By XinQi Dong
An elderly Korean couple was strolling with their 1-year-old granddaughter in Cliffside Park, when a group of young men began following them, yelling that the couple had coronavirus. They kept walking, afraid to engage, especially while the child was present. Thankfully, the men went away.
The couple’s family later reported the incident to Stop AAPI Hate, an initiative to document anti-Asian discrimination across the country. It’s only one story out of more than 2,800 — including violent threats and physical assaults — that have been reported since March 2020 all around the country, including in Georgia, where Asian Americans played a major role in the outcome of recent elections.
The data show a spike in xenophobia and racism against Asians during the COVID-19 pandemic and reports indicate such incidents have increased more than 800% over the previous three years combined. But this is not a new trend.
From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, to the murder of Vincent Chin in 1982, to elected leaders’ use of racist terms when talking about COVID-19 in recent months, our country has a long history of portraying Asians and other minority populations as a threat to American identity.
Asians Americans are seen as foreign, regardless of nationality. We’re seen as a monolithic racial group, regardless of ethnicity. This is also the case for brown Asians, many of whom have been seen as a threat to American security since 9/11. In this view, it doesn’t matter where our ancestors were born, or where we, as individuals, were born — we’re all from somewhere else.
These narratives were part of discussions during a recent annual retreat for the Rutgers Asian Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR), a National Institutes of Health-funded research center housed at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research.
The center, which I direct, was honored to have many special guests join us virtually, including documentary filmmakers Renee Tajima-Peña and S. Leo Chiang, whose work includes the PBS docuseries, “Asian Americans.” They spoke about how important it is to share Asian American stories to counteract these narratives.
This work is not limited to filmmakers. Even scientists like myself have stories to share through research that can help us understand and address health gaps and other challenges affecting Asian populations.
Asians are the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, but also the most understudied. Over the last decade, less than 1% of National Institutes of Health funding has been awarded to research projects focused on Asian populations. Additionally, the number of Asian scientists who receive research funding is dismal compared to the number of white scientists.
Despite the “model minority” myth that Asians are more prosperous and well-educated — a narrative that has been used as a weapon against Blacks, and a wedge between minority groups — many Asians experience poverty, disproportionate health disparities, and are less likely to participate in research. We’ve seen recent examples of the impacts of this during COVID-19, including in low enrollments in vaccine clinical trials.
When Asians are included in research, data are often aggregated, although findings suggest subgroups are very different with respect to how culture, religion, language, trauma exposure and numerous other factors impact their health and well-being.
We need a better understanding to improve our health infrastructure to respond appropriately, and the need is even more pressing as populations continue to grow.
This requires action at the federal level and by institutions and people in positions of power to address the structural foundations of these problems. It requires investment and support for more research, both focused on Asian populations and conducted by Asian investigators.
We must nurture new generations of scientists to advance health equity and social justice through their work. We must raise awareness about the importance of research and build community trust in participation. We must collect data on discrimination and racism against Asian Americans and other minority groups.
We can all contribute. We can share our stories, whether we’re researchers, filmmakers, community leaders, or grandparents. We can make our voices heard and change the narrative.
XinQi Dong, MD, MPH, is director of the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He is a population health epidemiologist and geriatrician and has published extensively on violence prevention, elder justice and healthy aging.
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