

Run by the CRD, California vs Hate is a non-emergency, multilingual hotline and online portal offering confidential support for hate crimes and incidents.

Victims and witnesses can get confidential help anonymously by calling 833-8-NO-HATE (833-866-4283), Monday to Friday, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. PT, or online at any time, with no police or ICE involvement.

This story first ran in the Hmong Daily News and is republished here with permission.