The Rise of Anti-Asian Racism in the Pandemic

March 4, 2021

A man holds a sign that reads "Racism is a Virus" during the "We Are Not Silent" rally against anti-Asian hate in response to recent anti-Asian crime in the Chinatown-International District of Seattle earlier this month.Lok Siu, faculty affiliate of ISSI's Asian American Research Center was interviewed in a number of media outlets analyzing the increase in anti-Asian hate as the pandemic wears on. In the New York Times, Voice of America, and Minnesota Public Radio, Siu explains how Asians have been used as a way to divide and conquer minorities by placing Asians on a pedestal as the "model minority." Discrimination against Asian Americans is often overlooked and dismissed, but this discrimination tends to peak in times of national crisis although it is rarely recognized as part of a systemic racism.