Asian Americans and Blacks are likely to feel sting of coronavirus bias

By Louis Chan

ASAM NEWS

A new survey from the PEW Research Center released June 30 found Asian Americans and Blacks, more than other groups, are likely to feel discriminated against due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Roughly four in ten Blacks and Asian Americans say others have acted uncomfortable around them due to their race or ethnicity.

A third of Asians, 31%  and a fifth of Blacks, 21%, say they’ve been the target of slurs or jokes, particularly for Asians since the outbreak of COVID-19.

A quarter of Asians, 26%, say they fear someone might threaten or physically attack them. 20% of Blacks feel the same way.

“They may be drawing on their own experiences or those of people they know when they say it’s become more common for people to express racist views toward Asian Americans,” said Dr. Neil Ruiz of the Pew Research Center and co-author of the report.PEW Research Center Graphic

Ruiz told AsAmNews that masks worn by individuals that are meant to protect others from the pandemic have made some Asian and Blacks feel like targets.

“There is currently a debate about mask wearing in America,” Ruiz said. “Our study shows that sizeable shares of Black and Asian adults say they worry other people might be suspicious of them if they wear a mask in public. About four-in-ten Black Americans (42%) and 36% of Asian Americans say they worry a great deal or a fair amount that other people might be suspicious of them because of their race or ethnicity if they wear a mask or face covering when in stores or other businesses.”

A majority of Asian Americans, 58%, say people expressing racist or insensitive views towards them is more common now than before the pandemic.

The survey of 9654 people has a plus or minus error rate of 1.6 percentage points with the error rate of Blacks at 5.3 percentage point and that of Asians at 8.2 percentage points. 278 Asians were surveyed for this report, along with 737 Blacks, 1645 Hispanics and 6602 White.

Juliana Horowitz and Christine Tamir co-authored this report.