While we’ve put the masks away and started to move on from COVID, the accompanying acrimony for Asian Americans still lingers. The Asian American Foundation has released its fourth annual STAATUS (Social Tracking of Asian Americans in the United States) index, which tracks attitudes toward the community. It contains survey data from 6,272 Americans across the country. Here are the key findings:
- There’s a perception gap: Only a third of Americans think AAPI hate has increased, and in general the overall perception is that fairness toward the AAPI community has increased. But nearly a third of AAPI respondents reported being verbally harassed or called a slur. This number rose to 40% for Southeast Asian Americans. About 40% of AAPI believe they’ll be physically attacked, and 60% believe they’ll be discriminated against within the next five years.
- The majority of AAPI don’t feel like they belong: Only 38% of Asian Americans feel like they belong in American society and only 18% feel like they are completely accepted.
- Stereotypes and ignorance still run rampant: 79% of all respondents had doubts about Asian American loyalty to the United States—an all-time high since the index’s inception. Meanwhile, 55% of Americans still can’t name a famous Asian American, and 50% can’t name a movie with an Asian American character. However, about 60% of respondents want to see more Asian Americans in dramas and comedies.
“Perceptions about a community carry weight,” the index’s authors wrote. “They can influence who is hired, which legislations are passed, whose stories are told by Hollywood, and which historical events children learn about in school.”