Background
The COVID-19 pandemic, which was first reported in the city of Wuhan, in the Hubei province of China, has led to a perceived increase in racism against Asians and Asian Americans. According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, [2] and Stop AAPI Hate, there has been an increase in crimes against Asians since 2019. For instance, the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism reported that hate crimes against Asians increased by 150% in 2020, and Stop AAPI Hate received 3,795 discriminatory incident reports in the first year of the pandemic. [3] [4] [5] Research from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism further found that anti-Asian hate crimes rose by 339% in 2021, when compared to 2020, [6] while police in San Francisco reported a 567% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes that year. [7]
A Pew Research study found that 58% of Asian Americans believed that racist views had increased towards them during the pandemic. [8] Along with this, 45% of Asian American adults say they have experienced at least one of five specific offensive incidents since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. [9] A study by the New York University College of Arts & Science found that there was no overall increase of Anti-Asian sentiment among the American population; instead, it suggested that "already prejudiced persons" had felt authorized by the pandemic to act openly on their prejudices. [10]
On March 16, 2021, a mass shooting occurred at three spas in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Although the shooter has not been charged with a hate crime, a significant number of commentators have characterized it as such, as of the eight people killed, six were women of Asian descent, [11] and the shootings also took place at businesses with a high percentage of staff members of Asian descent. [12] According to police, the shooter said he committed those murders because of a conflict between his sex addiction and religious beliefs. [13] [14]
Historical context and roots of anti-Asian racism
Anti-Asian racism has a long and multifaceted history that extends beyond the COVID-19 pandemic and affects diverse communities of Asian descent worldwide. While early coverage of Stop Asian Hate centered on individuals perceived to be Chinese, the movement addresses discrimination targeting a wide range of Asian communities, including East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, and Pacific Islander populations.
In the United States, anti-Asian sentiment was institutionalized through legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred Chinese laborers from immigrating and set a precedent for racially exclusionary immigration policies. Similar forms of systemic racism affected other Asian groups: Japanese Americans faced mass incarceration during World War II under Executive Order 9066, while South Asian Americans, particularly Sikhs and Muslims, experienced increased racial profiling and violence in the aftermath of 9/11. [15] [16]
Southeast Asian communities, many of whom arrived as refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, faced marginalization through underresourced resettlement programs and limited access to education and healthcare, challenging the myth of uniform Asian American “success.” [17]
Globally, Asian diasporas have experienced similar patterns of exclusion and xenophobia. In Australia, discriminatory policies such as the White Australia Policy restricted Asian immigration well into the 20th century, while more recently, Asian Australians have reported rising hate incidents during the pandemic. In Canada, early Chinese immigrants were subject to head taxes and segregation, and more recent anti-Asian racism has been documented across cities like Vancouver and Toronto during COVID-19. In the United Kingdom, South Asian and East Asian communities have faced long-standing stereotyping and racial harassment, particularly in the context of economic downturns or public health crises.
Contemporary scholars such as Erika Lee, Vijay Prashad, and Sunaina Maira emphasize that anti-Asian racism is deeply embedded in histories of colonialism, labor exploitation, war, and migration. These dynamics have fostered enduring stereotypes—of Asians as unassimilable, submissive, or threatening—that resurface during times of crisis. The Stop Asian Hate movement can thus be seen as both a response to recent violence and a continuation of long-standing struggles against systemic racism in the Asian diaspora across the globe.
Cultural resilience and anti-Asian hate
The cultural values and traditions of Chinese communities have deeply influenced their responses to systemic discrimination and anti-Asian hate. Principles such as harmony and humility emphasize peace and conflict avoidance, fostering community cohesion and resilience. However, this emphasis on harmony is sometimes misinterpreted as passivity, leading to underreported hate crimes and reluctance to engage with legal systems, which can inadvertently perpetuate systemic discrimination. [18]
The story of Yao Pan Ma, a 61-year-old Chinese immigrant, exemplifies the intersection of cultural resilience and systemic challenges. On April 23, 2021, Ma was brutally by attacked by 49-year-old African American Jarrod Powell in East Harlem, NYC, while collecting cans to support himself. After months in a coma, he died on December 31, 2021. Ma’s perseverance in the face of economic hardship highlights the resilience of Chinese immigrants, as noted in Susan Haigh’s Associated Press article. [19] His story also reflects broader systemic inequities rooted in exclusionary policies like the Chinese Exclusion Act, which institutionalized discrimination and reinforced harmful stereotypes.
Edward W. Capen’s article “The Western Influence in China” further contextualizes these challenges, tracing the roots of anti-Asian prejudice to colonial exploitation during the Qing Dynasty. [20] These historical injustices fostered stereotypes of Chinese people as perpetual foreigners and untrustworthy laborers, shaping systemic discrimination in Western societies. By addressing these historical and cultural contexts, public discourse on anti-Asian hate can become more nuanced. Highlighting cultural resilience not only fosters empathy but also underscores the strength of Chinese communities in overcoming systemic barriers.
International context
Although Stop Asian Hate originated in the United States, the movement inspired parallel actions in countries with significant Asian diaspora populations, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and parts of Asia. These international responses shared a common focus on challenging anti-Asian racism and increasing public visibility, though they often took on localized forms suited to specific national contexts.
In Australia, the Asian Australian Alliance launched the COVID-19 Racism Incident Report Survey in April 2020, modeled in part on the U.S.-based Stop AAPI Hate tracker. The survey collected over 500 firsthand accounts of racist incidents in just a two-month span, revealing widespread verbal abuse, intimidation, and physical assaults primarily against East and Southeast Asian Australians. The report emphasized the need for multilingual outreach and government accountability, calling attention to how media scapegoating of China had fueled violence against a broad range of Asian communities. Critical reporting in outlets like The Guardian and ABC News highlighted the structural roots of these incidents, including political rhetoric and historical immigration exclusion policies.
In Canada, groups such as Project 1907 and the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice published multilingual anti-racism campaigns and incident data in languages including Chinese, Punjabi, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. A 2021 report recorded more than 1,150 incidents of anti-Asian racism in Canada, with high rates of verbal harassment and physical aggression. Media commentary, such as The Tyee and Toronto Star, argued that Canada's multicultural image masked deep structural inequities and long-standing anti-Asian sentiment exacerbated by the pandemic.
In the United Kingdom, crowd-funded organizations like End the Virus of Racism led protests and education campaigns in response to increased hate incidents. British-Chinese, Southeast Asian, and South Asian communities reported being targeted due to stereotypes linking them to the coronavirus. The Toronto Star and Al Jazeera reported on how many British Asians saw a spike in xenophobia during lockdowns, often in the form of verbal slurs or being avoided in public spaces. Activists highlighted that such racism existed well before the pandemic but was often unacknowledged in British discourse.
While specific in-country efforts sometimes used different language or framing, the Stop Asian Hate slogan became a unifying expression of transnational solidarity. Across global contexts, the movement has emphasized multilingual organizing, cross-community coalitions, and a call to challenge both interpersonal prejudice and systemic racism. Scholars such as Erika Lee and Claire Jean Kim, as well as journalists like Esther Yu Hsi Lee, have noted that alike have noted that the movement’s global reach has helped challenge narratives of Asian invisibility in diaspora contexts and resist the homogenization of Asian identities.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
