Stop AAPI Hate report spotlights how political rhetoric has been consistently employed to hurt Asian communities
With the midterm election campaign heating up, Stop AAPI Hate has released a new report to spotlight how political rhetoric has been consistently employed, over decades, to hurt Asian communities, including Indian Americans.
Perpetrators of hate incidents toward Asians and Asian Americans repeat rhetoric they hear from candidates and elected officials blaming China for public health crises, for economic downturns and for national security concerns, says the report.
Read: Anti-Asian hate is dismissed since we’re never viewed as ‘truly American’: Dr. Janet Ahn (April 1, 2021)
At present, there is an emphasis on anti-Chinese rhetoric, which results in the targeting of Asian Americans, including those who are not of Chinese descent, it says.
This trend becomes apparent when comparing hate incidents reported to Stop AAPI Hate with inflammatory language recently used by politicians, it says.
“The Blame Game: How Political Rhetoric Inflames Anti-Asian Scapegoating,” released by a coalition that addresses anti-Asian and Pacific Islander hate, analyzes the harms of scapegoating on Asian and Asian American communities.
It also includes a brief history of anti-Asian scapegoating and offers recommendations for political candidates, community groups, and individuals who want to help us put an end to this alarming trend.
Since March 19, 2020, Stop AAPI Hate has recorded 2,255 incidents with language that scapegoats Asians and Asian Americans — wrongfully blaming them for Covid-19, espionage on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, or economic insecurity according to the report.
These incidents represent one in five (20%) of the 11,467 hate incidents targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) submitted to its reporting system.
“This number is just the tip of the iceberg; a national survey estimated at least three million AAPIs experienced hate incidents between March 2021 and March 2022,” says the report.
Read: Hate Crimes against Indian Americans continue to rise: FBI (September 9, 2021)
The harmful political rhetoric associating China with Covid-19 has contributed to this rise in incidents involving scapegoating language.
Almost all scapegoating incidents in its dataset (2,161, or 96% of all scapegoating incidents) unfairly blame Asians and Asian Americans for the Covid-19 pandemic, says the report.
Covid-19 is only the latest in a long history of scapegoating Asians and Asian Americans for public health reasons – also known as “medical scapegoating, it says
The report sees two scapegoating narratives — National Security Scapegoating and Economic Scapegoating — emerging from its data.
First, it found 95 incidents (4% of all scapegoating incidents) where Asians or Asian Americans are blamed for national security reasons, alleging that community members are spies on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.
Second, it identified 15 incidents (1% of all scapegoating incidents) where Asian Americans are blamed for being economic threats who take away jobs from “real” Americans.
With the global pandemic beginning to recede, the report cautioned that the number of incidents involving national security or economic scapegoating can quickly escalate alongside current political rhetoric.
The report also notes historical parallels where Asians and Asian Americans were previously scapegoated for national security and economic reasons, resulting in violence and racial profiling.
A separate report reviewed tweets by politicians leading up to the 2020 election, and found that about one in 10 tweets about Asian Americans included racist or stigmatizing language, such as scapegoating.
“In every chapter of US history, immigrants and people of color unfairly suffered blame for our nation’s economic problems and societal ills,” says the report.
Our nation’s leaders have time and again played into existing narrative frames that consolidate political support and public opinion against a common “enemy,” it says.
“Scapegoating — the act of unfairly blaming a group for societal misfortunes — is a political strategy that wins votes by causing animus and harm against marginalized communities,” says the report.
Over the last 250 years, the target of scapegoating in the United States has moved from one community of color to another, resulting in devastating violence and exclusionary policies.
With the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Asians and Asian Americans are once again a scapegoat.
Read: HOW TO AVOID ANTI-ASIAN SCAPEGOATING (October 12, 2022)
“Our community is an easy target because of two pre-existing stereotypes about Asians and Asian Americans. First, the ‘yellow peril’ and ‘dusky peril’ myths depict Asia and Asians as a threat to the western world’s existence,” says the report.
Second, the “perpetual foreigner” trope portrays Asians and Asian Americans as forever outsiders who do not belong in America, it says.
Stop AAPI Hate called on politicians to end unnecessary fearmongering and rhetoric that inflames scapegoating and harm saying, “We deserve leaders who engage in meaningful debate and uplift the needs, strengths, and contributions of Asians, Asian Americans, and other communities of color.”