As COVID-19 began to spread around the world after emerging in China, people of Asian descent began to experience one of the most horrific consequences of the pandemic: an upsurge in discrimination involving both verbal and physical abuse.
In some of the most serious incidents, an elderly Thai grandfather died after being pushed to the ground in San Francisco, a Filipino American was slashed in the face with a box cutter and a Burmese American and his son were attacked by someone who thought they were Chinese and blamed them for the pandemic.
From the extreme to the mundane, there have been thousands of cases of anti-Asian discrimination since the start of the pandemic, with perpetrators often blaming them for COVID-19.
Although there was widespread awareness of the increase in hate crimes against people of Asian descent, little was known about how COVID-19 was affecting their sense of safety and belonging in their communities, particularly in Canada.
A Dalhousie team looked into the issue and found that many Asian Canadians have experienced outright racism or felt unsafe and unstable during the pandemic due to the unexpected and unpredictable nature of discrimination, leaving many people stressed and exhausted.
“I was disappointed, but not surprised by what we found,” says Josh Ng-Kamstra, a trauma surgeon, intensivist, and health services researcher at the School of Health Administration.
“The study was conceived at a time when racist rhetoric about the virus coming from American political leaders was saturating the Canadian news cycle. Unfortunately, we found that such messages resonated in Canada. Each of our participants has witnessed or directly experienced discrimination. during the pandemic.
“One participant said ‘it’s not [just] an American problem,” which I think is important for the Canadian public to hear. »
A responsibility to respond to discrimination
Researchers interviewed 32 Asian Canadian women and men of varying ages in different parts of the country from March to May 2021. In an article published today (Tuesday, June 14) in CMAJ Openthey describe how all participants experienced a range of emotions, including anxiety, depression and anger, leaving them feeling they could not use public spaces safely for fear of discrimination.
Most commented on the unexpectedness of the discrimination, making them feel they had to stay alert in anticipation of harm, which in turn led to distress and exhaustion. In addition, all mentioned the key role that politicians and the media have played in promoting discrimination through rhetoric and misinformation.
“There’s a certain kind of unsettling discomfort about people blaming such a big, horrible pandemic on a community, and on people who look like me, or who look like my parents,” said one participant.
Another said he was less willing to do things on his own or go to certain neighborhoods for fear of harassment.
Jeanna Parsons Leigh, assistant professor at Dal’s School of Health Administration and co-author of the report, says what stuck with her was that every study participant said they thought politicians and the media played a vital role in enabling the spread of Asian Canadian discrimination and fear towards Asians during the pandemic.
“This is a critical and much needed area of improvement,” says Dr Parsons Leigh. “Our politicians and our media must do more in times of crisis to expose and dismantle racism and scapegoating, and it is our job as members of the general public to hold our elected officials and our media accountable.”
Information disseminated by politicians and the mainstream media has been shown in other research to influence public behavior. Studies have shown that the presence of anti-Asian hate speech on Twitter was more prevalent than anti-hate posts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Former US President Donald Trump and his supporters have been keen to refer to SARS-CoV-2 as a “Chinese virus” or the “Kung flu”, leading some attendees to comment that politicians deliberately misled, incited and emboldened their followers to attack or harass Asian people.
A “tsunami of hate”
The upsurge in discriminatory acts has become so concerning that on May 8, 2020, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “The pandemic continues to unleash a tsunami of hatred and xenophobia, of scapegoating and alarmism”. He urged governments to “act now to strengthen the immunity of our societies against the virus of hate”.
Most participants described the effects of racism as immeasurable and the impact on their mental and social health as devastating. Some said they suffered from depression, anxiety and persistent stress during the pandemic. There are some distinctions in the experiences, however.
“A core element of our work is the notion that educational, linguistic, occupational and economic privileges provide meaningful protection against the racism and discrimination faced by those in public-facing and minimum-wage jobs,” said Dr. Ng-Kamstra.
But many also said they felt connected to their communities.
“Our results also suggest that despite their fear during the pandemic, Asian Canadians in our sample felt a strong sense of belonging to Canadian society and felt well connected to their Asian Canadian communities,” says the study. co-author Stephana Julia Moss, post-doctoral student. researcher at Dal’s School of Health Administration.
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