Survey of Asian Americans paints sobering picture of fears about violence

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• William Brangham:

  Throughout the pandemic, Asian Americans have endured racist and physical threats.

  And, as the U.S. celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, new research is calling attention to this rise in anti-Asian sentiment and the toll that it's taking on Asian American communities.

  Amna Nawaz spoke recently with the head of The Asian American Foundation.

• Amna Nawaz:

  One in two Asian Americans report feeling unsafe in the U.S. due to their ethnicity. That's according to a new report from The Asian American Foundation, examining attitudes and stereotypes toward Asian Americans.

  Among the findings, nearly 80 percent of Asian Americans do not feel they fully belong in and are accepted, while more than half don't feel safe in public places, a national survey found. What's more, nearly one in five Americans believe Asian Americans are partly responsible for COVID-19.

  Norman Chen is the CEO of The Asian American Foundation, and joins us now.

  Norman, thank you. Welcome to the "NewsHour."

• Norman Chen, CEO, The Asian American Foundation:

  Thank you for having us.

• Amna Nawaz:

  So these were findings from your third annual survey of Asian Americans. What have you seen over time? Are these numbers getting better or worse?

• Norman Chen:

  They have been largely consistent over the last three years, Amna.

  We have seen more — increasing concern during COVID about attacks against our community and the blaming of Asian Americans for COVID-19. But this is — the latest question this year about the safety level really disturbed us, the fact that over half of Asian Americans felt unsafe, they felt unsafe in public transportation, on subways, they felt unsafe in their own neighborhoods, in their own schools and their own workplaces.

  So that was very concerning for all of us.

• Amna Nawaz:

  How much of that do you link directly to the pandemic? I remember, we reported on this surge of anti-Asian rhetoric, the subsequent surge of anti-Asian attacks.

  I remember friends telling me they wouldn't let their parents or their aunties or uncles go walking alone, because they were so worried about random attacks. Has that fear dissipated at all as we moved out of the pandemic?

• Norman Chen:

  I think a lot of it was due to the COVID-19 and the pandemic.

  But, also, it recalls just the fact that Asian Americans have been feeling attacked within this country for decades, for generations. And this year's survey really highlighted for us that those three stereotypes of the perpetual foreigner, yellow peril and the model minority myth really reared their ugly heads in the results.

  And so this is not just a phenomenon due to COVID-19. It's really been something that's been in our history for a long time. What was particularly new this year was about the belonging question. Last year was the first time we asked, how much do you really feel like you truly belong in this country? And Asian Americans were the least likely to feel we truly belong.

  And then, this year, we understand more why. And they tell us they feel like they don't belong because of these attacks. There's a direct correlation between the incidents, the frequency of these attacks and our community's lack of feeling like we truly belong.

  The second reason they mentioned was the lack of representation, lack of seeing role models, Asian Americans in senior leadership positions. So those are new insights that we want to work on.

• Amna Nawaz:

  That feeling of not belonging, of not feeling safe, what kind of impact does that have in terms of how people live and on their mental health and well-being?

• Norman Chen:

  A tremendously negative impact.

  If you don't feel like you are safe, you don't feel like you can belong — you remember Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs — we cannot thrive, we cannot succeed, we cannot be respected, respected by others. And so it's fundamental that we believe, that we belong, and that we feel safe in our society.

  And this really has a damaging effect on mental health for our community. Mental health is a significant problem for the AAPI community, as for other communities. But we have the terrible statistic that, among AAPI youth ages 15 to 24, suicide is the leading cause of death. And our group is unique in that, unfortunately.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Norman, as you know, anti-Asian sentiment goes back to the earliest days of our nation. The very first significant law restricting immigration in America was targeting Chinese people.

  We, as a nation, incarcerated tens of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II. Is what we're seeing now just the latest chapter in that ongoing story.

• Norman Chen:

  We are seeing a recurrence of it in many ways. But, of course, it's unique to this time.

  The recent attacks we have seen in Atlanta and even in Allen, Texas, make us really concerned about increasing anti-Asian sentiment in this country. The rhetoric in the media among politicians has led to more anti-China sentiment, which leads to anti-Asian American sentiment. And we need to be very careful to manage that to make sure we don't inflame tensions and antagonism towards our community.

• Amna Nawaz:

  At the same time, I want to point out your survey found 75 percent of Americans said that they see these racist attacks against Asian Americans as a problem today. So there is awareness. There is acknowledgement.

  Is that progress?

• Norman Chen:

  Yes, there is — there are some signs of progress in our survey this year.

  Besides that awareness, a lot of people in our survey when we asked them what we can do to try to help build relations with the AAPI community, the number one answer was greater interaction. So that was very encouraging. People are open to having more interaction, getting to know AAPI members better, which is wonderful.

  The second answer was education, which we have known is always very, very important. So we do want to promote more knowledge of Asian American and Pacific Islander history as American history.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Norman Chen is the CEO of The Asian American Foundation.

  Norman, great to speak with you. Thank you for joining us.

• Norman Chen:

  Thank you very much, Amna.