On Tuesday in Atlanta, eight people, including six Asian women, were shot and killed. A day after the alleged 21-year-old shooter targeted three spa and massage businesses, he was taken into custody and police said he confessed.
The mass shooting came amid a surge of hate crimes against Asian Americans. Over the past 12 months, Stop AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) Hate has logged nearly 3,800 reports of hate incidents against the AAPI community. An analysis of police department statistics from 16 U.S. cities found that anti-Asian hate crimes grew almost 150 percent in 2020 compared with 2019.
Anti-Asian violence grew over the past year alongside an increase in anti-Asian rhetoric related to the coronavirus pandemic. On March 27, 2020, less than two weeks after President Donald Trump first referred to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” on Twitter, the FBI warned that anti-Asian hate crimes would increase as a result. Recent scholarship finds that Trump and other leaders’ framing of the pandemic as China’s fault has activated many Americans’ anti-Asian sentiments and xenophobia.
What can counter such anti-Asian rhetoric? Our research finds that Democratic legislators and legislators of color, led by Asian American women, are using their social media platforms to condemn such racism. That matters. Recent research finds that countering hate messages on social media can reduce the spread of racist rhetoric by discouraging those who see those messages from expressing anti-Asian views.
How we did our research
We used a Pew Research Center data set of 208,434 tweets sent by 526 members of Congress who tweeted at least once between Jan. 23, 2020 and April 12, 2020. We first used keyword searches to identify every tweet in the data set that mentioned any variants of racism or Asian Americans, including keywords such as racism, racist, xenophobia, prejudice, as well as keywords specifically relating to anti-Asian rhetoric such as Asian, Chinese American and AAPI. We then hand-coded tweets related to the coronavirus that fell into one or more of three categories, in which the tweet expressed concern: 1, about racism and/or discrimination; 2, about anti-Asian rhetoric; and 3, about racism regarding other racial groups, including immigrants.
Some tweets fell into several categories. For example, the tweet, “xenophobia won’t stop the #coronavirus” was coded as 1, but not 2 or 3. Meanwhile, the tweet, “We can’t let the rise of racism and violence toward AAPIs go unaddressed. That’s why I am an original co-sponsor of a resolution condemning all forms of anti-Asian sentiment related to #COVID19 with my @CAPAC colleagues. Together, we must end these attacks on AAPI communities” was coded as 1 and 2, but not 3.
Recent attacks could push Asian Americans to get more politically active, research finds
Democrats and legislators of color were more likely than others to condemn anti-Asian rhetoric
Over the two-and-a-half month period that we examined, we found a total of 780 tweets concerned about racism, 383 tweets concerned about anti-Asian sentiment, and 217 tweets opposed to racism toward other racial minority groups and immigrants. Democrats and legislators of color were far more likely to condemn virus-related racism and anti-Asian rhetoric in particular than Republicans and White legislators. Of the 383 tweets condemning anti-Asian hate, all but two came from Democrats. Almost 50 percent of the tweets came from Asian Americans who, at the time, constituted only 3 percent of Congress.
Women of color in particular issued the most tweets against anti-Asian rhetoric. Reps. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Fla.), born in Ecuador, and Judy Chu (D-Calif.) were the first members of Congress to tweet about the issue. Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) introduced a resolution condemning anti-Asian sentiment, which the House passed on Sept. 17. Such actions can alert Americans to the growth of anti-Asian rhetoric and violence. When legislators pay attention to anti-Asian sentiment, that can lead to meaningful action. For instance, last May, after Senate Democrats called on various executive branch agencies to take action against anti-Asian racism and xenophobia, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights agreed to issue guidance to federal agencies on how to prevent it. More recently, the Justice Department announced it has been conducting listening sessions, will make this issue one if its highest priorities, and “will dedicate resources to combat the threat.”
Since the start of the pandemic, some political and media leaders have used anti-Asian slurs and stereotypes, contributing to some Americans’ growing tendency to associate the virus with anti-Asian sentiments and xenophobia. Asian American communities have long been stereotyped as dirty and used as scapegoats during public health crises. With health experts predicting more frequent pandemics, many of which may come out of Asia, anti-Asian violence may increase. Pervasive racialized and misogynistic stereotypes may put Asian American women at heightened risk. Indeed, the Stop AAPI Hate report found that women were more than two times as likely to report hate incidents than men over the past year.
‘It’s race, class and gender together’: Why the Atlanta killings aren’t just about one thing
Communities can respond
A day before the shooting, Georgia state Sen. Michelle Au had issued a warning about anti-Asian racism. After the shootings, she issued a statement saying, “Our AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] community has been living in fear in the shadow of escalating racial discrimination and attacks. This latest series of murders only heightens that terror. We are scared for our families, we are scared for our friends. … Recognize that we need support, we need protection, and we need your voices raised with ours against hate.”
After the Atlanta attacks, Georgia’s Asian American leaders issued a statement calling for a “community-centered response” that includes investments in crisis intervention, social safety nets, and in-language support for mental health and other services to counter the “compounding impacts of misogyny, structural violence, and white supremacy.” Research suggests that support from local, state, and national governments could reduce anti-Asian stigma and, potentially, violence.
Maneesh Arora (@maneesh_arora) is an assistant professor of political science at Wellesley College.
Hannah June Kim (@hannahjunekim) is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Nebraska, Omaha.
Pew Research Center Computational Social Scientist Sono Shah contributed to the data analysis. The opinions expressed are those of the authors.
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