9/11 effect: Opinion Survey of California of Ethnic Min.

Here is an opinion survey done in 12 languages. Data gives interest view of California residents.


A large percentage of ethnic Californians believe the general quality of life has worsened in the last year. According to survey results, a majority of Hispanics (55%) and Asian-Americans (59%) feel less secure going about their daily lives today than they did a year ago. A majority of African-Americans (88%), as well as Hispanics (53%) and Asians (57%), think that a terrorist attack is likely to happen in their local community. A majority of California residents that identify themselves as Arabic, Iranian, Pakistani or Afghan (i.e. the Middle Eastern sample) reveal that they get depressed more often now than they did before 9/11 (56%). And substantial majorities of the four “ethnic” groups interviewed say they worry more about their family’s future, and that their children seem to be more afraid for their family’s safety.

September 11 has brought families of all ethnic groups and the communities in which they live closer together. A majority of the Asians (61%), Hispanics (73%), and African-Americans (56%) in the study told our interviewers that the events of 9/11 had made them feel that there is a greater sense of community and understanding in California. **Only Pakistanis disagreed with this finding. **Nevertheless, all of the four “ethnic” groups studied strongly agreed that they felt the need to spend more time with their families since September 11th.

**Strong Evidence of Discrimination Since 9/11.**There is strong evidence in the study that a significant number of California residents of Arabic, Iranian, Afghani, Pakistani and Asian Indian descent feel that they have been the victims of racial or ethnic discrimination on a more frequent basis than before the events of 9/11 (58% said they had been a victim of discrimination more often).

Thanks for sharing OldLahori. Here is what todays LA Times is reporting:

**L.A. County’s Reported Hate Crimes Jump 11% **

Commission: Increase is the highest in 21 years of record-keeping.

A record 1,031 alleged hate crimes were reported in 2001, up from 933 in 2000.

**There were 118 suspected hate crimes targeting Middle Easterners and Muslims in the three months after Sept. 11, compared to 14 in all of 2000, the commission said. **

Crimes ranged from assault and vandalism to a possible murder. The victims included Muslims and people such as Hispanics and south Asians who were mistakenly thought to be Middle Eastern, the panel said.

“Historically African-Americans are the largest group of racial hate-crime victims and Jews the largest group of religious hate-crime victims in our county,” said Robin Toma, commission director. “But in the face of 9-11 and terror threats we must persevere in seeking the best in others and ourselves. The stakes are too high for all of us.”

The killing recorded by the commission was the Sept. 15 shooting of Egyptian-American grocer Adel Karas, 48, in his San Gabriel market.

Sheriff’s investigators, however, did not develop any specific information that the killing was a hate crime, and it was investigated as a robbery that resulted in a murder. The assailants were vaguely described at the time as “clean-cut” Hispanic men.

Relatives contended that Karas, a Coptic Christian from Egypt, was killed because the attackers assumed he was Muslim.

Toma said the Human Relations Commission decided it was a hate crime because the killing occurred so soon after Sept. 11 and the victim’s ethnicity was obvious