COVID-19 Hate Crimes: Anger > Indignation > Hatred > Revenge

Source: Blake Emrys Flickr Free Image

If your anger is mostly directed inwards, you may be “afflicted” with a harsh inner critic—turning on yourself for some perceived flaw or shortcoming. But if it’s directed outwards, that’s a different story entirely. Here you’re not blaming yourself for whatever frustrates you but someone else. And in such instances, you naturally feel an impulse to vent your negative feelings against your presumed perpetrator(s) by somehow retaliating against them.

During this so-unwelcome, unanticipated period of social distancing, protective masks, and lockdowns, the temptation to act out against others seen as responsible for our annoyances and aggravations can be almost overwhelming. But should we succumb to it, whatever biases we might already have held against our (imagined) enemies—whether because of their race, religion, or ethnicity—can eventuate in victim-inspired, but nonetheless culpable, behaviors. In times of elevated stress, even subtle, dimly recognized prejudices can be blown out of all proportion, compelling us to react in unprecedented ways.

It’s all-too-easy to hate what’s beyond our control. And these days many of us feel tremendous resentment that outside forces reflecting neither our will nor intent constrain us from living as we’ve grown comfortably accustomed to. Paradoxically, when we react to such adverse circumstances by behaving hatefully toward disliked others, gratuitously harming them for what’s not really their fault, we foster the consoling illusion that we haven’t forfeited all control. In fact, if acting out feelings of anger is perceived (as more and more therapists now recognize) as an attempt to combat deep feelings of helplessness or powerlessness, this often destructive emotion can be recognized as almost inevitable.

When, for instance, White Nationalists fear that African Americans are invading their territory and taking away their jobs, they feel justified in defending their terrain by committing allegedly retaliatory hate crimes against these perceived interlopers. And note what happened to Arabs and Muslims following 9/11 (hate crimes against them increased by 1,600 percent). In a world where angry, absolutist and overly simplistic thinking can blunt our more rational faculties, we’re all susceptible to developing biases toward people outside our own tribe when we experience them as threatening us. And the rise of hate crimes right now against Asian Americans is the latest demonstration of how such prejudice subverts our humanity.

This surge of antipathy and avenging violence against an ethnic minority is born of anxiety—and it’s (unwittingly?) been encouraged—if not authorized—by politicians who’ve chosen to label the potentially deadly COVID-19 pandemic as the “Wuhan Virus” (the locality where apparently it originated) or, more broadly, the “China Virus.” And frankly, such retaliatory acts are as arbitrary as they are discriminatory. Targeting Asian Americans who may actually have been born in this country and never spent a single day in China or its environs are held responsible for their avengers’ having lost their livelihood or sense of freedom and security. Because those guilty of hate crimes may be experiencing unrelenting rage, they can’t help but feel justified in attacking those by whom they themselves have felt attacked.

Whether planned or impulsive, their vindictive acts can also be viewed as acts of terror. Not only do they irresponsibly victimize innocent people, but their criminal acts collectively leave Asian Americans terrified—afraid of what, at any moment and in any place, could happen to them, too. As stated by Daniel Burke (CNN's Religion Editor), “Behind every hate crime is a message: You are not welcome here.” An attack against one person is understood, chillingly, as an ominous warning against that person’s whole community.

To better apprehend the current rise of COVID-19 hate crimes in an expanded context, consider these statistics on past targets of such hostilities. As presented by Swathi Shanmugasundaram (April 15, 2018), “of the 8,819 hate crime victims reported to the FBI in 2018 (in 7,120 separate incidents)”:

2,426 were targeted because of anti-black bias;

1,445 because of sexual orientation or gender identity bias;

1,038 because of anti-white bias;

920 because of anti-Jewish bias;

671 because of anti-Hispanic or anti-Latino bias;

236 because of anti-Muslim bias;

209 because of anti-American Indian or Alaska Native bias.”

As tied directly to the ever-widening threat of COVID-19, more recent incidents of persecution, assaults, and hate crimes, reflecting both xenophobia and racism against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, have been surging. One website, called “ADL: Fighting Hate for Good” (Apr. 17, 2020), states that “since January 2020, there have been more than 44 reports of [such] individuals being threatened and harassed on the street. These incidents include being told to ‘go back to China,’ being blamed for ‘bringing the virus’ to the United States, [and] being referred to with racial slurs, spat on, or physically assaulted.”

To offer just one example of such unwarranted scapegoating, in Midland, Texas, on March 14th, 3 Asian American family members—including 2 children, ages 2 and 6—were stabbed, the perpetrator’s justifying his deed by explaining that he believed the Chinese were intentionally infecting people with COVID-19.

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Moreover, as noted by Karen Wu of UCLA (Apr. 09,2020):

In a time when we might expect people to come together in unity, stories of racial animosity are increasingly common. The Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council currently receives almost 100 reports per day of hate crimes against Asian Americans. . . . Sadly, such behavior is not unusual during a pandemic. According to the parasite-stress hypothesis, given that people have a tendency to associate difference with disease, the prevalence of infectious diseases should predict greater prejudice against outgroup members as people strive to avoid disease. O’Shea, Watson, Brown, and Fincher (2020) conducted two studies to test the parasite-stress hypothesis [and their findings suggest] that when infectious diseases are prevalent, contact with outgroup members may lead to more prejudice, a phenomenon termed “negative intergroup contact.”

An aspect of hate crimes not typically discussed is highlighted by the American Psychological Association. In an article on interpersonal violence entitled: “The Psychology of Hate Crimes” (n.a. & n.d.), APA points out that “people victimized by violent hate crimes are more likely to experience more psychological distress than victims of other violent crimes.” Specifically, they’re more likely to show symptoms of post-traumatic stress; fearful concerns about their safety; states of anxiety, anger, and depression; and lowered self-esteem.

Finally, to conclude this discussion, I’d like to add that as dehumanizing as it is to the hapless victims of such racial/ethnic prejudice, such acts also serve to dehumanize the perpetrators, who willfully forget that we’re all in this together and that their “moral imperative” is to treat others as they would wish to have others treat them.

Additionally, inasmuch as these “avengers” are in no way part of the solution, they must be viewed critically: as exacerbating, or significantly worsening, the problem. This is why we need to learn how to upgrade not only such individuals’ consciousness but their conscience as well.

© 2020 Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved.