Low-income Asian American families have faced disproportionate hardships since the Covid-19 pandemic began, as I reported here in the last issue of Sampan.
“Many people are surprised to learn that Asian Americans have the highest poverty rate of any racial-ethnic group in Boston — it’s about 29%, ” Carolyn Wong, a researcher at the Institute of Asian American Studies at UMass Boston, told me. Wong is the co-writer of a recently published report on the struggles faced by Asians in the Boston area from the pandemic. “The lowest paid workers suffered the most economic loss. And when the restaurants had to close down scores of jobs were lost.”
But adding to this burden is bigotry.
At a time when the virus has devastated so many American families, Asians have also increaslingly faced racist comments and behaviors. Some Asians have felt targeted – even blamed for the virus. The reality is even harsher for households with little means and limited English language abilities.
“This Asian hate campaign driven by (former President Donald) Trump made Asians physically more vulnerable when the pandemic hit,” says Mary Chin, CEO of the Boston nonprofit Asian American Civic Association.
“Some of our clients complained of sleep disturbances, increases in blood pressure and feeling afraid to go out. Many talked about their anxiety and fears for themselves, their children and their grandparents when hearing about the violent attacks in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Fransisco. Many were simultaneously defending against verbal and other racist aggressions and micro aggressions while struggling to find jobs to put food on the table after being laid off.”
What can help? Wong has an idea.
“We need to hear from the low-income Asian Americans if health and social policy is going to meet the needs of Asian Americans in Greater Boston,” Wong suggests.
In March 2020, former President Donald J. Trump tweeted about the virus, calling it the “Chinese virus.” And in a study conducted by the University of California at San Francisco, based on more than 700,000 tweets in the week before and after Trump’s tweet, users of the hashtag #chinesevirus were more likely to pair it with other racist hashtags.
According to the statistics made by the national coalition “Stop AAPI Hate,” up until June 2021, among 9,081 hate incidents in the United States, 63.7% reported verbal harassment, 16.5% reported avoidance, 13.7% reported physical assault, and 11.0% experienced civil rights violations.
At the same time, in research by the American Psychological Association, researchers conducted a qualitative case study to examine the types of anti-Asian racism experienced by the 193 participants during the first 6 months of the pandemic in 2020. The respondents reported experiences such vicarious racism, being singled out, getting racist jokes, being blamed for the virus, and told to go back to an Asian country, physical threats.
“S” – who will not name – was a third-year international student from China in 2020. She had not been home for two years. She recalls she had been hearing a lot about the coronavirus in the early days of the pandemic. The virus was first located in Wuhan, China. Then it spread all over China and beyond. She was worried about her relatives and friends in China, yet the virus spread quickly to the United States.
As usual, she finished her day at school and took the 40-minute train ride back to her apartment. She had been severely malnourished and anemic since childhood and was advised to take protein and vitamins and exercise every day. Fearing she might catch Covid-19, she became one of the few Asians to wear a mask in her school, before the official mask policies began. She had to avoid people who judged her because of her appearance and her mask. As she exited the train station, a man a head taller followed her furtively, until he shouted after her, “Why don’t you go back to China?!” Her tears finally shed, after the days of worries and stress.
“This is the first time I’ve seen racism face to face since I go abroad … I heard slogans every day about respecting for all groups, words that were grew into my college education in the United States. Until I went through it, I still can’t believe I was hearing these words, but what did I do to him?”
It continues to be difficult for S to recall her painful experience. She was a college student without income. She did not have any relatives in the United States. All her friends were overseas students at her age. Every contact with a non-Chinese since the outbreak has left her feeling isolated.
The same experiences have been felt by others in different in age groups. On April 2 this year, a 70-year-old Asian woman was punched in the eye by a middle-aged man twice her size while shopping in Boston’s Chinatown. Except for local police, this victim and her family did not know where else to report this altercation.
In research by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, anti-Asian hate crime increased by 330% at 2021, compared to 2020. And Los Angeles reported the highest hate crimes among U.S.
As a program run by AACA, Bayara is providing volunteer buddyguards to accompany elders who are living in Boston Chinatown but are afraid to go out alone. The buddyguards walk with the elders to supermarkets, medical appointments. (If you or someone you know are afraid to go out because you are afraid of being attacked, call AACA 617-426-9492.)
Asian Americans increased their participation in elections from 2016 to 2020. It indicated people’s reactions to the former president Donald Trump’s policies to cut the legal immigration as well as his attitudes toward the COVID-19 – stigmatizing a racist ideology by calling it the “China Virus.” We can change anything by just participating in politics and voting!
