In 2020, amidst the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and a social justice movement against police violence and racism, the FBI observed a rise in hate crimes directed at African Americans. The FBI reported that 64.9% of the 8,052 hate crime incidents in 2020 were motivated by race, ethnicity, or ancestry bias, with Black Americans accounting for over half of the victims. The number of reported hate crimes targeting African Americans in 2020 increased to 2,871 from 1,972 in 2019, contributing to an overall 9.1% rise in hate crimes. In the five years leading up to 2019, African Americans were involved in approximately half of all cases involving bias based on race, ethnicity, or ancestry, according to FBI data. Experts who analyze this data caution that the federal numbers may not tell the whole story, and that the increase in reported cases could be due to a greater awareness and willingness to report such crimes. However, they also suggest that the focus on social justice issues may have contributed to a rise in violence against Black Americans. Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, stated that the events of 2020, including the protests following George Floyd's murder, shifted the spotlight onto prejudice against African Americans. While official hate crime statistics for 2021 have not been released, experts in this field believe that attacks on Black individuals and institutions have persisted. For example, a significant number of historically Black colleges and universities, as well as several houses of worship and other faith-based and academic institutions, were targeted with bomb threats this year, according to the FBI. Racially motivated violence was in the spotlight once again in February, as three white Georgia men were found guilty of federal hate crimes for chasing and killing Ahmaud Arbery because of his race. The trial was notable for its honest examination of racism. While the FBI releases an annual report on hate crimes, many police agencies do not submit data, leading to underreporting of bias crimes. This lack of reporting makes it difficult to fully understand the extent of hate crimes nationwide, but the report still provides valuable insights into overall trends. In recent years, the Justice Department has been urging victims to report bias crimes and has made prosecuting these crimes a top priority. The FBI released a report last year based on data collected in 2020 from over 15,000 law enforcement agencies, revealing a significant increase in hate crimes, particularly targeting Black and Asian Americans. Hate crimes are defined by the FBI as crimes motivated by bias, ranging from bomb threats and vandalism to physical violence and murder. The data shows that over the past decade, hate crimes against Black Americans, who make up 12.1% of the population, have been higher than those against any other group based on religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. In the last decade, there were 20,084 reported instances of anti-Black crimes. During that time period, the second largest category of crimes was anti-Jewish crimes, with 7,688 reports despite Jews only making up about 2.4% of the US adult population. The man accused of the Buffalo attack, an 18-year-old white individual armed with a semi-automatic rifle and white supremacist beliefs adopted during the pandemic, opened fire at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood. He killed 10 people, mostly African American, and injured three others. In an online post outlining his plans, the suspect expressed his hate by writing a racist slur on his weapon and mentioning replacement theory, a far-right belief about the white population being replaced by people of color and immigrants. This mass shooting, being investigated by the Justice Department as a possible hate crime, is similar to other instances of racial violence fueled by white supremacy, such as the massacres in a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, a Pittsburgh synagogue, and a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Experts note that contemporary hate crimes against African Americans are a combination of old and new forms of bigotry. The enduring fear of demographic shifts and "replacement" is present in certain pockets of the internet and is often fueled by racist political rhetoric, according to Jeannine Bell, a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law and an expert on hate crimes. White supremacists have long been concerned about white replacement, especially during tough times like the present. Bell also believes that the recent increase in anti-Black hate crimes can be partially attributed to backlash against protests following George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis, as they brought out anger towards African Americans. "There is a significant amount of support, along with a significant amount of anger," she noted. "The news was filled with stories of Black victimization, which infuriates white supremacists to see African Americans portrayed sympathetically." Bell explained that identifying the root cause of a rise in hate crimes is challenging. However, major events such as the 2020 summer protests serve as a useful reference point. "It is likely that there has been a surge in anti-Asian hate crimes," Bell added. There was an event, a pandemic, and a surge in anti-Asian hate crimes related to the pandemic occurred. Counting hate crimes against African Americans accurately is challenging due to a lack of dedicated tracking groups. A coalition of civil rights organizations urged President Joe Biden to hold a summit this week to address hate crimes and right-wing extremism. Rev. Al Sharpton emphasized the urgency of a national response to the increasing crimes.