NOTE: Faculty, if you are interviewed and quoted by news media, or if your work has been cited, and you have an online link to the article or video, please let us know. Contact us at news@csusb.edu.   

Cal State San Bernardino professor helps with animated films
The Sun
March 24, 2021

Like many other Southern California families, Professor Stuart Sumida enjoys going on outings with his wife and two sons to the desert.

The Cal State San Bernardino biology professor also enjoys taking them on archeological “digs” for reptiles that lived millions of years ago.

“I don’t study the dinosaurs,” he’ll tell you. “I study animals much older than dinosaurs. Turns out, paleontology class is a big detective story.”

Sumida is also known internationally as an anatomy consultant to film animators, including Disney and Pixar films. Animation is all about how animals move, he’ll tell you.

Read the complete article at “Cal State San Bernardino professor helps with animated films.”

CSUSB professor comments on study that found part of the San Andreas fault is moving way faster than previously thought
LAist
March 24, 2021

Sally McGill, a geology professor at Cal State San Bernardino, was interviewed about a new study, published in Science Advances, that said a portion of the San Andreas fault known as the Mission Creek strand, is moving faster than previously thought.

“Their study is in a region where the San Andreas fault is quite complex. This is a substantial step in improving our understanding of how the Southern San Andreas fault works,” said McGill.

The Mission Creek strand and stretches from around Indio, through Desert Hot Springs and into the mountains of San Bernardino.

Read the complete article at “Part of the San Andreas fault is moving way faster than we previously thought.”

Language for proposed legislation to screen law enforcement candidates needs to be tightened, CSUSB professor says
The Sacramento Bee
March 25, 2021

California lawmakers are considering a bill that would require law enforcement agencies to screen their officers for membership in hate groups, participation in hate group activities, or “public expressions of hate.” Assembly Bill 655, introduced by San Jose Democratic Assemblyman Ash Kalra, also known as the CLEAR Act, would make such a screening part of the background check upon hiring, and also create a process where a complaint would trigger an investigation that, if sustained, could lead to that officer’s termination.

Professor Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said he applauds the effort behind the bill, but that the language as written needs to be tightened up.

“It’s so broad that I think it can ensnare within its prohibitions people who involve themselves in civil discourse but not necessarily in a way that puts other people at risk,” Levin said.

Levin, who specializes in analysis of hate crimes, terrorism and legal issues, said that the current language of the bill makes him uncomfortable.

“I’m a little concerned frankly of having the government, beyond a certain limitation, set a standard for an orthodoxy of acceptable viewpoints outside of something that is steeped-in-the-wool bigotry or encouragement of violence,” he said.

Levin said that the government has an obligation to protect the most vulnerable in society, but also has an obligation not to chill free speech.

Read the complete article at “Fact check: Would a California bill prevent Republicans from being police officers?”

Reasons for animosity toward Asian Americans include political rhetoric, pent-up frustrations from the year-long pandemic and desire to find a scapegoat, CSUSB professor says
KTVU Fox 2 San Francisco
March 24, 2021

Asian-Americans experienced the largest single rise in severe online hate and harassment year-over-year in comparison to other groups, according to a new survey released on Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League.

In a separate analysis earlier this year by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State University San Bernardino, the anti-Asian-American hate crimes reported to police across the country in big cities have skyrocketed in the last year. 

Overall, the data collected shows that anti-Asian-American crimes surged 145%, while overall hate crime nationwide dropped 6% in 2020.

Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism Director Brian Levin said there are many reasons for the rise in this animosity, stemming from former President Trump's negative association of the coronavirus with the "Chinese flu" and the fallout from that as well as pent-up frustrations after a year of pandemic living and the desire to find a scapegoat.

He also said there is an element of copycat crimes, where perpetrators desire the sensational publicity about the violent attacks to result in more of the same through imitation. 

Read the complete article at “Asian-Americans experienced largest single rise in severe online hate and harassment: survey.”

The center's latest report on anti-Asian American hate crimes was also cited in the following:  

Staten Islanders say Asian American representation is critical for combatting hatred, violence
Staten Island Advance
March 24, 2021

There has been increasing public concern about the amount of hatred, violence, and xenophobia directed at Asian Americans in the past year -- and particularly in the last month -- however, Staten Islanders of varying Asian descent have said it’s only new to the news cycle.

Though they haven’t personally experienced it, the borough residents who spoke to the Advance/SILive.com still walk out of their homes fearful that they or a family member could be next.

While there’s been an increase in hate and violence against Asian communities in the past year, it’s nothing new, said Terri Cote, a member of the Minority Women’s Business Association (MWBA), citing statistics from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino, which found a 150% increase in hate crimes against Asians in 2020 in California and New York.

Project CommUNITY: Supporting the AAPI community with milk and cookies  
KSBW Monterey, Calif.
March 24, 2021

The recent mass killing in Atlanta, on March 16, of eight women, six of them of Asian descent, is a reflection of the rise of anti-Asian sentiment in America.

According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, anti-Asian hate crimes surged 145% in 2020. The organization Stop Asian American and Pacific Islander Hate tracked nearly 3,800 incidents of violence and harassment over the past year. Which amounts to more than 10 a day.

Those numbers are drawing people from the Central Coast to support Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Brookline students plan vigil to support Asian community
Brookline (Mass.) Patch
March 24, 2021

Community members are set to light candles Friday evening on the steps of the Brookline High School in an effort to support the Brookline Asian Community.

The vigil comes not only a week after six Asian women were fatally shot in Georgia, but in the wake of the release of analysis out of crime statistics in America's largest cities that point to a nearly 150 percent increase in reported Anti-Asian hate crime incidents.

Boston reported 170 hate crimes in 2019, in 2020 those actually went down to 146. However, the number of reports of hate crime incidents classified as anti-Asian jumped from just six to 14 reported incidents, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, CSUSB.

These news clips and others may be viewed at “In the Headlines.”