At the recent SFNext conference at the Exploratorium, there was a lot of discussion about the Asian American community and the sense that many Asian residents no longer feel safe living in San Francisco.

KPIX reporter Betty Yu met with KPIX anchor Juliette Goodrich for a special report on the topic.

According to the most recent census in San Francisco, there are now 300,000 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Betty explained. That’s about one-third of San Francisco’s population. In this group, Chinese Americans accounted for the majority.

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Hate crimes targeting the city’s Asian-American community increased 700 percent from 2020 to 2021, according to a police report.

As one reason, Beatty explained, racism against Asian Americans has existed since the mid-1800s. However, there is evidence that the recent rise in crime against the neighborhood stems from the pandemic and conversations in the Trump White House at the time that may have led to Asian-Americans being scapegoated.

Betty has reported on many of the recent hate crimes, and she shares with Juliet the trauma the community suffers in the face of these attacks.

She mentioned a story she made about a coffee shop in Chinatown where the owner helped his employees by teaching self-defense techniques.