Anti-Asian Racism

Background The COVID-19 pandemic heightened anti-Asian racism towards East Asian diasporas in North America. Experiences of racism encountered by East Asian communities have been documented to negatively impact their mental health. Methods A scoping review was undertaken following Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) methodology to (a) map the foci of literature on racism and the mental health of East Asian diasporas in North America and (b) identify gaps in the current literature. Results A total of 1309 articles were identified in May 2021. Based on the inclusion criteria, 35 records were included. Two distinct mental health foci were found: mental health outcomes and mental healthcare access and utilization. The majority (n = 22) of the articles focused on racism at the interpersonal level. Six articles provided anti-racism solutions at the individual level, such as overcoming biases. Five articles targeted anti-racism solutions from both the individual and institutional levels, while 1 article addressed barriers at the institutional level, such as dismantling sanctioned power hierarchies. Conclusion The expanding knowledge base on COVID-19-related racial discrimination is reminiscent of previous literature examining the history of anti-Asian racism in North America. Greater attention is needed to navigate impactful anti-racism solutions for East Asian populations’ mental health in North America.

We describe the perceptions and experiences of anti-Asian racism and violence and depression severity prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic among a sample of Asian American (AA) adolescents and young adults. We used data from the Young Asian American Health Survey (YAAHS), an online-recruited sample of AA adolescents (ages 13-17) and young adults (ages 18-29 years) conducted during May 2021 to March 2022. We presented descriptive statistics examining the univariate distribution and bivariate relationships of depression severity, sociodemographic characteristics, and experiences and perceptions of anti-Asian violence. Our sample (n = 176) comprised AA adolescents and young adults from 17 Asian ethnicities. A quarter said that the frequency and/or severity of their personal experiences of anti-Asian harassment had increased since the pandemic started. 76% indicated feeling less safe now than before the pandemic. Two-thirds reported that their depressive symptoms have increased since the pandemic started. Participants who reported feeling less safe now than before the pandemic were more likely to report increased personal experiences with anti-Asian harassment and increased depression severity since the pandemic started than those who reported feeling as safe or safer before the pandemic (p < 0.01 for both). Findings illustrate AA adolescent and young adults are experiencing multiple health and social crises stemming from increased anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. We urge policymakers to strengthen data systems that connect racial discrimination and mental health and to institute prevention measures and anti-racist mental health services that are age- and culturally-appropriate for AA adolescent and young adults.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has fueled anti-Asian racism and xenophobia in the United States, which negatively impact Asian Americans' adjustment. To identify risk and protective factors for Chinese American adolescents' mental health, the present study examined: (1) the associations between Chinese American adolescents' experiences of COVID-19-related racial discrimination and their internalizing difficulties; (2) the moderating roles of: (a) adolescents' bicultural identity integration (BII; harmony and blendedness dimensions separately) and (b) parents' promotion of mistrust ethnic-racial socialization (PMERS); and (c) the interplay between BII and PMERS in the associations between racial discrimination and internalizing difficulties. Participants included 211 Chinese American adolescents of 10-18 years old (M age = 13.92, SD = 2.33; 48% girls) and their parents (M age = 46.18 years, SD = 5.17; 81% mothers). Overall, adolescents' experiences of COVID-19-related racial discrimination were associated with more internalizing difficulties, and this association was buffered by BII harmony and blendedness and exacerbated by PMERS. However, a complex interplay among specific BII dimensions and parental PMERS in the associations between racial discrimination and adolescent internalizing problems was revealed. Adolescents with lower levels of BII blendedness were more vulnerable to the negative effects of racial discrimination on their internalizing problems and more susceptible to their parents' PMERS; adolescents who reported higher levels of BII harmony and perceived lower levels of parental PMERS were more protected from the negative effects of racial discrimination on their internalizing problems. Both adolescents' and parents' contributions should be considered simultaneously in promoting resilience in Chinese American families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, reports of anti-Asian American or Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate have increased in the United States. Institutions of higher education provide a unique opportunity to examine COVID-19 related stigma and protective factors in AAPI young adults enrolled in college. The goal of this research was to examine COVID-19 related stigma among a diverse college student population. We posited that AAPI students experience more racial discrimination, internalized stigma, and/or anticipated racial discrimination than other students. We also sought to identify protective behavioral factors against stigma. This study includes data from a repeated cross-sectional survey that was administered among college students at a large public university in the United States in April (n = 1,359) and November 2020 (n = 1,196). All university enrolled students with an active email account were eligible to participate in the online survey, which included questions about COVID-19 stigma (anticipated, enacted, internalized), stigma resistance, sources of COVID-19 information, lifestyle behaviors, and sociodemographic information. Binary logistic regression models were utilized to assess differences in stigma between race and ethnic groups and to identify factors associated with stigma. AAPI students were more likely to experience all three types of stigma compared to other race and ethnic groups. AAPI students in both waves were at least 2 times more likely to experience enacted stigma and 7.3 times more likely to experience anticipated stigma in the earlier wave compared to non-Hispanic White students. Students who had experienced enacted stigma were more likely to experience anticipated stigma, and those who experienced enacted and anticipated stigma were more likely to experience internalized stigma. Higher education level, living with neighbors/roommates, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and thinking positively about oneself may act as protective factors against different types of stigma. AAPI students have a greater risk of experiencing COVID-19 stigma compared to those from other race and ethnic groups. Universities should combat anti-AAPI sentiments and COVID-19 stigma and promote public health efforts to build resistance against the negative effects of stigma.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 outbreak has spurred increasing anti-Asian racism and xenophobia in the United States, which might be detrimental to the psychological well-being of Asian people living in the United States.ObjectiveWe studied three discrimination-related variables, including (1) experience of discrimination, (2) worry about discrimination, and (3) racism-related social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic among Asians in the United States. We examined how these three variables were related to depression, and how the association between racism-related social media use and depression was moderated by personal experience of and worry about racial discrimination.MethodsA web-based, cross-sectional survey was conducted. A total of 209 people (mean age 33.69, SD 11.31 years; 96/209, 45.93% female) who identified themselves as Asian and resided in the United States were included in the study.ResultsExperience of discrimination (β=.33, P=.001) and racism-related social media use (β=.14, P=.045) were positively associated with depressive symptoms. Worry about discrimination (β=.13, P=.14) was not associated with depression. Worry about discrimination moderated the relationship between racism-related social media use and depression (β=–.25, P=.003) such that a positive relationship was observed among those who had low and medium levels of worry.ConclusionsThe present study provided preliminary evidence that experience of discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic was a risk factor of depressive symptoms among Asian people in the United States. Meanwhile, racism-related social media use was found to be negatively associated with the well-being of US Asians, and the relationship between social media use and depression was significantly moderated by worry about discrimination. It is critical to develop accessible programs to help US Asians cope with racial discrimination both in real lives and on social media during this unprecedented health crisis, especially among those who have not been mentally prepared for such challenges.

Canada is often held up internationally as a successful model of immigration. Yet, Canada's history, since its birth as a nation one hundred and fifty-four years ago, is one of contested racial and ethnic relations. Its racial and ethnic conflict and division resurfaces during cov id -19 when there has been a surge in racism and xenophobia across the country towards Asian Canadians, particularly those of Chinese descent. Drawing on critical race theory and critical discourse analysis, this article critically analyzes incidents that were reported in popular press during the pandemic pertaining to this topic. The analysis shows how deeply rooted racial discrimination is in Canada. It also reveals that the anti-Asian and anti-Chinese racism and xenophobia reflects and retains the historical process of discursive racialization by which Asian Canadians have been socially constructed as biologically inferior, culturally backward, and racially undesirable. To combat and eliminate racism, we propose a framework of pandemic anti-racism education for the purpose of achieving educational improvement in post-COVID-19.

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is associated with adverse pregnancy and birth complications. Asian populations have the highest risk of GDM, with even greater risk among foreign-born (FB) residents. Socio-political factors, such as heightened anti-Asian racism and travel restrictions during COVID19 may have further increased their risk of GDM. Our study sought to examine the associations between race/ethnicity, nativity status, and GDM rate and changes during COVID19. We used the US National Center for Health Statistics natality administrative data (N = 14,219,719). We estimated GDM and birth rates by race/ethnicity (Asian non-Hispanic [NH], Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander NH, American Indian and Alaska Native NH, Black NH, White NH, Multiracial NH, and Hispanic/Latina) and nativity status (US-born, Foreign-born). Race/ethnicity was evaluated as a social construct for racial discrimination and nativity was evaluated as a proxy for acculturation-related risk factors. We used multivariable robust Poisson regressions to estimate GDM rates per 100 live births for each racial/ethnic group pre-COVID19 (2018-2019) and during COVID19 (2021) by FB status, adjusting for socioeconomic and major pregnancy risk factors. In adjusted models, both Asian NH and foreign-born persons had higher rates of GDM compared to White NH (rate ratio [RR]: 2.02, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.01, 2.04) and US-born (RR; 1.33, 95% CI: 1.32, 1.34) persons, respectively. Overall GDM rates increased significantly during COVID19 (RR: 1.18, 95% CI: 1.17, 1.18), with Asian US- and foreign-born persons experiencing the greatest absolute increase (US-born: +2.5, 95% CI: 2.4, 2.6; foreign-born: +3.6, 95% CI: 3.5, 3.6) compared to other racial/ethnic groups (US-born: range +1.3-1.7, foreign-born range: +0.5-2.9). Disaggregated by Asian ethnicity, Chinese and Vietnamese persons had the highest GDM rates overall and the greatest increase during COVID19. We found significant disparities in GDM rates by race/ethnicity and nativity status between 2018 and 2021, with Asian and foreign-born persons having the highest rates of GDM. Investigation into potential socio-political and other contributing factors of reproductive health inequities during COVID19 may help explain these disparities.

Reviewed by: Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball by Rebecca T. Alpert William M. Simons (bio) Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball. By Rebecca T. Alpert. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. ixix + 236236 pp. Coming of age, Rebecca Alpert heard from her family and Reform temple that the major league baseball debut of Jackie Robinson in 1947 represented a validation of American democracy, a victory facilitated by Judaism's commitment to social justice. She later recognized, however, that continued inequality muted black celebration of Robinson's achievement. As Jews evolved from race to white ethnic group in the national culture, they failed to fully comprehend that anti-black racism would prove far more intractable than American anti-Semitism. The common trajectory of Jewish assimilation and economic upward mobility did not prove normative for African Americans. Alpert argues that blacks, like Jews, accepted stereotypes of the other that impacted interaction between the two groups in America and its national pastime. For centuries, restrictions and prejudice had relegated European Jews to circumscribed spheres, sometimes as rent collectors, moneylenders, and traders, positioned precariously between dominant elites and resentful workers. In the United States, numbers of Jewish shopkeepers and landlords appeared to retain attributes of that uncomfortable middleman status in black neighborhoods. Unfavorable perceptions of the Jewish economic presence in their communities, according to Alpert, impacted the African-American view of Jews in black baseball. Out of Left Field chronicles the intersection between Jews and black baseball in the years before and after Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. Just as blacks and Jews gave divergent meaning to Robinson, the two groups viewed their shared baseball experience from sharply different perspectives. Documenting a substantial Jewish presence in black baseball, Alpert rejects facile generalizations that fail to capture the complexity and nuance of the phenomenon. Out of Left Field posits three distinct roles played by the Jewish outsider in black baseball: players, entrepreneurs, and reformers. Black Jewish ballplayers found their most notable representation in the Belleville Grays, a team sponsored by Temple Beth El in Belleville, Virginia. Alpert presents a seminal account of the Grays, a team that reflected the permeable boundaries between league and independent play [End Page 315] in black baseball. With roots in the Hebrew Israelite movement, Temple Beth El observed Jewish customs and rituals despite an eclecticism that also reflected African and Christian elements. Through the baseball prowess of the Grays, Temple Beth El sought respect and revenue for its black Jewish community. As booking agents, promoters, league officials, and team owners, Jewish businessmen occupied a central role in black baseball. Alpert focuses on three of those Jewish entrepreneurs, Ed Gottlieb, Syd Pollock, and Abe Saperstein. These Jewish businessmen effectively promoted black baseball, but their scheduling of barnstorming games ran counter to the establishment of stable Negro Leagues. With little commitment to ending Jim Crow baseball, Jewish businessmen recognized that integration would ultimately destroy their income from black baseball. The contrast between the lucrative profits of Jewish middlemen and the modest remuneration of Negro league owners and players created resentment. Although generous to individual players, Jewish businessmen contributed little to the creation of a strong infrastructure for black baseball. The profits garnered by Jewish businessmen, augmented by their encouragement of stereotypical minstrel clowning by players, perpetuated negative Shylock imagery in the black press. Attuned to the disparate motivations and goals of Jewish involvement in black baseball, Out of Left Field also discusses those Jews who responded to racism in baseball from the vantage point of social justice. William Benswanger, an anomaly as the Jewish owner of a major league franchise during his tenure as president of the Pittsburgh Pirates, employed a black trainer, rented Forbes Field to the Homestead Grays, and expressed rhetorical support for baseball integration. In Boston, Isadore Muchnick, a Jewish city councilman, threatened the Red Sox with denial of permits for Sunday baseball, forcing the franchise to grant an April 1945 tryout to three black ballplayers, though the exercise did not result in a signing. Hank Greenberg, baseball's first great Jewish player, finished his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1947, Jackie Robinson's first season in the major leagues. After an inadvertent...