The Anxiety of Being Asian American: Hate Crimes and Negative Biases During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

In this essay, we review how the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic that began in the United States in early 2020 has elevated the risks of Asian Americans to hate crimes and Asian American businesses to vandalism. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the incidents of negative bias and microaggressions against Asian Americans have also increased. COVID-19 is directly linked to China, not just in terms of the origins of the disease, but also in the coverage of it. Because Asian Americans have historically been viewed as perpetually foreign no matter how long they have lived in the United States, we posit that it has been relatively easy for people to treat Chinese or Asian Americans as the physical embodiment of foreignness and disease. We examine the historical antecedents that link Asian Americans to infectious diseases. Finally, we contemplate the possibility that these experiences will lead to a reinvigoration of a panethnic Asian American identity and social movement.

COVID-19 and the Racial Equity Implications of Reopening College and University Campuses

“…Attitudinal stereotypes may lead to harmful behaviors ranging from constant racial microaggressions to physical violence against anyone who appears to be Asian. Tessler et al (2020) suggest these threats pose considerable mental health and anxiety challenges for this population. Thus, campus reopening plans must include ways to protect Asian and Asian American people.…”

Anti-Asian discrimination and the Asian-white mental health gap during COVID-19

“…Factors that lead to the rise of anti-Asian racism include not only fear and uncertainty inherent to novel infectious disease (Noel 2020), the presumptive origin of COVID-19 (Cheng 2020), and misleading media coverage (Darling-Hammond et al 2020;Wen et al 2020) but also, more importantly, the historical antecedents that link Asian Americans to infectious diseases and the long-standing stereotype that characterizes Asian Americans as "perpetual foreigners" (Cheah et al 2020;Litam 2020;Man 2020;Mamuji et al 2020;Tessler, Choi, and Kao 2020). Indeed, people of Asian descent have experienced both verbal and physical violence motivated by racism and xenophobia from the time they arrived in America in the late 1700s up until the present day (Gover et al 2020).…”

Understanding How Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Shape Mask-Wearing Adherence During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from the COVID Impact Survey

“…In the U.S., racial and ethnic divides permeate every aspect of social life, including risk and response during a pandemic [ 16 , 17 ]. Divisions along racial and ethnic lines appeared early in the COVID-19 pandemic as residents of Asian descent were largely blamed for rising infection rates and deaths [ 18 ]. Moreover, historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups have been disproportionally impacted by the pandemic [ 19 ].…”