On Anti-Asian Hate as an Ego-Based and Social-Political Force in a Time of COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, which started in late 2019 and continues through the present, has resulted in the scapegoating of Asians globally, according to crime reports and journalistic reportage. This chapter explores the phenomenon of anti-Asian hate both as a personal (ego-level person-related) and social-political (group or population-level) force during a pandemic. This focuses more specifically on the mixed roles of some U.S. leaders and politicians and the communications on the Social Web. In the 2020-2021 timeframe, U.S. political leaders have evoked the “China virus” to garner votes and political contributions and political loyalty, even as the legislature put into place laws against anti-Asian violence and law enforcement stepped up to prevent more race-on-race violence. Concurrently, there were incidences of racial strife expressed on the Social Web. This work is comprised of a review of the journalistic and academic literature and includes the extraction of related social media expressions (such as #stopasianhate and #stopaapihate).