Author: Nayab Binte Fiaz

Date of Publication: 25th March, 2022

COVID-19: Asian Xenophobia and Racism

Abstract

The corona virus outbreak became a global epidemic when, in the middle of December 2019, an
atypical etiology of pneumonia cases started to appear in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China.
Which was considered as a global pandemic on 11th March, 2020 by World Health
Organization (WHO). Effecting individuals world wild and crippling the economic structure,
this global pandemic has given rise to a new wave of racism and xenophobia towards
individuals who belong to East and the South East Asian (ESEA) region of the world. This study
was conducted by meta-analysis of research articles, news and statistical reports to identify the
increase in racism and xenophobic attitude toward ESEA community who live overseas. It also
shows the formation of prejudices leading to racism and possible factors responsible for
prevailing racism and xenophobia.

Keywords: Prejudice, Racism, Xenophobia, Covid-19, Media, Politics.

Introduction

The corona virus outbreak became a global epidemic when, in the middle of December
2019, an atypical etiology of pneumonia cases started to appear in Wuhan City, Hubei Province,
China. Later, World Health Organization (WHO), on 11 th February 2020, named the virus as
COVID-19 (Saeed, 2020; WHO, 2020). According to the sequence of submitted reports to
WHO, the initial reports came from China, following Japan and the Republic of Korea (WHO,
2020), which was later considered as a global pandemic on 11 th March, 2020, as it rapidly spread
to more than 121,000 people from Asia, to the Middle East, Europe and the United States (Dawn
Kopecki, Jr., Feuer, & Higgins-Dunn, 2020).

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vastly effected individuals throughout the
world and became a major health concern. Besides that it had crippled the economic structure
and gave raise to social issues like xenophobia and racism towards individuals belonging to East
and the South East Asian (ESEA) regions of the world. Raise in cases of racism, have been
observed throughout the globe (Wen, Aston, Liu, & Ying, 2020). Thus, current study was
conducted to explore increased racism and xenophobia toward ESEA community after covid-19,
the formation of prejudices leading to racism and possible factors that caused the increase.
Objective

 To explore increased racism and xenophobic attitude after covid-19.

 To explore formation of prejudice.
 To explore possible factors that caused increased in Racism after covid-19.

Research Questions

1. Did racism and xenophobic attitude towards ESEA community increased due to covid-
19?
2. Does Prejudices lead individuals towards racism?
3. What are possible factors that increased racism and xenophobic attitude after covid-19?

Methodology

Study was conducted by meta-analysis of research articles, news and statistical reports, to
identify the extant of racism and xenophobic attitude toward ESEA community who live
overseas.

Literature

Pandemic, Racism and Xenophobia

Racism and xenophobia are difficult to be defined in fix terms as both of these terms are
subject to transformation (Sanchez-Mazas, Licata, 2015) and definitions of both terms modifies
with respect to the context. However, with respect to political and social reality, both terms
manifests the division of the world into one's own race, nation, ethnic group, and culture, and
other races, nations, ethnic groups, and cultures and lead people toward hostility (Sanchez-
Mazas, Licata, 2015; Wicker, 2001).

Pandemics feeds fear which results in racism, discrimination, hate crime and
stigmatization (New Zealand Human Rights Commission, 2021). Social issues associated to
pandemic have far worst effect than the diseases itself. Where, world was grappling with covid-
19, a new wave of racism and xenophobia raised world wild (Sojo & Bapuji, 2020).

Covid-19 and Country-wise Cases of Racism

 As most of the East and the South East Asian (ESEA) countries are populated with
individuals that share same physical features, thus, they are stigmatized and targeted worldwide.

United State

In United State, Stop Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Hate, an association of
Asian-American, received 1500 incidents reports of racism in one month. Incident Reports
includes reports of verbal harassment, shunning and physical violence (Human Rights Watch,
2020). While, University of Michigan’s Viral Hate Project reported that in US, around 58% of
victims are Chinese Americans, followed by Koreans (15%), Vietnamese (9%), Filipinos (7%),
Hmong (5%), and Japanese (3%) (AsAmNews, 2021). In year 2021, Stop AAPI Hate released
the report showing about 3800 incidents took place nationwide (Yam, 2021). According to Pew
Research Centre, one-third of Asian American fear being threatened to violence (Ruiz et. al,
2021).

United Kingdom

ESEA community is one of the fastest growing group in UK and have faced
discrimination for long time (Haynes, 2021). However, due to Covid-19, cases of assaults,
physical and verbal harms doubled, as in first three month of 2020, UK police force disclosed
267 anti-Asian crimes, which was higher than all of 2018 or 2019. An anti-racism group, Stop
Hate UK, also reported increased number of cases of verbal abuse, racism, discrimination and
vandalization of restaurants of ESEA community (Mercer, 2020; Haynes, 2021).

New Zealand

New Zealand Human Rights Commission (2021), research showed that discrimination
against ESEA community increased since the start of covid-19, where Tangata Whenua showed
highest percentage (of 55%), followed by Chinese (54%), Pacific (50%), and Asian (49%). Most
common form of discrimination involved negative and hate comments in person and online,
abused and stared in public and excessive avoidance.

Canada

Anti-Asian racism is higher per capita in Canada than in the United States by over 100%.
Over 2,265 cases were reported in Canada up till September 2021. And the number is increasing
continuously as the city of Vancouver reported the highest number of cases of racism. Followed
by Victoria, Toronto, Burnaby, and Richmond. Most common form of racism included verbal
abuse, slur, harassment and disparaging comments which makes 65% of reported incidents.
About 30% of racial cases included physical assault, violence, spitting and deliberate coughing
on the target.

Australia

Asian Australian Alliance (2021) reported 541 racial incidents against ESEA community,
from April 2020 to June 2021. Out of total racist incidents, Chinese (52%) were targeted most as
compared to other races or ethnic groups, followed by Vietnamese (8.38%), Malaysian (4.5%),
Korean (6.5%), Singaporean (2.1%) and Filipino (3.2%). These racial incidents included slurs,
online harassment, verbal threats, getting spat and coughed on, deliberate exclusion, work place
discrimination, barred from establishments and transportations, vandalization, denied access to
health care services and rental accommodations.

India

As people from northern states of India share facial features with Han Chinese, thus,
increased number of racial incidents were reported. Right and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG)
reported that there were about 22 cases reported in from February, 2020 to March, 2020 and the
number is increasing day by day (Northeast Today, 2020). Form of racism included physical and
verbal violence, spatting and not letting apartments for rent and not providing travelling facilities
(Banerji, 2020).

Women are more vulnerable

During our research, it is found that women are more vulnerable to violent attacks
motivated by racism. Stop AAPI Hate report, released in 2021, showed that out of all genders,
about 68% of racist attacks were carried out against women (Yam, 2021). Similarly, in Canada,
60% of all incidents took place against women (Racist Incident Reporting Center, 2021). Asian
Australia Alliance (2021), also reported that 60% of all incidents were against women. Women
of Northeast India also reported to face discrimination double as compared to other genders
(Banerji, 2020).
Covid-19: Crude Othering Theory and Allport’s Theory of Prejudice

Prejudices are formed as result of diseases and the attitude of “otherness” increases
(Muzzatti, 2005). According to the “Theory of Crude Othering”, otherness refers to radical
alienness to the out-group and considering them as inferior to one’s own group (Brons, 2015).
Othering is rooted in racism and the process is systematic. Gorden Allport (1954), in his “theory
of prejudice”, suggests five stages at which people act on prejudice. He ranked these prejudices
by the increasing harm they produce.

According to Allport (1954), in the process of prejudice, the in-group would freely make
out jokes, use give derogatory remarks about perceived out-group, which is referred as
antilocution. If the prejudice is strong, they would deliberately avoid the perceived out-group
without causing direct harm, which he named as avoidance. After that, the in-group may start
discriminating the out-group by denying them services and opportunities which prevents them
from getting basic needs, which he named as discrimination. If the prejudice gets stronger, the
in-group would try to directly harm the perceived out-group by carrying out physical attacks
against out-group and vandalization of property. Finally, the in-group with more extreme
prejudice would turn to extermination of perceived out-group by lynching, genocide and ethnic
cleansing. However, it is important to explore factors involved in the formation and spread of
these prejudices which leads individuals towards racism.

Covid-19: Media and Politics as possible factors fueling Racism and Xenophobia

As the COVID-19 got intense media attention and public depended highly on media to
remain aware of ongoing events taking place, thus, it played vital role in formation of biases.
Headlines such as “Chinese virus pandemonium” and “China kids stay home” remained trend of
news channels, instilling fear. Such biased and misleading coverage, not just agitated anger
among Chinese community but also lead viewers toward racism and xenophobia (Wen, et al.,
2020).

In addition to main stream media, social media and politics also played its role in fueling
racism. During pendemic, racial slurs such as, “Go eat a bat, Chang!”, “chinazi”, “chinkland”
(referring to the land of chinks, i.e China), and “chiniggers” (term created by combining “china”
and “nigger”) were popular terms trending on social media (Tahmasbi et al., 2021).
 Terms such as, “China virus”, “Wuhan virus” and “Kung flu” was popularized after
being used by US President Donald Trump in his speeches and tweets (Hswen et al., 2021;
Darling-Hammond et al., 2020). Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas also frequently
used term directly targeting Chinese community. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California,
also used phrase “the Chinese coronavirus” in his tweet. Representative Paul Gosar, Republican
of Arizona used the term when he tested positive for covid-19 (Rogers, 2020). In the early days
of pandemic, the governor of the Veneto region of Italy mentioned that their country would
manage the problem better than Chinese, as they care about hygiene and do not eat live mice
(Huma Rights Watch, 2020).

Covid-19: Racism and associated Mental Health Issues

Due to increase in raciest attacks after covid-19, United Nations Secretary-General

Antonio Guterres (on 8th May, 2020) denoted racism and xenophobia as “a virus of hate that is
needed to be stopped”, as it lead to the increase of human rights violation and mental health
issues. Pew Research Center reported that, one-third of Asian-Americans fear threats, physical
attacks and violence (Ruiz, 2021). Racism has increased anxiety, as ESEA community remain
conscious of hate crime against them and about their physical safety (Liu, 2020). They remain
conscious about coughing in public as an Asian (Aratani, 2020). Wong (2020), suggested that
there Asian Americans faces two pandemics, one of them is covid-19, itself, while the other one
is racism. Low self-esteem, hopelessness and helplessness are prevailing in ESEA community
(Zeng et al., 2020). Depression, stress and fear are common psychological issues experienced by
ESEA community (Pfefferbaum & North, 2020). Moreover, individuals who are targeted suffer
from anxiety, depressive symptoms and sleep problems (Abrams, 2021).

Discussion

Sickness cultivate fear and fear cultivates prejudices that pave ways for racism. Today,
where world is going through a global pandemic, it also faces a grave problem of increased
racism. As World Health Organization declared covid-19 as a pandemic, which origin was found
to be in Wuhan (China), an attitude of “otherness” toward ESEA community around the globe
was observed. ESEA communities around the globe are considered as an out-group. They are
stigmatized and are a target of antilocution, as suggested by Allport (1954). Derogatory remarks
such as “corona”, “chinki”, “chinazi”, “chinkland” , “China virus”, “Wuhan virus”, “Kung flu”,
“chiniggers” and phrases such as, “Go eat a bat, Chang!”, “the Chinese coronavirus” (Tahmasbi
et al., 2021) took such prejudices at another level.

Individuals from ESEA community were deliberately avoided and discriminated by

denying them form provision of basic health services, opportunities for jobs and accommodation.
Multiple cases of physical attacks, vandalization of property, lynching and killings were reported
worldwide. Right at the beginning of the pandemic, the killing of three Asian men at Seaport
Buffet, Brooklyn (Winston, 2019) and Asian women at three spas of Atlanta (BBC News, 2021),
showed increased intensity of racism against ESEA community. In addition, the spread of
misinformation by media, social media and biased attitude of politicians acted as catalyst for
increase in racism and xenophobic attitude towards ESEA community.

Suggestions and Conclusion

Future studies should focus on ways to take precautionary measures to counter racism as
pandemics and diseases are indifferent to all nationalities, cultures, religions and ethnicities.
Studies should focus on prevention of misinformation and biases in media in order to prevail
tolerance in the age of globalization.

References

Abrams, Z. (2021). The mental health impact of anti-Asian racism. Apa.org; American

Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/07/impact-anti-asian-

racism

Asain Australian Alliance. (2021). COVID-19 Racism Incident Report Survey Comprehensive

Report 2021. https://asianaustralianalliance.net/covid-19-racism-incident-report-survey-

comprehensive-report-2021/

Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. In Internet Archive. Cambridge, Mass., Addison-

Wesley Pub. Co. https://archive.org/details/natureofprejudic00allp/mode/2up

Aratani, L. (2020). “Coughing while Asian”: Living in fear as racism feeds off coronavirus

panic. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/24/coronavirus-us-

asian-americans-racism.

Apea, V., & Wan, Y. (2021). Yes, there is structural racism in the UK – COVID-19 outcomes

prove it. The Conversation website. https://theconversation.com/yes-there-is-structural-

racism-in-the-uk-covid-19-outcomes-prove-it-158337

Brons, L. (2015). Othering, An Analysis. ResearchGate.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273450968_Othering_An_Analysis

Banerji, A. (2020). Spat on and abused: Coronavirus fuels racism against India’s northeasterners.

Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-india-discriminati-

idUSKBN23Q2JS

BBC News. (2021). Atlanta shootings: Asian women among eight killed at three spas.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56424616

Campbell, L. (2020). Chinese in UK report “shocking” levels of racism after coronavirus

outbreak. The Guardian. Retrieved from

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/09/chinese-in-uk-report-shocking-

levels-of-racism-after-coronavirus-outbreak

Dawn Kopecki, B. L. J., Jr., B. B. L., Feuer, W., & Higgins-Dunn, N. (2020). World Health
Organization declares the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. Retrieved from
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/11/who-declares-the-coronavirus-outbreak-a-global-
pandemic.html

Darling-Hammond, S., Michaels, E. K., Allen, A. M., Chae, D. H., Thomas, M. D., Nguyen, T.

T., Mujahid, M. M., & Johnson, R. C. (2020). After “The China Virus” Went Viral:
 Racially Charged Coronavirus Coverage and Trends in Bias Against Asian Americans.

Health Education & Behavior, 47(6). https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198120957949

Haynes, S. (2021). The Atlanta Shooting Highlights the Painful Reality of Rising Anti-Asian

Violence Around the World. Time. https://time.com/5947862/anti-asian-attacks-rising-

worldwide/

Hswen, Y., Xu, X., Hing, A., Hawkins, J. B., Brownstein, J. S., & Gee, G. C. (2021). Association

of “#covid19” Versus “#chinesevirus” With Anti-Asian Sentiments on Twitter: March 9–

23, 2020. American Journal of Public Health, 111(5), e1–e9.

https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2021.306154

Human Rights Watch. (2020). Covid-19 Fueling Anti-Asian Racism and Xenophobia

Worldwide. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/12/covid-19-fueling-anti-asian-racism-

and-xenophobia-worldwide

Krishnan, M. (2020, March 30). Coronavirus: “Chinese-looking” Indians targeted in racist

attacks. https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-chinese-looking-indians-targeted-in-racist-

attacks/a-52956212

Liu, C. (2020). Being Asian American in the time of COVID-19. The Daily Nexus.

http://dailynexus.com/2020-04-21/being-asian-american-in-the-time-of-covid-19/

Mercer, D. (2022). Coronavirus: Hate crimes against Chinese people soar in UK during COVID-

19 crisis. Sky News. https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-hate-crimes-against-chinese-

people-soar-in-uk-during-covid-19-crisis-11979388

NZ Human Rights commission. (2021). COVID-19 fueling discrimination against Tangata

Whenua and Chinese communities. NZ Human Rights Commission.

 https://www.hrc.co.nz/news/covid-19-fueling-discrimination-against-tangata-whenua-

and-chinese-communities/

North East Today. (2020). Double Battle: Northeast fights both Corona and Racism.

https://www.northeasttoday.in/2020/06/12/double-battle-northeast-fights-both-corona-

and-racism/

Pfefferbaum, B., & North, C. S. (2020). Mental Health and the Covid-19 Pandemic. New

England Journal of Medicine, 383(6), 510–512. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp2008017

Rogers, K. (2020). Politicians’ Use of “Wuhan Virus” Starts a Debate Health Experts Wanted to

Avoid. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/us/politics/wuhan-

virus.html

R. (2021). New report analyzes race of perpetrators in anti-Asian attacks. AsAmNews.

https://asamnews.com/2021/05/22/findings-do-not-support-popular-misconceptions-

about-the-asian-and-black-communities/

Ruiz, N. G., Edwards, K., & Lopez, M. H. (2021). One-third of Asian Americans fear threats,

physical attacks and most say violence against them is rising. Pew Research Center.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/04/21/one-third-of-asian-americans-fear-

threats-physical-attacks-and-most-say-violence-against-them-is-rising/

Racism Incident Reporting Centre. (2021). Project 1907.

https://www.project1907.org/reportingcentre

Saeed, I. (2020). Forecasting the size, peak and fading out of novel coronavirus outbreak using

current confirmed cases and deaths. ResearchGate. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Islam_Saeed3/publication/339104708_Forecasting_t
 he_size_peak_and_fading_out_of_novel_coronavirus_outbreak_using_current_confirme

d_cases_and_deaths/links/5e3d9603a6fdccd96590cb19/Forecasting-the-size-peak-and-

fading-out-of-novel-coronavirus-outbreak-using-current-confirmed-cases-and-deaths.pdf

Sojo, V., & Bapuji, H. (2020, April 27). The toxic spread of COVID-19 racism. Pursuit.

https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/the-toxic-spread-of-covid-19-racism

Sanchez-Mazas, M., Licata, L., 2015. Xenophobia: Social Psychological Aspects. In:James D.

Wright, International Encyclopedia of the Social &Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition, Vol

25. Oxford: Elsevier.

Tahmasbi, F., Schild, L., Ling, C., Blackburn, J., Stringhini, G., Zhang, Y., & Zannettou, S.

(2021). “Go eat a bat, Chang!”: On the Emergence of Sinophobic Behavior on Web

Communities in the Face of COVID-19. Proceedings of the Web Conference 2021.

https://doi.org/10.1145/3442381.3450024

World Health Organization. (2020). Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Situation report -1.

Retrieved from https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/

20200121-sitrep-1-2019-ncov.pdf?sfvrsn=20a99c10_4

.Wen, J., Aston, J., Liu, X., & Ying, T. (2020). Effects of misleading media coverage on public

health crisis: a case of the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak in China. Anatolia, 1–6. doi:

10.1080/13032917.2020.1730621

Wicker, H. R. (2001). Xenophobia. Science Direct, 16649–16652. doi:

https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-08-043076-7/00980-3
Wong, B. (2020). For Asian Americans, there are two pandemics: COVID-19 and daily bigotry.

Huffington Post. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/asian-american-racism-

coronavirus_l_5e790a71c5b63c3b64954eb4

Winston, A. (2019). A gruesome hammer attack left 3 Asian men dead. Was it a hate crime?

Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/nyregion/hammer-attack-brooklyn-

chinese-restaurant.html

Yam, K. (2021). There were 3,800 anti-Asian racist incidents, mostly against women, in past

year. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/there-were-3-800-anti-

asian-racist-incidents-mostly-against-n1261257

Zheng, Y., Goh, E., & Wen, J. (2020). The effects of misleading media reports about COVID-19

on Chinese tourists’ mental health: a perspective article. Anatolia, 31(2), 1–4.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2020.1747208