The Roots of Anti-Asian Racism in America and Beyond

FEATURING MAI-LINH HONG AND TERRY PARK – The Asian American community is reeling from a year of hate and racist attacks that culminated in last week’s horrific shooting at 3 Atlanta-area spas in Georgia claiming the lives of 6 Asian women and 2 others. While Donald Trump’s anti-China rhetoric clearly opened the floodgates of anti-Asian hate since the start of the pandemic, President Joe Biden’s continuation of a hostile posture toward China may also not be helping. Beyond current events there is a deep history of anti-Asian racism in this nation symbolized by immigration policies and white racist mobs, as well as in the realm of U.S. foreign policy and war that has dehumanized Asian bodies, particularly those of women.

Mai-Linh Hong, Assistant Professor of Literature, University of California, Merced, Co-Chair, Circle for Asian American Literary Studies, and a former attorney writing about race, gender, refugees, and justice; Terry Park, Lecturer, Asian American Studies Program, University of Maryland, College Park.