Overview:
The California Civil Rights Department’s (CRD) CA vs Hate hosted its first Civil Rights Summit on May 11 in San Francisco, bringing together people from diverse communities to promote unity and confront hate.
“I do feel like sometimes I can’t seek help from authorities just because of my race” – A hate victim to the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS).
The First Civil Rights Summit
The California Civil Rights Department’s (CRD) CA vs Hate hosted its first Civil Rights Summit on May 11 in San Francisco, bringing together people from diverse communities to promote unity and confront hate.
The Summit highlighted the serious reality of hate in California while also inspiring hope through community members and stakeholders working together to share resources, find solutions, and combat hate across the state.
The Scale of Hate in California
Commissioners from the California Commission on the State of Hate, along with a panel of researchers, presented findings from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), conducted by UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research. The Commission is a public body focused on addressing hate in California.
The numbers are revealing, said Dr. Adrian Bacong of the CRD, who shared three key CHIS findings:
- In the past 12 months, 3 million individuals experienced an act of hate in California. This includes both hate crimes and non-criminal hate acts, about one in 10 California adults and teens.
- In San Francisco, 12.8% of people experienced an act of hate, which is higher than the California average of 9.4%. Alameda County is also higher than average.
- The most commonly endorsed reason is race and skin color. 42% of individuals who experienced a hate act believe the reason was race and skin color. Ancestry, national origin, or language is also a very common reason, as is sexual orientation or gender identity.
Bacong added that the true scale of the problem becomes clearer when comparing the small number of reported cases to the much larger number of incidents actually experienced by community members. “National estimates suggest that law enforcement data only capture about 3% of the actual hate crime victimizations or about one in 31 hate crime victimizations.”
A three-pronged mission
Commissioner Russell Roybal outlined the three-pronged mission of the California Commission for the State of Hate. They are to:
- Monitor hate and provide key trends for hate impacting Californians.
- Strengthen responses to hate by issuing recommendations for strengthening California’s response to hate, and providing support systems, resources, and
- Prevent hate by providing guidance to law enforcement and the community on hate prevention.
“We know that California’s efforts to stop hate need to be informed by the wisdom and expertise of the communities of California,” Royball said. “To date, the commission has issued 42 recommendations across its three annual reports, and it regularly travels the state to hear directly from the communities it serves.”
Refining law enforcement responses
“I’m not sure what the police could have done, but I was expecting more than just, ‘sorry this happened to you, but we can’t help you.'” – a hate victim to CHIS.
Dr. Rebecca Goodsell of the CRD, who spoke about law enforcement responses to hate, said many barriers prevent people from reporting hate crimes and hate incidents.
“We know from the research”, she said, “that people may not report to law enforcement for a variety of reasons…including distrust in law enforcement, inadequate accommodations for people, including those with disabilities, and those for whom English is not their first language.” For many people, hate has become so normalized that they no longer feel it’s worth reporting.
To ensure that the government or law enforcement can properly respond with help and resources when people report incidents, the Commission examined gaps in how hate cases are handled, including training requirements. It also worked with POST to improve training for all law enforcement officers across the state.
To support this goal, the Commission created a training video based on AB 449 that shares real victim experiences and shows both effective and ineffective responses to hate crimes and incidents. The training also stresses the importance of offering support even when incidents are not classified as crimes. Common needs include mental health counseling, physical safety protection, and help navigating law enforcement.
“The really cool thing was the police officer who showed up — he actually handed me a card for counseling” – A hate victim describing resources received from the police in response to a hate crime that was a physical assault.
Prevention through schools
Dr. Kevin Thomas of the CRD focused on two prevention strategies: strengthening public messaging and preventing hate in K–12 schools. “In California, about 12% of teens experienced hate in the schools in the past 12 months, and one in four admitted to having witnessed it,” he said. He noted that teachers, who are on the front lines of students’ experiences, are in a key position to identify and help prevent students from internalizing hateful ideology.
Strengthening public messaging to raise awareness in the community is another key part of preventing hate. “A person’s thoughts and behaviors are strongly guided by the perception of what behaviors are common and deemed appropriate within the broader community setting,” said Thomas. “Research shows that people’s reported levels of prejudice toward a given group were strongly correlated with community norms of how acceptable it was to be prejudiced against that group. So if you can promote anti-hate initiatives as a social norm, it’s a great way to prevent hate,” he added.
Deadly attack on the Islamic Center in San Diego
The recent deadly shooting at an Islamic center in San Diego on May 18, which is being investigated as a hate crime, underscores the need to strengthen anti-hate efforts. Three people were killed in the suicide attack, which happened just a week after the CA vs Hate Summit.
In a newsletter statement, the CAIR-San Diego Executive Director Tazheen Nizam strongly condemned the horrifying act of violence at the Islamic Center of San Diego, saying, “No one should ever fear for their safety while attending prayers or studying at an elementary school.”
Dina Chehata, Civil Rights Managing Attorney for CAIR-LA, told India Currents last month about Islamophobia and online hate crimes targeting mosques in Southern California. Chehata referred to a recent example of online hate in February 2026, explaining, “There was a person online who felt very empowered and left dozens and dozens of hate messages on the Islamic Center websites in Southern California, saying things like, ‘go back to your *** countries where you belong, you *** don’t belong in America.”
More recently, said Chehata, an April 11th post criticized a mosque in Southern California, stating, ‘Did you all know that there’s this big Islamic Center, they’re taking over the country? Soon, everyone’s going to be Muslim. They want to impose Sharia law.’
This post received dozens of comments – one read ‘easy fix’ with a picture of an explosion happening, and another post said, ‘what a nice place for’… with emojis of fireworks.
The anonymity of online platforms emboldens perpetrators, said Chehata. They use these channels to share publicly available information and hate messages, encourage others to spread hate and carry out attacks, and endanger lives and livelihoods, while trying to remain below the threshold of a reportable crime.
“We’re seeing an uptick in hate and discrimination, a surge across the board.”
The arts and community-based advocacy
The Summit also featured remarks from David Chiu, City Attorney for San Francisco, a fireside chat featuring Bamby Salcedo of the TransLatina Coalition on lived experience and community-based advocacy, and a plenary discussion on California’s role in developing policies and programs to prevent hate and support victims. Hip-hop artist and activist Ruby Ibarra and San Francisco Drag Laureate Per Sia reflected on the lived realities behind the data. Faviana, founder of the Center for Cultural Power, spoke about cultural change preceding political change.
The California vs. Hate hotline
Report hate crimes or hate incidents on 833-8-NO-HATE or visit CA vs Hate.
