As Kamala Harris, Usha Vance bring marquee value to South Asian profile, a spike in online hate: report [Video]

Vice President Kamala Harris and Usha Vance, the wife of Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, have raised their profiles in the race for the White House, and their South Asian ancestry has been front and center during the 2024 campaign cycle.

Now, a new report from the advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate says it found that a rise in South Asian representation has coincided with anti-South Asian racism online.

Stop AAPI Hate, which collects data and research on anti-Asian hate, found that online threats of violence toward Asian communities reached their highest recent levels in August, when Harris was declared the presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention and Vance appeared at the Republican National Convention.

“The preelection surge in anti-South Asian hate stems from a toxic political climate in which a growing number of leaders and far-right extremist voices continue to spew bigoted political rhetoric and disinformation,” said Cynthia Choi, co-founder of …