For Asian Americans, a Dual Pandemic of COVID-19 and Racism

The Dose

Hate crimes against Asians in the United States more than doubled from 2019 to 2020. Last month, in one of the most conspicuous acts of violence against Asians in recent history, six Asian American women were shot dead in Georgia.

Racism against people of Asian descent is not a new problem, but it has been exacerbated of late by politicians using racist rhetoric to describe the coronavirus. Asians in America are now facing a dual pandemic: a heightened fear of racist abuse, from verbal slurs to physical assault, on top of all the anxiety of living through COVID-19.

In this episode, Vivian Shaw and Susanna Park of the AAPI COVID-19 project talk about the deep roots of anti-Asian bias, as well as their research into how the pandemic is affecting the lives of Asians in the U.S.