Asian Hate in California during Covid-19

        Covid-19 is believed to have emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and spread globally. As Covid-19 proliferated across the United States of America, the relationship between Asia and America surged due to racial hate crimes involving different kinds of harassment (Gover, Harper & Langton, 2020). 

How has this affected the community in California?

        Throughout the history of pandemic-related issues, the outcome has been associated with some stigmatization. Asia and America, more so the people of California, have experienced verbal and physical violence, which has been happening since the virus began. Covid-19 has increased the level of insecurity in this region, fear of foreigners, and xenophobia, which has led to anti-Asian hate crimes since the start of this pandemic in Asia.

        According to recent research, which was done on the population analysis, it is believed that over six million Asians live in California, making up 15 percent of the residents in the state (Daniels et al., 2021). US Asian veteran indicates scars to call out the act of racism shown to the Asian residents. Anti-Asian violence has been happening in this region, making the stay bad for the Asian community. This incidence is due to the hit of the virus in California people where over 50,000 California people have died due to the virus (Wu, Qian & Wilkes, 2021). These numbers are considered high in orange county, where the number of Asians is over 1200 percent making it the center of hate and extremism (Wang et al., 2021).

        The widespread omission of Asian Americans explains the incidence due to cultural conversation. Some events which are happening in California are not covered in the media. According to the report given by Ms. Nguyen, an activist and the founder of civil rights, some federal agencies don’t include the Asian Americans and pacific islander community when defining matters related to racial minorities (Wu, Qian & Wilkes, 2021). She also says that people who have been attacking Asian American since the time the pandemic started can't show any difference, and they don’t care for anything; she believes that the people in California have made them scapegoat to enact in their violence (Gover, Harper & Langton, 2020). This is believed to be the main issue that leads to hate in this state. 

What the Community Says

When interviewing a member of our community, a few questions about how xenophobia has affected them were asked: 

Q: Have you or someone you know experienced it? How has it affected them?

Yes, my parents experienced xenophobia throughout their life and especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. I haven’t experienced this directly, but I have come across microaggressions through nonverbal communication, such as body language and facial expressions. This hasn’t stopped us from going out, but we are more cautious about where we go and who is around us. I now carry pepper spray just in case something happens!

Q: What do you think should be done about this?

I think that more individuals, especially people outside of Asian ethnicity, should be more vocal about debunking the stereotypes and calling out xenophobia when it happens.

Q: Why should young people care about this issue, and what are the most important things we should know about it?

Young people should care because this affects our parents, grandparents, and other older relatives. There have been many instances of violence towards older Asian individuals, and that could easily be your relative on the news.

Cases of xenophobia against Asians have spiked during the pandemic. Misinformation about Covid sparked a lot of hate towards the Asian community.

Q: What would you say to young people like us who want to make a difference around this problem?

See something, do something! And be vocal about correcting any misinformation you hear.

 

References

Gover, A. R., Harper, S. B., & Langton, L. (2020). Anti-Asian hate crime during the COVID-19 pandemic: Exploring the reproduction of inequality. American journal of criminal justice, 45(4), 647-667.

Wu, C., Qian, Y., & Wilkes, R. (2021). Anti-Asian discrimination and the Asian-white mental health gap during COVID-19. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 44(5), 819-835.

Wang, D., Gee, G. C., Bahiru, E., Yang, E. H., & Hsu, J. J. (2020). Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in COVID-19: emerging disparities amid discrimination. Journal of general internal medicine, 35(12), 3685-3688.

Daniels, C., DiMaggio, P., Mora, G. C., & Shepherd, H. (2021, December). Has pandemic threat stoked xenophobia? How COVID‐19 influences California voters’ attitudes toward diversity and immigration. In Sociological Forum (Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 889-915).