Americans continue to wrongly blame people of Asian descent for the coronavirus, and a greater percentage are harboring distrust of their loyalties, according to a new report out this morning.
State of play: 21% of U.S. adults now say Asian Americans are at least partly responsible for COVID — up from 11% in 2021.
That's according to a study from the nonprofit Leading Asian Americans to Unite for Change (LAAUNCH) and The Asian American Foundation (TAAF).
33% said they believe "Asian Americans are more loyal to their country of origin than to the United States"— up from 20% last year.
Among Asian American respondents, only 29% said they "completely agree" that they feel they belong and are accepted in the U.S., which was the lowest of all racial groups.
Meanwhile, 71% say they are discriminated against in the U.S. today.
What they’re saying: The increase in distrust of Asian Americans is in part driven by greater use of anti-China rhetoric on both sides of the aisle, TAAF CEO and LAAUNCH co-founder Norman Chen said.
"On the surface, we thought it was COVID and Trump. Deeper down we know it's related to the model minority myth and perpetual foreigner stereotypes. But even deeper, it really [shows] the embedded systemic racism in this country against Asian Americans."
"From the Chinese Exclusion Act of the 1800s to the internment camps of the 1940s to the murder of Vincent Chin in the 80s, this has always been a part of the fabric of the United States," Eric Toda, who serves on the LAAUNCH board and TAAF advisory council, told Axios Today.
Flashback: The pandemic drove a sustained surge in anti-Asian hate crimes as people scapegoated Asian Americans for COVID, calling it the "China virus" and "kung flu."
Some of the most brutal acts of violence were driven by COVID-related hate, such as in Texas, where a man stabbed a Burmese American family, including their 2- and 6-year-old children, in March 2020 because he believed they were Chinese and responsible for the pandemic.
Between the lines: The results of today's new study are especially troubling in light of the nationwide activism and awareness campaigns about anti-Asian hate.
Despite increased attention to the problem, Americans are more likely to scapegoat people of Asian descent than before.
While the majority of respondents in the study recognized anti-Asian violence is worsening, nearly one-third remain unaware of the crisis, according to the study.
The bottom line: "Politicians need to be very careful ... with all this bashing of China because it directly influences how people view and treat Asian Americans in the U.S.," Chen said.
Methodology: The 2022 survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 5,113 adults across the U.S. from Feb. 10-28, 2022. It has a margin of error of 1.4% at the 95% confidence level. The 2021 data is from a survey of 2,766 U.S. adults conducted March 29-April 14, 2021 within a margin of error of 1.9% at the 95% confidence level.
