COVID-19 racism and the perpetual foreigner narrative: the impacts on Asian American students

Abstract

ABSTRACT Asian Americans are the targets of COVID-19 racism across the United States, suffering verbal attacks, physical assaults, and online harassment. Based on an analysis of in-depth interviews and social media posts, this study foregrounds the experiences of students at a predominately white, public California university in order to explore COVID-19 racism as it affects Asian Americans. We find that COVID-19 has intensified discriminatory treatment that preceded the pandemic. In particular, in the context of the ‘perpetual foreigner’ narrative, Asian American students are defined as carriers of disease and as foreigners. We explore the process by which Asian Americans are cast as so-called ‘perpetual foreigners’, alongside other primary themes including the particular role of zoombombings in creating and cementing fear, and Asian-American students’ and community responses to COVID-19 racism.