Spillover Racism: Explain Discrimination against Asian American

• In Event: Discrimination, Racial Attitudes, and Public Opinion

Abstract

How do we understand the increasing anti-Asian racism in recent years? I argue that the discrimination against Asian American results from the perception of threats from Asian countries. Americans regard these Asian citizens as a symbol of foreign threats and a possible approach through which foreign threats reach them. Therefore, they transfer their negative attitude toward Asian countries to American Americans. I call this type of racism spillover racism. Using ANES 2020, I find evidence to support the existence of spillover racism: Americans who perceive more threats from Asian countries prefer fewer Asian American politicians and dislike Asian Americans more. They also feel Asian Americans have too much influence in American politics, despite the underrepresentation of Asian Americans in U.S. politics. This research note hopes to attract more attention to racism against Asian Americans.

Authors

• Jianjun Yu, Tsinghua University

• Chaohong Pan