Make the invisible visible: communicative response to anti-Asian racism

Abstract

Anti-Asian sentiment has undoubtedly increased since the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020. Violence against Asian populations has notably surged (Pillai et al., 2021). In 16 of the largest US cities, hate crimes targeting Asians increased by 149% between 2019 and 2020, while overall reports of hate crimes declined by 7% over the same period (Martin & Yoon, 2021). A Pew Research Center Survey reported that one-third of Asian Americans feared racial discrimination or anti-Asian terrorism (Ruiz et al., 2021). In addition, a recent survey showed that 40% of US adults believed that more people have expressed racist views toward Asians since the pandemic began (Ruiz et al., 2020). This situation has not changed although the threat of COVID-19 has become less severe, and the Trump administration was replaced in 2021. According to the STAATUS Index Report 2022, 21 percent of Americans believe that Asian Americans are at least partly responsible for COVID-19, compared to 11% in 2021. In 2022 more Americans think that antiChinese names for COVID-19, such as ‘Wuhan virus’, are appropriate (2022 STAATUS Index Report, 2022). In 2021 alone, nearly one-third of the Asian Americans who participated in the survey said they had been told to ‘go back to your country’. One in six Asian American adults experienced a hate crime or hate incident in 2021, which is an increase from 1 in 8 in 2020 (Lee & Ramakrishnan, 2022). These cases reconfirm the deep-rooted nature of antiAsian racism in America. In response to such incidents, scholarship has called for studies on racism against Asians (i.e. Gao & Liu, 2021; Li & Nicholson, 2021; Woo & Jun, 2021). Some studies have focused on the psychological issues related to anti-Asian stigma, while others have tried to understand anti-Asian racism through sociological approaches (i.e. Misra et al., 2020; Wu et al., 2021). However, many studies on anti-Asian racism have taken place during the COVID-19 pandemic. More effort should be made to explore the prolonged social issue of discrimination and prejudice against Asians beyond the immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though communication is fundamental to shaping psychological bias, social discrimination, and the political environment, limited existing studies approach anti-Asian racism from a communication perspective. Asian Americans are not common research subjects in existing communication literature on social justice issues. More importantly, communication is the solution to dismantling anti-Asian sentiment and achieving social change. However, there is limited research on how Asians (or Asian Americans) can act as main communication agents and take actions to react to, cope with, and combat racism and prejudice. Therefore, this special issue aims to make the unheard voice of Asians to be heard and to shed light on the imperative issue of anti-Asian racism through scholarly works. The idea for this special issue originated during a virtual conversation session about continuing dialogue regarding racism issues that was hosted by the Korean American Communication