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I do digital archiving of South Asian American history. From 2024-2026, I helped rescue hundreds of historic documents from SAALT, the South Asian civil rights group, and prepped them for digital archives like SAADA and Internet Archive. One document really stuck with me…

It was a fall 2001 report listing 645 backlash hate incidents from the first week after 9/11. The stories are difficult to read, but they're evidence of the first phase of the backlash, before mass surveillance of Muslims, political repression, special registration of boys/men, and war on terror.

The attacks took place all over the U.S. For every incident that made the news, countless more went unreported. A few folks in impacted communities don't know it happened. Some were too young, and others were new immigrants. More on the community hub: southasiancoalition.org/25-years-lat...