Asian senior victims of hate say U.S. 'more physically dangerous' for community
New research shows the toll anti-Asian racism has had on Asian American seniors amid the pandemic.
New research shows the toll anti-Asian racism has had on Asian American seniors amid the pandemic.
The report, by the hate incident tracking coalition Stop AAPI Hate and the American Association of Retired Persons, found that almost all Asian American elders who experienced hate incidents during the pandemic reported feeling that the U.S. has become “more physically dangerous for Asian Americans.”
“Over the past two years, Covid-19 exacerbated threats to the safety and well-being for Asian American elders ages 60 and up — a community that was already highly vulnerable prior to the pandemic,” researchers wrote in the study, which was released Tuesday. “Anti-Asian hate and violence instilled a sense of fear and anxiety, especially among Asian American older adults in dense, urban areas.”
The report examined data released by Stop AAPI Hate, which collected reports of more than 820 hate incidents against Asian American elders from March 2020 to December 2021. While Stop AAPI Hate collects incidents in 15 languages online, researchers said that incidents targeting Asian American and Pacific Islander elders are typically underreported due to technological, linguistic and cultural barriers.
Researchers revealed that more than a quarter of hate incidents against seniors involved physical assault, nearly double the rate that those under 60 experienced. More than 60 percent of incidents involved verbal harassment or shunning. Elders reported their race, ethnicity and gender as the top suspected reasons for the discrimination they received.
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