Youth Campaign: They Blamed Me Because I Am Asian

September 2020
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In the summer of 2020, the Stop AAPI Hate Youth Campaign (“the Youth Campaign”) interviewed 990 AAPI young adults across the United States about their experiences and feelings related to racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our key findings and recommendations stem from that data.

Key Findings from the Youth Campaign (N= 990)

  1. About 8 out of 10 AAPI youth (77%) express anger over the current anti-Asian hate in this nation, and 6 out of 10 (60%) also express disappointment over racism.
  2. AAPI youth who experienced racism firsthand were more likely to be concerned about their family (30%) and saddened (30%) than their peers who didn’t.
  3. Harassment focused on blaming China and Chinese people as the source of the virus and on mocking Chinese dietary habits.
  4. AAPI youth care deeply about anti-Asian hate because they believe any form of racism is wrong (34%) and that blaming one group for COVID-19 is incorrect (30%).

Key Recommendations

  1. Implement Ethnic Studies throughout secondary school curricula so that secondary school students learn about histories of different U.S. communities, the roots and impacts of racism, and rights movements that have sought racial justice.
  2. Provide anti-bullying training for teachers and administrators that would include practices of social-emotional learning.
  3. Train students and adults in restorative justice practices, which can begin to replace zero-tolerance approaches that have proven ineffective.
  4. For victims of online harassment, provide accessible and anonymous reporting sites(similar to that of Stop AAPI Hate) on social media platforms.
  5. Support AAPI student affinity groups and their school-safety and anti-racism campaigns.

Click here to read the full report (PDF).