Fear, Political Legitimization, and Racism: Examining Anti-Asian Xenophobia During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Author: Brendan Lantz,Marin R. Wenger,Jack M. Mills
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/21533687221125817
• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Date: 01 January 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Fear, Political Legitimization,

and Racism: Examining

Anti-Asian Xenophobia

During the COVID-19

Pandemic

Brendan Lantz

1

, Marin R. Wenger

1

,

and Jack M. Mills

1

Abstract

Unfortunately, there is a long history linking pandemics to Anti-Asian prejudice and

xenophobia; these negative outcomes have been particularly pronounced during

the COVID-19 pandemic. Some scholars have suggested that these relationships

are driven by fear, wherein individuals respond to disease threat by “othering”that

threat. Other research has implicated the role of the state, including the political rhe-

toric of former President Trump, in exacerbating bias by enabling a divisive political

environment. Yet, very few existing studies have been able to assess the nature of

these impacts or examine the mechanisms behind obser ved increases in xenophobia.

To that end, this research presents results from a survey administered in May 2020 to

respondents residing in the U.S., which assessed COVID-19-related attitudes and

behaviors, as well as anti-Asian prejudicial attitudes. Using these data, we assessed

the direct and interactive relationship between perceptions of risk (i.e., fear), expo-

sure to COVID-19 information, support for Trump, and anti-Asian prejudice. Results

reveal that fear—and support for Trump—are associated with increased anti-Asian

prejudice, but that exposure to more information about COVID-19 is associated

with decreased prejudice; we also note complex interactions between each of

these factors.

1

College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, , Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Brendan Lantz, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University, 112 S. Copeland St.,

Tallahassee, FL 32306-1127, USA.

Email: blantz@fsu.edu

Article

Race and Justice

2023, Vol. 13(1) 80-104

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/21533687221125817

journals.sagepub.com/home/raj

Keywords

COVID-19, race/Ethnicity, Asian/Pacif‌ic islanders, Asian Americans, victimization,

hate/bias crimes, discrimination, xenophobia, racism, political legitimization

When COVID-19—a pneumonia-like disease believed to have f‌irst originated in China

—was f‌irst named by the World Health Organization (WHO), they followed their own

guidelines for best practices regarding infectious diseases, which state that disease

names should not include geographic locations or cultural references, among other

factors (WHO, 2015a). The primary intention of these guidelines is to avoid causing

offensive or negative consequences, including “backlash against members of particular

religious or ethnic communities”(WHO, 2015b). This intention is, unfortunately, well-

justif‌ied: there is a long history linking pandemics to prejudice and xenophobia, and

the Asian population has been a particularly frequent target of disease-related prejudice

and discrimination (Clissold et al., 2020; Muzzatti, 2005). There is also evidence that

these negative stereotypes and racist tropes linking Asian people and disease have been

particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic (see Lantz & Wenger, 2022), a

pattern that is not particularly surprising, given the magnitude, duration, and societal

impact of the disease.

Prior researchsuggests two primary explanations for this link betweenthe COVID-19

pandemic andelevated anti-Asian prejudiceand xenophobia. On the one hand,one body

of research has suggested that the links between disease and anti-Asian xenophobia are

driven by fear of the disease, of infection, and, resultantly, of the threat posed by any

potential carriers of the disease. Individuals thus react to this fear by “othering”that

threat (La

za

roiu & Adams, 2020; Le et al., 2020; Lee et al., 2020; Ren & Feagin,

2021; Reny & Barreto, 2020). In doing so, they rely upon racist paradigms to establish

identif‌iable characteristics (e.g., skin color, appearance)—for a disease that may other-

wise not be “visible”—which are associatedwith potential diseasecarriers. This suggests

that, on average, those who are more fearful of the disease, or perceive themselves or

their family as more at risk from the disease, may exhibit more anti-Asian prejudicial

attitudes. Importantly, in some cases where individuals are inclined to react to their

fear by relying on stereotypes, it is possible this tendency might be attenuated by

access to reliable information about the disease, which may serve to buffer against prej-

udicial stereotypes about Asian people as carriers of disease while also emphasizing

alternative measures for resolving or addressing personal perceptions of risk (e.g.,

social distancing, frequent mask wearing). A lack of information, or misinformation,

however, may even exacerbate belief in these stereotypes (Kuklinski et al., 2000;

Rubinstein et al., 2018).

A second, separate body of research has implicated the role of the state—and

highly inf‌luential political f‌igures that represent that state—in exacerbating, embold-

ening, or legitimizing bias through the use of targeted inf‌lammatory rhetoric.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump, in particular, has consistently referred to

the disease as the “China virus”or “Wuhan virus,”while also implicitly or explicitly

placing blame for the disease on Chinese people, and Asian people more generally

Lantz et al. 81