Fight the Virus, Fight the Bias

Abstract

Jungmi Jun and Nanlan Zhang contend that stigmatizing and racist terms, such as “Kung flu,” “Chinese virus,” and “Wuhan virus,” have been used to refer to the COVID-19 virus since the first report of COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China. The racist rhetoric has impacted the lives of Asian Americans during the pandemic. This chapter discusses the racist rhetoric of U.S. government officials, the biased COVID-19 news coverage, and their impact on public discourses. Jun and Zhang present the type and prevalence of COVID-19 racist attacks and discrimination experienced by Asian Americans across the nation identified from their recent survey and Asian advocacy groups’ incident reports in conjunction with the history of anti-Asian racism in U.S. society. The authors discuss the impact of COVID-19 racism on Asian Americans’ mental and physical health and report survey findings regarding Asian Americans’ anxiety and behaviors during the pandemic. In addition, Jun and Zhang introduce various activism movements to combat anti-Asian COVID-19 racism. The authors summarize scholars’ future directions to assist Asian Americans in coping with the detrimental impact of COVID-19 racism as well as promoting active engagement in racial justice movements.