Early 20th century There has been historic prejudice against Armenians in the United States throughout various times, at least beginning from the early 1900s. In early 1900s, Armenians were among the group of minorities who were barred from loaning money, land, and equipment particularly because of their race. They were referred to as "lower class Jews". Moreover, in Fresno, California, among other minorities Armenians lived on one side of Van Ness Blvd., while the residents of European white origin lived on the other side. A deed from one home there stated, "Neither said premises nor any part thereof shall be used in any matter whatsoever or occupied by any Black, Chinese, Japanese, Hindu, Armenian, Asiatic or native of the Turkish Empire." Between the 1920s and the 1960s, some houses in the
Rock Creek Hills neighborhood of
Kensington, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., included anti-Armenian language in racial covenants that were part of property deeds. One deed in Rock Creek Hills declared that homes in the neighborhood "shall never be used or occupied by...negroes or any person or persons, of negro blood or extraction, or to any person of the Semitic Race, blood or origin, or Jews, Armenians, Hebrews, Persians and Syrians, except...partial occupancy of the premises by domestic servants." In Anny Bakalian's book
Armenian-Americans: From Being to Feeling Armenian, various groups of Armenians were polled for discrimination based on their identity. Roughly 77% of US-born Armenians felt they were discriminated in getting a job while 80% responded positively to a question whether they felt discriminated in getting admitted to a school. American historian
Justin McCarthy is known for his controversial view that no genocide was intended by the Ottoman Empire but that both Armenians and Turks died as the result of civil war. Some attribute his
denial of the Armenian genocide to anti-Armenianism, as he holds an
honorary doctorate of the Turkish
Boğaziçi University and he is also a board member of the
Institute of Turkish Studies.
Since the 1990s On April 24, 1998, during a campus exhibit organized by the Armenian Students' Association at UC Berkeley,
Hamid Algar, a professor of Islamic & Persian Studies, reportedly approached a group of organizers and shouted, "It was not a genocide but I wish it was—you lying pigs!" The students also claimed that Algar also spat at them. Following the incident members of the Armenian Students' Association filed a report with campus police calling for an investigation. After a five-month investigation the Chancellor's office issued an apology, though no hate charges were filed as incident did not create a "hostile environment". On March 10, 1999, the Associated Students of University of California (ASUC) passed a resolution titled, "A Bill Against Hate Speech and in Support of Reprimand for Prof. Algar", condemning the incident and calling for Chancellor to review the university decision not to file charges. In April 2007, the
Los Angeles Times Managing Editor
Douglas Frantz blocked a story on the
Armenian genocide written by Mark Arax, allegedly citing the fact Arax was of Armenian descent and therefore had a biased opinion on the subject. Arax, who has published similar articles before, has lodged a discrimination complaint and threatened a federal lawsuit. Frantz, who did not cite any specific factual errors in the article, is accused of having a bias obtained while being stationed in
Istanbul, Turkey.
Harut Sassounian, an Armenian community leader, accused Frantz of having expressed support for
denial of the Armenian genocide and has stated he personally believed that Armenians rebelled against the Ottoman Empire, an argument commonly used to justify the killings. In March 2012, three of five Glendale Police Department's officers of Armenian origin filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Glendale Police Department claiming racial discrimination. Another incident that received less coverage was a series of
hate mail campaigns directed at
Paul Krekorian, a city council candidate for
Californian
Democratic Primary, making racist remarks and accusations that the Armenian community was engaging in
voter fraud. In the January 9, 2018, episode of the
Comedy Central late-night program
The Daily Show Trevor Noah stated: "This is, like, really funny. Only Donald Trump could defend himself and, in the same sentence, completely undermine his whole point. It would be like someone saying, 'I'm the most tolerant guy out there, just ask this filthy Armenian. Armenian American organizations criticized Noah for alleged racism against Armenians. In a joint press release the Armenian Bar Association and the Armenian Rights Watch Committee (ARWC) compared "Filthy Armenians" to other offensive racial epithets, which although "may have been intended to coax a laugh from the audience by ridiculing President Trump's self-proclaimed genius and tolerance", constitutes "affront and slander". The organizations called for
The Daily Show and Trevor Noah to issue a retraction and an apology. The
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) also called for an apology. On October 29 and December 12, 2019, the
U.S. House of Representatives and the
U.S. Senate officially recognized the Armenian genocide. In July 2020 the
KZV Armenian School and its adjacent Armenian Community Center in
San Francisco were vandalized overnight with threatening and racist graffiti. According to San Francisco officials, the attack claimed to support a violent, anti-Armenian movement led by
Azerbaijan. The messages contained curse words and appeared to be connected to increased
tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi noted that "The KZV Armenian School is a part of the beautiful fabric of our San Francisco family. The hateful defacing of this place of community and learning is a disgrace."
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and
San Francisco Mayor London Breed also condemned the hate act. On April 24, 2021, U.S. President
Joe Biden officially recognized the Armenian genocide. On September 24, 2021, the St. Peter Armenian Church in
Fernando Valley, California, was vandalized. The suspect broke eight very rare stained glass windows of the church with a baseball bat. The ANCA-WR Executive Director Armen Sahakyan said “This act of vandalism is especially concerning as we recently marked one year since the Armenophobic hate crimes that took place in
San Francisco.”. The Los Angeles Police Department continues its investigation on this crime. In the
2022 Los Angeles City Council scandal,
Nury Martinez referred to Areen Ibranossian, an advisor to councillor
Paul Krekorian, as "The guy with one eyebrow." Martinez wasn't able to recall the last name and Cedillo replied "It ends in
i-a-n, I bet you." Ibranossian said, "This type of depiction of Armenians is not uncommon and is too often tolerated." Growing up in
Torrance, California, he was called "
towel head" and "
camel jockey." In 2023, the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ordered
Citigroup to pay $24.5 million in fines and $1.4 million in restitution to Armenian Americans, alleging that the bank had illegally discriminated against members of the ethnic group and had unjustly denied them credit cards for which they had applied in a period beginning in 2015 and ending in 2021. According to the CFPB, Citigroup employees used the presence of
-ian or
-yan in applicant surnames as an indicator that a customer should undergo enhanced screening processes, while also deciding to avoid making mention of this screening method in emails. In January 2026, a civil rights complaint against Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) since 2025, was filed by California government officials in reference to a video Oz posted accusing Armenian-owned businesses in Los Angeles of involvement with healthcare fraud. Oz had gestured at signs in
Armenian language script on a local Armenian bakery, alleging there was fraud "by the Russian Armenian Mafia, you notice the lettering and language behind me". On April 30, 2026, Florida representative
Randy Fine appeared on
The Jenny Beth Show and remarked about his Republican primary challenger
Dan Bilzerian that he "lives in Las Vegas when he's not in his foreign country of Armenia" (Bilzerian was born in Florida), called him a "little Armenian," and added that "we don't want Armenians to be able to serve in Congress." == Israel ==