Asian Americans and the Social Psychology of Xenophobia

Over the past year, the United States has experienced a surge in cases of abuse against Asian Americans—as have many countries around the world. Xenophobia comes from the Greek word xenos, meaning foreigner or stranger, and phobia—an aversion or fear of something. There have been nearly 3,800 reported incidents since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. Just over 68 percent of cases involved verbal harassment based on Asian heritage; shunning accounted for 20 percent, while about 11 percent were physical assaults.

This may be the tip of the iceberg, as many cases are believed to go unreported. The rise in anti-Asian sentiment has all the hallmarks of a moral panic—the exaggerated fear and demonization of a particular group that is seen as a threat to society. History is replete with similar episodes, which typically flare up during periods of crisis—most notably wars, depressions, and epidemics as people search for scapegoats to blame for their problems.

A History of Asian Intolerance in America

Throughout the centuries there have been numerous moral panics linking certain ethnic groups to disease outbreaks. America has had its fair share of episodes. During a surge in cases of infantile paralysis (polio) along the east coast of the U.S. in 1916, Italian immigrants were stigmatized for the outbreak despite other groups being affected in greater numbers. In the 1830s, it was Irish Americans who took the blame for spreading cholera. At the end of the century, consumption (tuberculosis) was widely associated with the Jewish American community.

Perhaps no other ethnic group in American history has been consistently blamed for causing and spreading an array of diseases as has the Asian community—hostilities that have often corresponded with a rise in political rhetoric. For instance, researchers have found a surge in the number of anti-Chinese hashtags on Twitter following former President Donald Trump’s use of such terms as ‘China Flu’ and ‘Kung-flu.’ Over a century before the social media age, a similar spike in anti-Asian political rhetoric took place in America as politicians, newspaper editors and scientists created a mountain of alarmist literature about the threat posed by the ‘Asian menace.’ In 1871, Ohio Congressman William Mungen stood up in the House of Representatives and complained that Chinese immigrants were taking jobs from more worthy Americans. He referred to them as a “miserable, dwarfish race of inferior beings.” He was not alone. Other politicians expressed similar sentiments.

The 'Asian Menace' in California

During the late 19th century, tensions ran high on the West Coast, a center of Asian migration, as California politicians railed against the ‘Yellow Peril.’ San Francisco Mayor James Phelan even warned that Chinese immigrants posed a threat to civilization itself and the future of ‘white humanity.’ Phelan makes his remarks knowing that foreign-born Asians were not eligible to vote. The result was a torrent of anti-Asian sentiments and a dramatic increase in harassment and attacks on Asians, including murders. One of the biggest concerns of the day was that Asians were more likely to spread disease.

San Francisco was a hub of anti-Chinese sentiments during the second half of the 19th century. Alarmists spread baseless claims associating the Chinese with the appearance and spread of an array of diseases from smallpox to cholera to leprosy. When in 1868, the Police Gazette described San Francisco’s Chinatown as a cesspool of filth and disease, it failed to mention that many of the properties they were complaining about were owned by prominent European citizens. In one scare involving a suspected case of bubonic plague in a Chinese resident of San Francisco in 1900, the city board moved quickly to quarantine the Japanese and Chinese quarters. No Europeans who had recently visited these areas were required to quarantine. It was only after complaints from ‘white’ business owners that the lockdown was bad for the economy and the city’s reputation that the quarantine was lifted. At the time there was a widespread belief that only Asians could catch the disease. In 1900, U.S. Surgeon General Walter Wyman went so far as to describe the plague as an “Oriental disease, peculiar to rice eaters."

Anti-Asian sentiments were reflected in the popular press with cartoonists depicting Asians as ants, bees, and locusts. The use of insect imagery served a dual purpose. Firstly, equating them with insects was a way to dehumanize them and exaggerate how different they were from the majority of the population who were of European descent. Secondly, the use of such descriptions reinforced prevailing stereotypes of Asians as mindless followers who all looked the same and acted with a common purpose. Such imagery fueled the fear of Asians. Even the academic community piled on Asians as scientists of the period believed that there were distinct races, with Asians being categorized as part of the ‘Mongol’ or Mongolian race. We now know that the concept of race as it was understood then is a myth. In 1866, the editor of the respected Anthropological Review wrote that Asians were an “infantile” race that were characterized by inferior literature, art, and government. “They are... children, whose life is a task, and whose chief virtue consists in unquestioning obedience.”

From the demonization of Jews to the portrayal of Muslims and communists as ‘the Other,’ examples of moral panics within recent memory abound. In Nazi Germany, Jews were often depicted as rats and parasites; an amoral ‘race’ obsessed with money and intent on destroying the country. Jews became scapegoats for the collapse of the German economy after World War I. In a similar vein, Asian Americans—in particular those of Chinese descent—are being blamed for the appearance of the coronavirus. Such caricatures should be seen for what they are: baseless claims that are rooted in ignorance and fear.