Most Chinese Americans have experienced racial discrimination in past 12 months: survey

NEW YORK - Racism against Chinese Americans continues despite the abating of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey conducted involving 6,481 Chinese Americans by Columbia University and the Committee of 100, a non-profit leadership organization of prominent Chinese Americans.

As much as 74 percent of Chinese Americans participating in the survey said they have experienced racial discrimination in the past 12 months, said the survey released on Thursday.

In particular, two in three Chinese Americans in the survey experienced racism-related vigilance in the last 12 months. Notably, 9 percent of Chinese Americans have been physically intimidated or assaulted and 7 percent of them have had property vandalized or damaged in the past 12 months, according to the survey.

Nearly half of the survey respondents said they were treated with less respect than other people at least a few times in the past 12 months, and over a quarter experienced bias or hate incidents such as being physically intimidated or assaulted, having their property vandalized or damaged, and being called names or exposed to racial slurs.

Three quarters of survey respondents said they felt insecure, which "really struck me as important. No word," said Gordon H. Chang, professor in humanities and professor in the Department of History at Stanford University.

"While the overwhelming majority of Chinese Americans see themselves as an accepted part of American society, culturally blended between American and Chinese traditions, they are also marginalized," said a release by the Committee of 100.

As much as 55 percent of survey participants worried about their and their families' safety due to hate crimes or harassment in the past 12 months, according to the findings. Meanwhile, 38 percent of Chinese Americans tried to avoid certain social situations or places due to worries about racial discrimination and 37 percent of them felt unease in public areas or worried about how other people might look at them.

Speaking at a virtual panel discussion following the release of the main findings from the survey, Chang said he wondered how the latest data on Chinese Americans could be used or presented to policymakers.

One way to move policymakers is data and more solidarity is needed in the Chinese American community and the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, said Wayne Ho, president and CEO of the Chinese-American Planning Council, which is dedicated to promoting the social and economic empowerment of Chinese American, immigrant, and low-income communities.

"Having solidarity, having an educated and more importantly, an empowered group of Chinese Americans is the only way that we can hold, not just AAPI elected officials, but all elected officials accountable to our community," said Ho.

The survey also found that Chinese Americans had a high turnout rate in the 2020 US presidential election.

As much as 83 percent of Chinese American citizens are registered voters, and 91 percent of registered voters voted in the 2020 presidential election, according to the survey.

Racism, crime, gun control, and the economy were identified as the top four most important issues facing the United States.

Moreover, about 80 percent of survey respondents agreed that the United States should build a collaborative economic relationship with China with economy and trade identified as the top areas for mutual benefit from US-China collaboration efforts.

These survey results are the outcome of more than a year of collaboration among multiple sides and the innovative approach employed helped researchers reach local and hard-to-reach communities and obtain a large, diverse national sample of the Chinese-American community, said Gao Qin, professor of social policy and social work at Columbia University.