Examining Shifts in Asian American Racial Identity During COVID-19

• In Event: COVID-19 and the Racial Politics of a Pandemic

Abstract

As the COVID-19 virus began to take spread in the United States severely impacting the health, safety and economy of Americans, many looked to place blame on the cause. The Trump administration’s attacks on China along with the insistence in using terms such as “Wuhan virus” encouraged Americans to blame Asian Americans for the hardships that they faced. As a result, groups have documented thousands of hate crime reporting by Asian Americans and some survey evidence shows that anti-Asian attitudes rose over 2020. What kind of impact might this have on the politics of Asian Americans? In previous work, Masuoka and Junn (2008) argued that Asian American racial group consciousness is latent and must be activated in certain contexts. In this study, we track to what extent Asian American racial identity was activated by events that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. We offer analysis of a panel study conducted on a sample of approximately 1000 Asian Americans before and after the pandemic. We examine changing attitudes about discrimination and to what extent this has an impact on Asian American political attitudes such as partisan affiliation, identity, and other measures.

Authors

• Vivien Leung, Bucknell University

• Natalie Masuoka, University of California, Los Angeles