AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Over the past couple of years, there's been a rise in online hate against people of South Asian descent, much of it directed at public figures - Democrats like Kamala Harris and Zohran Mamdani, and also prominent Republicans like Kash Patel and Vivek Ramaswamy.
A new report finds that this sort of hate speech more than tripled on X in terms of monthly posts between January 2024 and June 2026. Researchers say some of it's coming from politicians, including a Texas Railroad Commission candidate who caused an uproar last month, and from the federal government.
Raqib Naik is the executive director of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate and co-author of the report. He joins us now. Thank you for being here.
RAQIB NAIK: Thank you for having me.
RASCOE: So obviously, you know, hatred directed towards South Asians is not a new phenomenon, but we are seeing a significant surge. Why this group specifically, and why now?
NAIK: It's a mix of hostile immigration rhetoric, xenophobic nationalism, long-standing racism and this growing visibility of South Asians in the public American life, as well as the economic anxiety around immigration and H-1B visas and, on top of it, social media amplifying all of it. And this is being framed through these great replacement narratives.
RASCOE: A lot of this, from what you're saying, is about this great replacement theory - this idea that whites are being replaced by other races and ethnicities.
NAIK: Correct.
RASCOE: You looked at online hate, like, posts and things of that nature. How does that correlate with actions offline?
NAIK: We often see that online hate can serve as a pathway to radicalization and violence. These narratives have figured out in some of the deadliest far-right terrorist attacks of recent years - from Norway in 2011 to Christchurch in 2019, to El Paso, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and recently in San Diego. When you have powerful and influential people using their platforms, their pulpits to peddle anti-South Asian hate and amplify these narratives of invasion and replacement, they normalize this dehumanization and demonization that contributes to creating an environment in which violence becomes the likely outcome.
RASCOE: Last month, a Republican candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission posted a photo of UT Austin students celebrating a men's football win. He captioned it, I heard UT graduation this year look like this, I didn't believe it, the problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined. The photo shows many South Asian students, including Rahul Kadali (ph), who spoke to River City News.
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RAHUL KADALI: It's never a good thing to say, but a person who is running for position of power saying it is especially disturbing.
RASCOE: And a few days later, the U.S. Department of Education posted a meme showing a UT football game and the words, make football great again. What do you make of this incident?
NAIK: This has been the hallmark of this administration that has repeatedly echoed xenophobic, nativist, anti-immigrant sentiments. In this particular case, we did see some backlash from some Republicans in Texas. The problem is the contradiction here. Some of these political figures who condemned anti-South Asian racism - this particular post in question - have themselves promoted and - or failed to challenge Islamophobic narratives. You cannot neatly separate these forms of bigotries.
RASCOE: I mentioned that politicians on both sides of the aisle have been targeted. People often think that representation in politics is a good thing. But is visibility having a different effect here?
NAIK: The visibility of South Asians here in the American public life - and not just in politics, by the way, but also as leaders of major companies, particularly in tech and in other influential institutions - has been weaponized. And that visibility is now being increasingly framed as South Asians gaining too much power or taking over. And beneath it all lies this idea - and a very dangerous idea - that South Asians don't belong in this country.
RASCOE: What do you think can be done about all of this?
NAIK: So addressing this requires intervention at multiple levels. First definitely is that political leaders and other influential figures need to stop legitimizing these narratives that portray these entire communities as demographic or cultural threats, and social media companies particularly need to implement their hate speech policies. And they also should examine how their recommendation systems and monetization structures amplify and contribute to this kind of rise in hate. I think, at the end of the day, you cannot fix one form of hate and leave other forms of hate unaddressed. And we right now need a coordinated response that addresses this broader ecosystem of hate rather than treating each as manifestation in isolation.
RASCOE: That's Raqib Naik, executive director of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate. Thank you so much for joining us.
NAIK: Thank you so much for having me.
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