What the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes means for the U.S.

Activism

Sep 6

According to a new report from the national nonprofit coalition Stop AAPI Hate, between March 19, 2020 to June 30, 2021 a total of 9,081 anti-Asian hate incidents have been reported to the organization. To be clear, hate incidents are not always considered hate crimes, but both are discussed in this report. To put this number into context, while the overall number of hate crimes in the U.S. decreased by 2% in 2020, hate crimes against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) population increased by 146%.

Nearly half, or 48.1%, of all the reported hate incidents have consisted of at least one hateful statement regarding sinophobic (anti-China) and/or anti-immigrant rhetoric. The report explores how the scapegoating of China is very clearly linked to the increase in hate incidents. On the surface of this issue, the soaring rate in anti-Asian hate incidents is related to the COVID-19 pandemic which had its first known case in China in January 2020. However, a deeper dive into the phenomena of anti-Asian and particularly sinophobic incidents reveals a much larger political issue at hand.

First, it is important to recognize that there is a long history of anti-Asian racism which is not new in U.S. society. While Asians are typically viewed as a “model minority” in the U.S., this stereotype is revealed to be a myth when one first considers the diversity within the AAPI community and second the efforts to continually render the AAPI community into perpetual foreigners.

A more succinct term used to describe this phenomenon of making the AAPI community foreign and outside of USAmerican society is to orientalize them. Not only does orientalism isolate AAPI people from the rest of USAmerican society, but the AAPI identity and/or background is typically intertwined with contemporaneous world politics, leaving individuals vulnerable to racist attacks when foreign relations escalate.

This conflation of world politics, nation and identity are all reproduced in the current rise of hate crimes against the AAPI community. U.S.-China relations have long been deteriorating as China develops and becomes a serious competitor with the U.S. in the global economy. This has led to USAmerican anxiety over its own position in world politics which plays out at the micro-level through daily U.S. race relations.

In fact, the targeting of AAPI people in the U.S. during times of tense foreign relations has a long record. From the Chinese Exclusion Act which lasted between 1882 and 1943 to Japanese internment camps during World War II to hate crimes against Muslim and South Asian Americans after 9/11 and many more instances, entire communities are turned into targets because of complicated global issues.

Additionally, anti-Asian racism not only harms the AAPI community but, in the end, harms the entire country and the world as well. For example, the racist model-minority myth is used as a wedge to divide other people of color from AAPI communities in order to compare these groups without any historical context. Creating divisions among people is further used to dehumanize one another and scapegoat communities for complex societal issues domestically and internationally, inevitably leading to widespread violence and war.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed just how neglectful the U.S. can be of its own citizens in a major time of crisis. Meanwhile, China’s approach in comparison has led to the containment of the virus and even economic growth. It is therefore within the interests of the most powerful people in the U.S. to scapegoat China rather than point out their own failures. This only incentivizes militarism toward the Asia-Pacific area and the further dehumanization of the AAPI community.

While the U.S. government proposes more funding to law enforcement to supposedly stop hate crimes against the AAPI community, it is important to understand what the root causes of racist incidents really are: the division of the people to further entrench the power of the elite. Instead of funding the surveillance state to combat AAPI hate, it is necessary to reject racism and militarism and embrace education and solidarity with people around the world.