“This Asian Guy has Coronavirus”: Racial Discrimination Experienced by Asian International High School Students in the Northeastern United States

Research Article
Open access

“This Asian Guy has Coronavirus”: Racial Discrimination Experienced by Asian International High School Students in the Northeastern United States

Tengyi Wang 1* , Songze Lyu 2 , Xuanyu Yang 3
  • 1 The Experimental High School Attached to BNU, Beijing, 100032, China    
  • 2 The Experimental High School Attached to BNU, Beijing, 100032, China    
  • 3 TaiHang, RDFZ ChaoYang Branch School, Beijing, 100020, China    
  • *corresponding author wangty0325@163.com
LNEP Vol.5
ISSN (Print): 2753-7056
ISSN (Online): 2753-7048
ISBN (Print): 978-1-915371-35-5
ISBN (Online): 978-1-915371-36-2

Abstract

As the first case of COVID-19 was detected in Wuhan, China, the Novel Coronavirus pandemic has rapidly swept the world. As COVID-19 proliferated in the United States, the longstanding negative stereotypes of Asian Americans in society were revealed, and xenophobia among whites and non-Asian Americans was activated. During the pandemic, microaggression, negative bias, and violent crime significantly increased all Asian ethnic groups, especially in big cities and the northeastern United States. During this time, most literature focuses on the racial discrimination and mental health of Chinese/Asian college students. However, scant research explores Chinese/Asian high-school students in America, whose total number has risen dramatically in recent years. Therefore, this paper uses the snowball sampling method to conduct in-depth semi-structured interviews with 7 Asian highschool students in the United States and tracked them for around one year, from September 2021 to October 2022. The purpose is to expose their real campus life and true racial discrimination feelings under COVID-19. The study found that Chinese high-school students seldom suffer from severe racism on campus. This is because private international schools in northeastern America are susceptible to racism. Their schools have strict anti-racial discrimination policies, severe punishment measures, and open channels for complaints to protect their students from racism. However, when Chinese high-school students are offcampus, they are more likely to suffer intense hate incidents like weapon threats. Even though interviewees do not recognize that they or their friends have encountered extremely severe anti-Asian hate incidents, we should keep in mind that schools may control the public voice about racism on campus in order to keep their reputation and ranking, and therefore those serious events are not exposed to us.

Keywords:

Asian international high-school students, Hate incidents, COVID-19, Xenophobia, Asian American

Wang,T.;Lyu,S.;Yang,X. (2023). “This Asian Guy has Coronavirus”: Racial Discrimination Experienced by Asian International High School Students in the Northeastern United States. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,5,674-687.
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References

[1]. Nittle, N. K. (n.d.). Interesting Facts About Asian Americans. ThoughtCo. Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://www.thoughtco.com/interesting-facts-about-asian-americans-2834533

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[3]. Hensley-Clancy, M. (2017, August 11). More Chinese Students Are Coming To US High Schools To Get Into American Colleges. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mollyhensleyclancy/lots-more-chinese-students-arecoming-to-the-us-for-high

[4]. Naderifar, M., Goli, H., & Ghaljaie, F. (2017). Snowball Sampling: A Purposeful Method of Sampling in Qualitative Research. Strides in Development of Medical Education, 14(3). https://doi.org/10.5812/sdme.67670

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[7]. Kim, C. J. (2000). Playing the Racial Trump Card: Asian Americans In Contemporary U.S. Politics. Amerasia Journal, 26(3), 35–65. https://doi.org/10.17953/amer.26.3.qm86n1j56w025m75

[8]. Kawai, Y. (2005). Stereotyping Asian Americans: The Dialectic of the Model Minority and the Yellow Peril. Howard Journal of Communications, 16(2), 109–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646170590948974

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[10]. Muzzatti, S. L. (2005). Bits of Falling Sky and Global Pandemics: Moral Panic and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Illness, Crisis & Loss, 13(2), 117–128. https://doi.org/10.1177/105413730501300203

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[12]. Jeung, R., Horse, A. Y., Popovic, T., & Lim, R. (2021). Stop AAPI Hate National Report. Ethnic Studies Review, 44(2), 19–26. https://doi.org/10.1525/esr.2021.44.2.19

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[16]. Ma, Y., & Zhan, N. (2022). To mask or not to mask amid the COVID-19 pandemic: How Chinese students in America experience and cope with stigma. Chinese Sociological Review, 54(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/21620555.2020.1833712

[17]. Yu G. (2020, April 10). Racism Against Asian Mask Wearers Is Rising. It Hurts Everyone. OZY. http://www.ozy.com/news-and-politics/racism-against-asian-mask-wearers-is-rising-too-it-hurts-everyone/301935

[18]. Jennings R. (2020, March 11). Not Just Coronavirus: Asians Have Worn Face Masks for Decades. VOA. https://www.voanews.com/a/science-health_coronavirus-outbreak_not-just-coronavirus-asians-have-worn-facemasks- decades/6185597.html

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[20]. Yang, D. L. (2021). The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Estrangement of US-China Relations. Asian Perspective, 45(1), 7–31. https://doi.org/10.1353/apr.2021.0011

[21]. United States COVID - Coronavirus Statistics—Worldometer. (n.d.). Retrieved June 9, 2022, from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

[22]. Kirsten Weir, K. (2016, November). Inequality at school. Https://Www.Apa.Org. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/cover-inequality-school

[23]. Ford, T. E. (2016, September 7). Psychology behind the unfunny consequences of jokes that denigrate. https://theconversation.com/psychology-behind-the- unfunny-consequences-of-jokes-that-denigrate-63855

[24]. Popken, B. (2019, January 11). Age, not politics, is biggest predictor of who shares fake news on Facebook, study finds. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/age-not-politics-predicts-who-shares-fake-news-facebook-studyn957246

[25]. Spencer-Oatey, H., Dauber, D., Jing, J., & Lifei, W. (2017). Chinese students’ social integration into the university community: Hearing the students’ voices. Higher Education, 74(5), 739–756. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-016- 0074-0

[26]. Daley, J. S., Gallagher, N. M., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2022). The Pandemic and the “Perpetual Foreigner”: How Threats Posed by the COVID-19 Pandemic Relate to Stereotyping of Asian Americans. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 821891. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.821891

[27]. Wells, A. S., Fox, L., & Cordova-cobo, D. (2016, February 9). How Racially Diverse Schools and Classrooms Can Benefit All Students. The Century Foundation. https://tcf.org/content/report/how-racially-diverse-schools-andclassrooms-can-benefit-all-students/

[28]. Patten, E. (2013, August 28). The black-white and urban-rural divides in perceptions of racial fairness | Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/08/28/the-black-white-and-urban-rural-divides-inperceptions-of-racial-fairness/

[29]. Norman, J. M., & Mikhael, D. (2017, August 28). Youth radicalization is on the rise. Here’s what we know about why. - The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/08/25/youthradicalization-is-on-the-rise-heres-what-we-know-about-why/

Cite this article

Wang,T.;Lyu,S.;Yang,X. (2023). “This Asian Guy has Coronavirus”: Racial Discrimination Experienced by Asian International High School Students in the Northeastern United States. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,5,674-687.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Volume title: Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies (ICIHCS 2022), Part 4

ISBN：978-1-915371-35-5(Print) / 978-1-915371-36-2(Online)
Editor：Matilde Lafuente-Lechuga, Muhammad Idrees
Conference website: https://www.icihcs.org/
Conference date: 18 December 2022
Series: Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media
Volume number: Vol.5
ISSN：2753-7048(Print) / 2753-7056(Online)

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References

[1]. Nittle, N. K. (n.d.). Interesting Facts About Asian Americans. ThoughtCo. Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://www.thoughtco.com/interesting-facts-about-asian-americans-2834533

[2]. Jiang. (n.d.). Anti-Asian hate crimes up 149% in US in 2020: Media. Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202105/19/WS60a4765ba31024ad0babff1e.html

[3]. Hensley-Clancy, M. (2017, August 11). More Chinese Students Are Coming To US High Schools To Get Into American Colleges. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mollyhensleyclancy/lots-more-chinese-students-arecoming-to-the-us-for-high

[4]. Naderifar, M., Goli, H., & Ghaljaie, F. (2017). Snowball Sampling: A Purposeful Method of Sampling in Qualitative Research. Strides in Development of Medical Education, 14(3). https://doi.org/10.5812/sdme.67670

[5]. Ancheta, A. N. (2006). Race, Rights, and the Asian American Experience. In Race, Rights, and the Asian American Experience. Rutgers University Press. https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813540078

[6]. Tuan, M. (1998). Forever Foreigners Or Honorary Whites?: The Asian Ethnic Experience Today. Rutgers University Press.

[7]. Kim, C. J. (2000). Playing the Racial Trump Card: Asian Americans In Contemporary U.S. Politics. Amerasia Journal, 26(3), 35–65. https://doi.org/10.17953/amer.26.3.qm86n1j56w025m75

[8]. Kawai, Y. (2005). Stereotyping Asian Americans: The Dialectic of the Model Minority and the Yellow Peril. Howard Journal of Communications, 16(2), 109–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646170590948974

[9]. Gover, A. R., Harper, S. B., & Langton, L. (2020). Anti-Asian Hate Crime During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Exploring the Reproduction of Inequality. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 45(4), 647–667. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-020-09545-1

[10]. Muzzatti, S. L. (2005). Bits of Falling Sky and Global Pandemics: Moral Panic and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Illness, Crisis & Loss, 13(2), 117–128. https://doi.org/10.1177/105413730501300203

[11]. Vachuska, K. F. (2020). Initial Effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Racial Prejudice in the United States: Evidence from Google Trends. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/bgpk3

[12]. Jeung, R., Horse, A. Y., Popovic, T., & Lim, R. (2021). Stop AAPI Hate National Report. Ethnic Studies Review, 44(2), 19–26. https://doi.org/10.1525/esr.2021.44.2.19

[13]. Learn About Hate Crimes. (2019, September 5). https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/learn-about-hate-crimes

[14]. Haft, S. L., & Zhou, Q. (2021). An outbreak of xenophobia: Perceived discrimination and anxiety in Chinese American college students before and during the COVID ‐19 pandemic. International Journal of Psychology, 56(4), 522–531. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12740

[15]. Everyday Discrimination Scale. (n.d.). Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://scholar.harvard.edu/davidrwilliams/node/32397

[16]. Ma, Y., & Zhan, N. (2022). To mask or not to mask amid the COVID-19 pandemic: How Chinese students in America experience and cope with stigma. Chinese Sociological Review, 54(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/21620555.2020.1833712

[17]. Yu G. (2020, April 10). Racism Against Asian Mask Wearers Is Rising. It Hurts Everyone. OZY. http://www.ozy.com/news-and-politics/racism-against-asian-mask-wearers-is-rising-too-it-hurts-everyone/301935

[18]. Jennings R. (2020, March 11). Not Just Coronavirus: Asians Have Worn Face Masks for Decades. VOA. https://www.voanews.com/a/science-health_coronavirus-outbreak_not-just-coronavirus-asians-have-worn-facemasks- decades/6185597.html

[19]. Nguyen, T. T., Criss, S., Dwivedi, P., Huang, D., Keralis, J., Hsu, E., Phan, L., Nguyen, L. H., Yardi, I., Glymour, M. M., Allen, A. M., Chae, D. H., Gee, G. C., & Nguyen, Q. C. (2020). Exploring U.S. Shifts in Anti-Asian Sentiment with the Emergence of COVID-19. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(19), 7032. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197032

[20]. Yang, D. L. (2021). The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Estrangement of US-China Relations. Asian Perspective, 45(1), 7–31. https://doi.org/10.1353/apr.2021.0011

[21]. United States COVID - Coronavirus Statistics—Worldometer. (n.d.). Retrieved June 9, 2022, from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

[22]. Kirsten Weir, K. (2016, November). Inequality at school. Https://Www.Apa.Org. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/cover-inequality-school

[23]. Ford, T. E. (2016, September 7). Psychology behind the unfunny consequences of jokes that denigrate. https://theconversation.com/psychology-behind-the- unfunny-consequences-of-jokes-that-denigrate-63855

[24]. Popken, B. (2019, January 11). Age, not politics, is biggest predictor of who shares fake news on Facebook, study finds. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/age-not-politics-predicts-who-shares-fake-news-facebook-studyn957246

[25]. Spencer-Oatey, H., Dauber, D., Jing, J., & Lifei, W. (2017). Chinese students’ social integration into the university community: Hearing the students’ voices. Higher Education, 74(5), 739–756. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-016- 0074-0

[26]. Daley, J. S., Gallagher, N. M., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2022). The Pandemic and the “Perpetual Foreigner”: How Threats Posed by the COVID-19 Pandemic Relate to Stereotyping of Asian Americans. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 821891. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.821891

[27]. Wells, A. S., Fox, L., & Cordova-cobo, D. (2016, February 9). How Racially Diverse Schools and Classrooms Can Benefit All Students. The Century Foundation. https://tcf.org/content/report/how-racially-diverse-schools-andclassrooms-can-benefit-all-students/

[28]. Patten, E. (2013, August 28). The black-white and urban-rural divides in perceptions of racial fairness | Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/08/28/the-black-white-and-urban-rural-divides-inperceptions-of-racial-fairness/

[29]. Norman, J. M., & Mikhael, D. (2017, August 28). Youth radicalization is on the rise. Here’s what we know about why. - The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/08/25/youthradicalization-is-on-the-rise-heres-what-we-know-about-why/

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