(RAE2) Anti-Asian Racism in Canada: Pandemics, Geopolitics and Social Change

Since the global outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020, assaults on individuals of Asian descent have increased in Canada and other western countries. This has led to the alarming resurgence of racialized “Yellow Peril” tropes in public discourse. Since the late 19th century, the term has become a pejorative metaphor depicting Chinese and other Asians as the threat and the non-white Other. Anti-Asian racism and its hateful rhetoric is evident in the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to the rise of both covert and overt forms of racialized violence, including microaggressions, discrimination and stigmatization, verbal and physical harassment, and others. This has led to negative social, economic, political and cultural impacts on Asian communities in Canada. Hence there is an urgent need to examine these issues from multiple theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to effect positive social change, and to build a just, inclusive, and diverse society where people can flourish regardless of their backgrounds. Tags: Equality and Inequality, Race and Ethnicity, Violence

Organizers: Guida C. Man, York University, Keefer Wong, York University; Chairs: Keefer Wong, York University, Guida C. Man, York University

Presentations

Guida C. Man, York University; Keefer Wong, York University

An Intersectional Analysis of the Experience of Anti-Chinese Racism in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)

Anti-Chinese racism in Canada has escalated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its prevalence and intensity has captured the attention of mainstream media. This paper adopts an intersectional framework to examine the experience of racism of Chinese individuals residing in the GTA. We draw on data analysis from a SSHRC funded research project, and focus our analysis of the experience of anti-Chinese racism before and during COVID on such topics that include microaggression, stereotyping, geopolitics, etc. We demonstrate that the pandemic has exacerbated anti-Chinese racism, allowing it to fester and proliferate. In particular, our paper elucidates how different forms of anti-Chinese racism interact with individuals’ intersectionalities (i.e., race, class, gender, age, ability, English/French fluency, immigration/citizenship status etc.) to further complicate how individuals are differentially targeted and how they experience racism differently. As well, our paper illuminates how individual interviewee utilizes his/her agency to combat anti-Asian racism.

Secil E. Ertorer, Canisius University

Mental Health, Sense of Belonging, and Identity in a Xenophobic World

The Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), established by the World Health Organization, emphasizes that ones health is profoundly influenced by the conditions in which they are born, raised, live, work, and age (World Health Organization, 2020). The SDOH framework highlights racism and discrimination as critical social factors with significant impacts on both physical and psychological well-being.In alignment with this perspective, extensive research has established a clear link between encounters with racial discrimination and adverse mental health outcomes, including heightened psychological distress, reduced life satisfaction, increased anxiety, depression, and various other mental health challenges. During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals of Asian descent have unfortunately faced xenophobia and discrimination related to the virus. This study delves into the self-reported experiences of anti-Asian racism, mental health, and a sense of belonging and identity. Drawing on the results of an empirical study that employs a mixed-method approach involving 300 Asians and Asian Americans, the research reveals a positive correlation between experiences of discrimination and heightened levels of anxiety, depression, identity crises, and distress.

Yazhi Luo, University of Manitoba; Lori Wilkinson, University of Manitoba

Asian International Students during COVID-19: Challenges and Implications

Although the COVID-19 pandemic is considered by some as an event of the past, its influences have left indelible marks on all social institutions and the societies we live in. Since the first known COVID-19 case was initially diagnosed in Wuhan China, public opinion regarding Chinese people – and Asian people, by extension – has been profusely negative. Anti-Asian voices appeared online with harsh hashtags, and hate crimes against Asian people have increased, and these assaults speak volumes about the Western perception of Asian people as the “yellow peril”, a long-used anti-Asian trope. For Asian international students, COVID-19 has been a particularly difficult time. They need to juggle the drastic change from offline classes to online while being away from their families for years at a time, also being vigilant of their health and safety in an environment that distrusts and assaults Asian people. Today, they are being vilified due to unsubstantiated and false claims that they, as international students, are to blame for Canada’s housing crisis. Using findings from a series of in-person qualitative interviews conducted as part of a SSHRC-funded national project on anti-Asian racism and Asian international student experiences, this presentation explores the social and institutional challenges faced by Asian international students in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that Asian international students, being one of the more precarious groups in the country with few provincial or national protections, are facing challenges at the intersection of academic hardships, lack of healthcare, precarious housing, and other social infrastructure failures, in addition to being victimized by various forms of racism. From the narrative interviews we conducted in Winnipeg as part of this study, we find that the pandemic has not only hindered the academic progress of Asian international students with institutional changes to how courses and exams operate, but also affected their personal lives as they would experience microaggression and verbal attacks because of their language and ethnicity. Some also experienced the stressful effects of the IRCC backlog of study permit and visa applications, which adds an extra layer of burden on their otherwise stressful environments. Using an intersectional framework, our presentation examines the unique challenges and that combination of factors that uniquely position students from Asia as they navigate their academic, social and economic lives in Canada. We learned from the students that they want their voices heard amongst the calls for caps on international students and the false promises that students are ‘sold’ when selecting Canada as their destination for study. In the conclusion, we discuss implications for future development in policies regarding international student wellbeing, such as guaranteeing public healthcare and providing easier access to medical, housing, economic, transportation, and mental health support.

Syed Harris Ali, York University

Covert Anti-Asian Racism on Social Media During the Pandemic: A case study of the Bryan Adams controversy on Twitter

It has been argued that everyday racism currently takes on a more covert form compared to the less disguised forms of racism found in the pre-civil rights era in which institutionalized segregation and discriminatory practices were supported both formally and informally (Bonilla-Silva, 2021). In this paper, we explore how anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic was expressed in a more covert form over the social media platform Twitter. Our focus was on how different rhetoric contributes to the tensions and dynamics of racism and how the exchange of ideas pertains to anti-Asian messaging that emerged following a controversial tweet posted by Canadian rock star Bryan Adams during the pandemic on May 11, 2020. We employed discourse analysis to examine discussions surrounding the event collected through Twitters API. Our analysis revealed different rhetorical strategies through which “racism without racists” was expressed, including the adoption of rhetoric based on charges of “reverse racism,” rhetorical claims that deny racist intent, as well as forms of “cultural racism” where racist claims are not made explicitly and directly, but elliptically through reference to negative cultural attributes.

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Non-presenting author: Muyang Li, York University