In its first year, California’s anti-hate hotline received over 1,000 reported acts of hate, including 44 reported acts in Riverside County and 40 acts in San Bernardino County. That’s according to data released by the state’s Civil Rights Department earlier this week.
Launched last year, the multilingual California vs Hate Resource Line helps report hate crimes confidentially, while offering information for legal, financial and mental health services.
The Civil Rights Department says most incidents of hate happen at home, work or public places mainly involving race, ethnicity, gender identity and sexual orientation. Reports related to race and ethnicity pointed to Anti-Black, Anti-Latino and Anti-Asian bias.
Civil Rights Department Director Kevin Kish says the hotline is helping serve underrepresented communities outside of big cities.
"That is good news to us, that people who may not have had access to these types of services before are using them," said Kish. "But we're very alert to the fact that people only use resources that they know about, and resources that they trust."
The department is exploring a partnership with UC Berkeley to enhance its data collection and explore ways of reaching people through text messaging.
The hotline operates in 15 languages online and over 200 languages by phone.
Reports to CA vs Hate can be made anonymously at (833) 866-4283 or online at CAvsHate.org.
