Stand against anti-Asian racial discrimination during COVID-19: A call for action

Racial discrimination against Chinese Americans during COVID-19

Racial discrimination against Chinese and other Chinese-looking Asians was reported in the media as early as late January 2020 when the outbreak was first reported in China. It then surged across the United States from mid-March as COVID-19 spread. Multiple large-scale studies have provided mounting evidence of this phenomenon. For example, the Understanding Coronavirus in America study (N = 6238) found that between 10 and 21 March, 14 percent of Asian Americans reported having recently experienced discrimination and unfair treatment (Key, 2020). A national survey (N = 1001) in April showed that 60 percent of Asian Americans reported having witnessed someone blaming Asian people for the pandemic (IPSOS, 2020). In June, the Pew Research Center, using the nationally representative American Trends Panel data (N = 9654), found that 39 percent of Asian Americans said that people acted as if they were uncomfortable around them, and 31 percent reported having been subject to racial slurs or jokes (Ruiz et al., 2020).

Anti-Asian hate crimes also surged. A nationwide online anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Racism Incident Reporting Center established on 19 March 2020 received 1135 reports in its first 2 weeks (Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council [A3PCON] and Chinese for Affirmative Action [CAA], 2020b). A total of 2583 reports were received from 19 March to 5 August across the United States, with 40 percent of the reports from Chinese Americans (Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council [A3PCON] and Chinese for Affirmative Action [CAA], 2020a). The New York City Commission on Human Rights (2020) received 167 harassment and discrimination reports targeting Asian Americans from February to July 2020, accounting for over 35 percent of all reported cases, compared to only 22 reports targeting Asians during the same period in 2019. These reported cases, despite staggering in number, are merely the tip of the iceberg as many victims do not report their experiences due to emotional trauma and/or fear of retaliation.

The most common form of reported racial discrimination was verbal harassment and/or name calling, followed by shunning, physical assaults, being coughed at or spat upon, online discrimination, being barred from establishment or transportation, and vandalism (Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council [A3PCON] and Chinese for Affirmative Action [CAA], 2020a). Study findings, statistical reports, and anecdotal evidence suggest that women, youth, immigrants, international students, those less educated, those with limited English proficiency, healthcare workers, and Chinese business owners and employees are more likely to be targeted and victimized.

Escalation and persistence of anti-Asian discrimination and its negative consequences

Since President Trump began referring to coronavirus as the ‘Chinese virus’ in his tweets in mid-March, the dangerous dissemination of false information and anti-Chinese racism have spiked dramatically. The Trump administration’s continuous use of anti-Chinese rhetoric has fueled right-wing nationalism and fanned the flames of racial discrimination against Chinese Americans. Since COVID-19 is not going away in the short term and the negative impact of the pandemic will be long-lasting, discrimination against people of Chinese ethnicity will very likely continue. This may worsen as a result of the recently escalating US–China tensions and as nationalism continues to play a dominating role in the 2020 US presidential election.

Experienced and perceived racial discrimination has serious and long-lasting negative impacts on physical health and psychological well-being (Bastos et al., 2010; Priest et al., 2013; Schmitt et al., 2014). Data from the Household Pulse Survey collected by the US Census Bureau (2020) in late July 2020 (N = 78,776) showed that 40.3 percent of Asian Americans self-reported symptoms of anxiety and/or depression, compared to only 5.5 percent in the 2019 National Health Interview Survey (National Center for Health Statistics [NCHS], 2020). Furthermore, racism-related vigilance is a stressor that results in poor health. The national American Trends Panel study conducted in early June 2020 found that 26 percent of Asian Americans feared someone might threaten or physically attack them, possibly leading to anxiety, depression, and worse physical health. Discrimination and stigmatization may also prevent individuals from appropriately seeking professional or medical help, increase the risk of frontline workers’ psychological distress and burnout, and prohibit people from returning to their workplace (Li et al., 2020).

A call for action: Practice, policy and research responses

Racial discrimination is a violation of human rights, a form of social injustice and exclusion, and intrinsically wrong. We call for action at individual, organizational, and societal levels to provide timely and effective practice, policy, and research responses.

First, social workers and other professionals need to speak up against anti-Asian discrimination associated with COVID-19. We need to share personal experiences and coping strategies, raise awareness within and beyond the Asian American group, as well as hold dialogues and build coalition with other racial and ethnic minority groups. For example, 10 Asian Americans acknowledged the racism they experienced in a TIME Magazine article titled ‘I Will Not stand Silent’ (Kambhampaty, 2020), and the Asian American Advocacy Fund (2020) and other organizations built ‘Asians for Black Lives’ resources during the Black Lives Matter movement.

Second, we need to develop best practices to address racial discrimination against Asian Americans associated with COVID-19 at all levels and share, promote, and model these best practices locally, nationally, and globally. Combating racial discrimination through evidence-based and culturally specific interventions should be emphasized in all aspects of social work practice.

Third, we need to advocate for policies and programs dedicated to curtailing and eliminating racial discrimination in all forms. We need to demand and mobilize local governments, organizations, and communities to do their parts and work together to end racial discrimination. Asian American communities around the country need a coordinated effort at the federal level, best achieved through an interagency task force.

Finally, we need to generate more scientific evidence in order to better understand the prevalence and patterns of racial discrimination that Asian Americans are experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic. More large-scale, rigorous research is needed to help understand how racial discrimination and hate crimes have been fueled by the xenophobic and nationalist rhetoric and reinforced by the widespread racist language on social media. Research is also needed to investigate the long-term negative impacts of experienced and perceived discrimination on Asian Americans’ health and well-being as well as what factors and interventions can help mitigate these negative effects and enhance the well-being of this and other racial/ethnic minority groups.