A series of hate messages targeted at Asian, African Americans and other ethnic groups recently in some parts of the United States have been condemned by civil rights organizations, authorities said on Sunday.
The new round of protests were prompted by a wave of hate messages appeared in Orange County in Southern California.
The first incident was reported to police in Santa Ana, a city in Orange County. A spray-painted message, which called for violence against Asian and African Americans, was discovered last Tuesday on a sidewalk outside Orange County Housing Authority offices in Santa Ana, according to police.
The second and third incidents were found in Anaheim, Los Angeles, where Disneyland is situated, also on last Tuesday.
Anaheim police said they discovered similar graffiti at a Chase bank, as well as at a pet clinic in Anaheim Hills. Those messages also called for violence against Mexican, Filipino, Chinese and African Americans.
The Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), a member of Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, strongly condemns the hate messages.
"It's unfortunate that these hate messages have surfaced in Orange County, which has one of the fastest growing Asian American populations in the state," said Stewart Kwoh, president and executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, in a statement released during the weekend.
"Calls for violence against any community are unacceptable," Kwoh noted.
Alex Nogales, President of the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), also warned about the increase of hate crimes against Latinos in the United States.
"The words of our elected representatives are often charged with hate and feelings of xenophobia, especially against Hispanics, which is putting this area
of public opinion completely out of touch with reality," Nogales was quoted by
the Latin American Herald Tribune as saying Sunday.
"They blame us for things like unemployment, lack of security and economic problems," the NHMC president said in an interview with the paper.
"A lot of very serious studies exist that recount the valuable contributions that immigrants make to the economy, figures that clearly show the benefits of Hispanic labor, Latino businessmen and immigrants who join the army - they give so much to this country - but that information is hidden, ignored or distorted,
and recently we have been demonized," he said.
"The latest study of hate crimes shows they increased by 40 percent between 2003 and 2007," Nogales said. "These figures are now even higher, and if we don't ease off on these anti-immigrant diatribes, the number of hate crimes will continue to rise," he warned.