There is just no excuse for this bigotry
This is just irrational hate and I’m damned if I’m going to feel “empathetic” to anyone for this.
Americans continue to wrongly blame people of Asian descent for the coronavirus, and a greater percentage are harboring distrust of their loyalties, according to a new report out this morning.
Asian Americans, who make up 7% of the U.S. population, feel increasingly isolated and discriminated against amid sustained anti-Asian violence and increasing anti-China political rhetoric.
21% of U.S. adults now say Asian Americans are at least partly responsible for COVID — up from 11% in 2021.
That’s according to a study from the nonprofit Leading Asian Americans to Unite for Change (LAAUNCH) and The Asian American Foundation (TAAF).
33% said they believe “Asian Americans are more loyal to their country of origin than to the United States”— up from 20% last year.
Among Asian American respondents, only 29% said they “completely agree” that they feel they belong and are accepted in the U.S., which was the lowest of all racial groups.
Meanwhile, 71% say they are discriminated against in the U.S. today.
The increase in distrust of Asian Americans is in part driven by greater use of anti-China rhetoric on both sides of the aisle, TAAF CEO and LAAUNCH co-founder Norman Chen said.
“On the surface, we thought it was COVID and Trump. Deeper down we know it’s related to the model minority myth and perpetual foreigner stereotypes. But even deeper, it really [shows] the embedded systemic racism in this country against Asian Americans.”
“From the Chinese Exclusion Act of the 1800s to the internment camps of the 1940s to the murder of Vincent Chin in the 80s, this has always been a part of the fabric of the United States,” Eric Toda, who serves on the LAAUNCH board and TAAF advisory council, told Axios Today.
The pandemic drove a sustained surge in anti-Asian hate crimes as people scapegoated Asian Americans for COVID, calling it the “China virus” and “kung flu.”
Anti-Asian hate crimes jumped in major U.S. cities in 2021, rising by 567% in San Francisco and 361% in New York City, according to those cities’ police departments.
Some of the most brutal acts of violence were driven by COVID-related hate, such as in Texas, where a man stabbed a Burmese American family, including their 2- and 6-year-old children, in March 2020 because he believed they were Chinese and responsible for the pandemic.
The results of today’s new study are especially troubling in light of the nationwide activism and awareness campaigns about anti-Asian hate.
Despite increased attention to the problem, Americans are more likely to scapegoat people of Asian descent than before.
While the majority of respondents in the study recognized anti-Asian violence is worsening, nearly one-third remain unaware of the crisis, according to the study.
“Politicians need to be very careful … with all this bashing of China because it directly influences how people view and treat Asian Americans in the U.S.,” Chen said.
That assumes that rightwing politicians don’t see a big advantage in demonizing Asians, just as they demonize Muslims, Latinos and African Americans when it suits their need to feed the bigoted beasts they’ve trained to hate. I see very little evidence that they have consciences about anything anymore.