By: Justine Chahal, Solving Sacramento
Sacramento State’s Ethnic Studies department held its biannual Stop the Hate Arts and Media Showcase on Wednesday, Dec. 3, hosted in the University Union.
Originally created in May 2023, the event displays student-made art including documentaries highlighting Asian voices about specific topics or experiences. The showcase is named after the California Stop the Hate grant, created to support victims and survivors of hate and facilitate hate crime prevention services.
William Gow, an Asian American Studies adviser and assistant professor at Sacramento State, said the grant has allowed him to make his Asian American Communities course more interactive for students, as opposed to him just delivering lectures. Gow said he had the idea for the showcase during the pandemic, when hate crimes against Asian Americans were rising, increasing by 145% in the 16 largest U.S. cities in 2020 compared to 2019, according to the National Library of Medicine.
“There were … very few stories that challenged this larger narrative,” Gow said. “When I took the course over, I had this idea of tasking the students with going out and finding narratives that counter this.”
Gow said the last showcase would be the spring semester of 2026 because funding from the grant would run out that summer.