Experiences with discrimination among Asian adults were widely reported before the pandemic. About three-in-four Asian Americans (73%) say they have personally experienced discrimination or been treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity, according to the April 2021 Pew Research Center survey. This share is unchanged from June 2020 and is about the same as prior to the pandemic, when 76% of Asian adults in February 2019 said they had personally experienced discrimination or unfair treatment because of their race or ethnicity.

The April survey also found that Asian adults are more likely to express fear over discrimination than other groups. About a third (32%) say they fear someone might threaten or physically attack them, a greater share than among Black adults (21%), Hispanic adults (16%) or White adults (8%).

As we delve into immigration from the very first settlers into what is now known as the United States, people who migrated resisted assimilation. The struggle to preserve their own heritage or religious practices led to belittling other cultures. Derogatory nicknames for each country of origin emerged leaving people to form communities of like kind. While immigration began in a formalized way from primarily European countries, acceptance of immigrants seemed to be globally white immigrants.

Racism has most likely existed since the beginning of time.  Merriam-Webster identified racism as a word sometime during the 20^th century, so maybe we, as society, began to recognize it within the past 100 years. We recognized it and put the word in the dictionary. Why didn’t we recognize it and eliminate it?

Merriam-Webster defined racism as “fostering the belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.”   Can we believe that this exaggerated sense of one’s own importance is innate?

In the late nineteen century, the racist and cultural stereotypes of the “yellow peril” emerged stimulating hate against Chinese workers, who had a different skin color, language and culture. The hate arose as these workers agreed to work for lower wages than did local white populations. Horace Greely published in the New York Daily Tribune in 1854 that for the most part these are an industrious people, quiet and peaceable. But, said this was all that was good about them and went on to describe them as uncivilized, unclean, and filthy beyond all conception.  It laid foundation to sentiment to come which led to the Chinese Massacre of 1871 where 500 white men lynched 20 Chinese men in the Chinatown ghetto outside of Los Angeles.

Thousands of Chinese workers were hired by the Transcontinental Railroad. These workers did jobs no one else would do to create this cross-country connection across today’s United States.  They were considered expendable. There was no record keeping showing exactly how many workers who were Chinese lost their lives, but some have claimed over 1200 Chinese workers’ bodies were discovered along the route.

For over 150 years an unjustified hatred of a hardworking people has manifested over a misunderstanding of culture and a false fear that “these” people would take other people’s jobs.

So much hatred existed, it led to the Chinese Exclusion Act, formally Immigration Act of 1882[i], U.S. federal law that was the first and only major federal legislation to explicitly suspend immigration for a specific nationality. The basic exclusion law prohibited Chinese labourers—defined as “both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining”—from entering the country.

Subsequent amendments to the law prevented Chinese labourers who had left the United States from returning. The passage of the act represented the outcome of years of racial hostility and anti-immigrant agitation by white Americans, set the precedent for later restrictions against immigration of other nationalities, and started a new era in which the United States changed from a country that welcomed almost all immigrants to a gatekeeping one.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by Pres. Chester A. Arthur in 1882. It lasted for 10 years and was extended for another 10 years by the 1892 Geary Act, which also required that people of Chinese origin carry identification certificates or face deportation. Later measures placed a number of other restrictions on the Chinese, such as limiting their access to bail bonds and allowing entry to only those who were teachers, students, diplomats, and tourists. Congress closed the gate to Chinese immigrants almost entirely by extending the Chinese Exclusion Act for another 10 years in 1902 and making the extension indefinite in 1904.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943 with the passage of the Magnuson Act, which permitted a quota of 105 Chinese immigrants annually. Various factors contributed to the repeal, such as the quieted anti-Chinese sentiment, the establishment of quota systems for immigrants of other nationalities who had rapidly increased in the United States, and the political consideration that the United States and China were allies in World War II.

In 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini were brands of evil promoting unimaginable atrocities in the world. American history books over the decades enumerated the European conflicts, battles, victories and losses, but left out the Japanese histories. How were/are Americans to understand the culture if they are not taught and only know Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. With Germany and Italy, Americans had to stand up to their “like kind” of which many shared an originating heritage to fight these evils. They also took steps after the war and for years later to engage somewhat in the healing process of these nations. But what of Japan? Too little information about them as a people, no commiseration, no healing or acceptance.

In 1950-1953 the U.S. engaged in the Korean War. The U.S. was not victorious. With that in mind, how is history written? Is enough history written and what have U.S. citizens learned of the Korean culture as a result?

The number of television sets in use rose from 6,000 in 1946 to some 12 million by 1951. No new invention entered American homes faster than black and white television sets; by 1955 half of all U.S. homes had one.[ii] American television has depicted Asians somewhat as one stereotypical culture instead of understanding the uniqueness of each. I do, however, remember watching a heartbreaking episode of Bonanza, where in a rare episode with Hop Sing in the spotlight, the Cartwrights’ cook is panning for gold during a vacation when he falls in love with a white woman. The relationship blossoms into an engagement, but the marriage never takes place. Ben Cartwright (family lead character) bears the heartbreaking news that a judge confirms: state law forbids interracial marriage. I share this plot line as I believe people cared about the character Hop Sing because audiences saw him as a “part” of the Cartwright family. If you take a look at the Chinese-American actors’ credits (Victor Sen-Yung), who played Hop Sing, you will find many uncredited roles (roles where he played a servant, but wasn’t even cast with a name), or as playing Asian characters of any Asian descent, because audience members really didn’t know the difference.

From 1955 to 1975, two decades, the Vietnam Conflict/War and Communism! Ask 10 people born in the 40s, 10 people from the 50s, 10 from the 60s, 10 from the 70s, 10 from the 80s what this was about and how this affected them, and you will receive 50 very different answers. Ask all 50 what they know of the Vietnamese culture, and the people, and I would wager very little.

In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford, accepted Vietnam refugees into the United States. Refugee families were not set up in one, or a couple of communities where they would have each other for support and familiar culture, they were disseminated across small town America to be integrated into existing communities. The language barriers, the distrust, the fear of learning a new culture ostracized this group of people horrifically. Children changed their names to be more accepted in school. Other children made fun of the way they talked and looked.

The majority of Asian children from all of these nations worked extremely hard to fit in as well as to succeed. As they got older, they were made fun of once again for being “smarter”-the model majority, fostering further bias and discrimination.

By 2001, if acceptance was improving, September 11, 2001, inspired new levels of hatred, fear, and discrimination. The COVID 19 pandemic was deemed the “China flu” by the presiding president of the United States.

People learn bias. We teach bigotry. We need to start teaching acceptance. Hard working, law abiding, citizens of this country should not live in fear. Working in a nail salon should not be a death sentence. Fearing for one’s elderly grandparents who are going to a doctor’s appointment or the grocery store, because someone might attack them is unacceptable. Assuming because someone looks “Asian” they have actually been to any Asian country.

Understanding a bit of history, as I’ve outlined here, does not dismiss or validate unwarranted crimes directed toward people of Asian descent. I do, however, hope that we can see how hatred can be inspired and take a stance against it. Take some time to get to know your neighbors better.  When we know their customs, regardless of who they are, we are less likely to offend.

If I invite you to my home for dinner, I’m going to ask you if you are allergic to anything or if you like anything in particular. I will more than likely ask you what you don’t like as well. Apply this small, basic approach to citizenship. Don’t fear. Learn. The problem is large and it is a problem that shouldn’t exist. Start with something small and within your comfort zone, or better yet, just a little outside of it and, we all can stop this targeting of hatred so others do not have to live in fear just because of the way they look.