Negative views of Asian people have risen in both parties
Negative views of Asian people have risen in both parties
- April 8, 2020
- Michael Tesler, political science, and co-authors explain in The Washington Post
-----
When confronted with unfamiliar and dangerous infectious diseases, many Americans look for someone to blame — and historically, foreign people and countries have been a target. Although President Trump finally declared, in late March, that the novel coronavirus was not the “fault” of the “Asian American community in the United States,” he had spent several weeks using and defending the term “Chinese virus” instead of a more neutral, technical phrase, and even defended those who called it “Kung flu.” Some conservatives persist in calling it the “Wuhan virus.”
As the crisis mounted in this country, Asian Americans have reported being threatened, yelled at, spat on and attacked.
New data from a large national survey called Nationscape makes clear negative views
of both Asian people and China specifically are on the rise, paralleling the reports
of public attacks and slurs. The trend is evident among both Democrats and Republicans,
though it appears to be more severe among members of the GOP.
Read on in The Washington Post.
-----
Would you like to get more involved with the social sciences? Email us at communications@socsci.uci.edu to connect.
Related News Items
- Careet RightGOP support for marijuana dropping at same time Trump moves to ease restrictions
- Careet RightRepublicans are turning against legal marijuana
- Careet RightRepublicans are ambivalent about Iran and Trump's foreign policy
- Careet RightMost Americans favor birthright citizenship. That wasn't always true.
- Careet RightFor most Americans, ICE and Homeland Security funding isn't a priority