A reflection on anti-Asian hate in America: from early immigration to COVID-19

Anti-Asian physical and verbal attacks proliferated both offline and online in the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19. Yet, it is important to recognize that anti-Asian sentiment has a long and ugly history in America. In this chapter, we outline that history, dating back to the mid-19th century when Chinese immigrants first arrived on American shores. We highlight the ways in which Asians have been systematically othered in America—treated as fundamentally different, viewed as peddlers of narcotics, branded as labor market threats, and accused of disloyalty to America. We also explore the history of linking Asians to the outbreaks of novel diseases, with an emphasis on the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Using recently collected data from X (previously Twitter), we examine how rhetoric on X regarding Asians and China devolved as the pandemic worsened.