How Do Graduate Students With Asian Background Experience Racial Issues During the Outbreak of COVID-19?

• In Event: Fighting Anti-Asian Racism: Utilizing Different Critical Approaches to Counternarratives

Abstract

Objectives
Answering the call of AERA to use our voices to “to support this resolution; denounce these trends; support more research worldwide, including directed to the issues emphasized in your resolution; and stress the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion” (AREA, 2020), this study aims to investigate how graduate students from Asian background experience race and discrimination, using a lens of Asian Critical Race theory (AsianCrit).

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Based on these five tenets of the Critical Race Theory (CRT) proposed by Delgado and Stefancic (2017), and recognizing the unique needs of Asian communities, the study applied an “AsianCrit” perspective by Museus and Iftikar (2013) to examine how racism suppressed Asian Americans in the U.S. Museus (2014) further developed seven tenets of AsianCrit: 1) Asianization; 2) Transnational contexts; 3) (Re)constructive history; 4) Strategic (Anti)Essentialism; 5) Intersectionality; 6) Story, theory, and praxis; 7) Commitment to social justice. In this study, the focus is placed on two tenets unique for AsianCrit, namely, Asianization and transnational contexts.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
This study is conducted as exploratory qualitative research. Its purpose is to understand the uniqueness of the setting and what it means to be certain individuals in the setting. In this study, the uniqueness of the context lies in the how current Asian graduate students respond to the new, unknown disease outbreak in China, and how this experience continues to perpetuate stereotypes, given with similar past events. Additionally, focuses were placed on the narratives of the participants to understand their experiences, which are contextualized historically.

Data sources
Three international graduate students with Asian backgrounds in a US university were chosen to participate the study. To collect those personal stories, semi-structed interviews were used as the primary data source. Each of the three participants took one 45-mintue interview with the researcher.

Results
The data show that the international students felt being discriminated when being incorrectly associated with racial labels with the White social norms. The findings suggest that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Asians in the US are still suffering from being categorized into a monolithic group, being perceived as perpetual foreigners, and have to conform to White social norms to protect themselves such as avoiding certain places or engaging in White communities actively.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
This study could help us understand the racial experience of the population which has barely been investigated during a public health crisis. It could also help to navigate other research focusing on the responses from Asian communities in the U.S. at this difficult time. Furthermore, it might be able to leave another leaf on the history of Asian communities about how this population survives plagues and something following the plagues like the fire in Honolulu, the concentration camps in San Francisco and all the negative and unchanged stereotypes lasting for over a century.

Author

• Jiayi Xu, University of Florida