On this episode of numbers and figures confirming everything we already knew about racism: the FBI released new data on how many hate crimes were recorded over the past five years. Guess which group caught the most heat? Go ahead…we’ll give you three guesses.
The Hate Crime in the U.S. Incident Analysis on the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer revealed a total of 14,840 anti-Black or African American crimes were committed between 2020 and 2024 – the highest across all biases with anti-Jewish hate crimes and anti-gay hate crimes following close behind.
The most recorded offenses according to the data were intimidation and vandalism. The most recorded locations which these incidents occurred were at a Black person’s residence or out in the open on a street or sidewalk. As no shock at all, white people were the race most recorded for being the perpetrator behind these attacks across the past five years: 8,468 in total.
Over the past five years, the data shows a semi-consistent rise and dip of incidents. However, the most notable spike in offenses against Black people was in June of 2020 – the height of the Black Lives Matter movement and calls to racial justice – with over 700 incidents reported out of the 1,500 hate crimes total. Another shocking spike was reported in October 2023, when there was a sudden uptick in anti-Jewish incidents totaling 332 with anti-Black crimes following close behind with 278 reported incidents.
Just weeks ago, the federal government arrested two white individuals for their role in running the Terrorgram Collective where they are alleged to have recruited online users to carry out plots to kill Black people and others. On a local scale, a white man appeared in court last month to respond to charges for assaulting a Black boy while calling him a racial slur. Even an 11-year-old white boy was charged in the drowning of a Black boy whose parents believe the incident was racially charged.
No one here is playing Hate Crime Olympics. These numbers just confirm the very thing we’ve been trying to prevent people from turning a blind eye to.
