Anti-Asian Racism & the Critical Identity Development of Asian American College Students During COVID-19

In 2020, the extrajudicial murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others provoked global outrage around issues of systemic racism and police violence. In the same period, the racialization of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic by prominent political leaders prompted a rampage of anti-Asian violence and blaming of Chinese and Asian Americans for the global health crisis.

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The urgency of addressing systemic racism is brutally apparent when the lives of many are cut short by race-related violence.

This widespread issue requires an investigation into how racism is perpetuated at individual, cultural, and institutional levels. Responsive to the public health crisis of racism, this study explores how anti-Asian racism has shaped the identities and lived experiences of Asian American college students.

 

Highly visible anti-Asian racism rose starkly at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and continued into the subsequent years, affecting the lives of many Asian Americans in the U.S. Hate crimes, bias incidents, and gruesome acts of violence marked the racism enacted by those who blamed Asian Americans for the virus and the hardships of the pandemic.

 

Given this period in which Asian Americans were hyper-visible and physically, mentally, and emotionally harmed by racism, investigation of anti-Asian racism’s root causes, effects, and antidotes is of urgent concern.