Over the past few years, there has been a growing concern over the number of Asian Americans being attacked. However, this hatred has a long history, dating back to the American Revolution. After the revolution, most Asians, especially people of Chinese origin, flocked to the US to provide cheap labor in plantations and mines (Li & Nicholson Jr, 2021). In the end, Americans started worrying that they would lose their prestigious jobs due to the availability of cheap jobs from Asians. Eventually, the Asians started receiving massive resentment from Americans. After various government efforts, there was a widespread change in the public views towards Asians, thus leading to peaceful coexistence. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, led to the re-emergence of hatred crimes, with the Atlanta shooting leading to the death of six Asians (Li & Nicholson Jr, 2021). In solving the current problem, the government should invest heavily in civic education. In this case, the government must educate the public about the importance of coexistence and eliminating the existing prejudices and stereotypes towards Asian Americans.
The rational choice theory could be critical in understanding the origin of the hatred towards Asian Americans in the US. According to this theory, individual decisions crucially affect the general social behavior of the public. In this case, the rational choice theory proposes that the current problem can be attributed to personal choices in the past few years (Dharma et al., 2019). For instance, the growing hatred towards Asian Americans results from political tensions between the US and China. The hate also grew after the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, which could indicate individual rational decisions. In essence, the pandemic originated from China, and most US politicians were quick to request for disruption of relations between the two nations (Li & Nicholson Jr, 2021). Political figures also contributed to the growing hatred by blaming China and its nationals for developing the disease that disrupted activities globally. In the end, this behavior moved to citizens who started reflecting on what they learned from the leaders.
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In understanding the cause of the current problem, various methods, including interviews, questionnaires, surveys, and literature reviews, were conducted. In the interviews, questionnaires, and surveys, 20 Americans of non-Asian origin and 10 Asian Americans were involved. For the literature reviews, scholarly materials on the topic and written over the last five years were reviewed to understand their perceptions of the current problem—the study aimed at understanding the origin of the hatred towards Asian Americans. The interview, survey, and questionnaire sections indicated that the main reason for the growing hostility towards Asian Americans is the model minority myth. In essence, most Americans have the perception that Asian Americans belong to the upper and middle-classes. Therefore, they view the Asian Americans as having used the American resources to harness wealth while subjecting the natives to poverty. In addition, for most respondents in the study, Asian Americans have higher education qualifications than other Americans, making them more suitable to occupy job positions.
The research also identified a distinction between the hatred towards Asian Americans. One group of the participants had different perceptions of Asians from the Middle East and those from the South-Asia. For the first case, a group of the participants indicated that Asian-Americans from the Middle East are mainly immigrants who offered cheaper labor, thus threatening Americans’ job security. Contrarily, those from South-East Asia were viewed as having more educational qualifications, which would make it difficult for other Americans to fit in the job market. A more significant section of the participants also indicated resentment towards Asian Americans due to the media. For instance, most American films display Asians as violent individuals in action or investigative movies, making it easier for the public to believe such perceptions. Moreover, another section of the participants indicated that their perceptions towards Asian Americans were shaped by the political stances between the US and China. In this case, most of the participants indicated that the former US President’s words that Covid-19 is a Chine virus changed their views towards the issue. In this case, they believed that Asians could have been responsible for the outbreak of the pandemic.
In finding a solution to the current problem, the selected sample was taken through a quick civic education on Asian Americans. In this exercise, 20 participants, all non-Asian Americans, were involved. At the end of the study, the significance of the activity and its fit in the larger American population was tested.
H 0 : Civic education has no positive effect in solving hatred towards Asian Americans; for p= 0.05
H 1 : Civic education has a positive effect in solving hatred towards Asian Americans; for p= 0.05
After the study and analysis of data, the p-value was obtained to be 0.5.
For this study, the null hypothesis, thus civic education, positively impacts hatred towards Asian Americans.
The study indicated that engagement in civic education would help the US government in solving the current problem. The study also provides the criteria to be used in conducting civic education. One of the critical methods that the government can use in ensuring that Americans change their perceptions towards Asians is by investing in film production. In this case, the government should focus on developing differently-orientated films, which show the positive side of Asians to the American socioeconomic wellbeing (Okunloye & Omolekan, 2017). The current display of Asian Americans is a crucial problem for most Americans who participated in the study. This indicates that the film industry dramatically influences the American public; hence, a change in how they portray Asians will lead to changes in hatred towards them. Civic education will also help Americans understand the importance of coexistence in creating a free and great nation (Mineo, 2021). In this case, the government should educate US citizens on the fundamental principles of human rights. Additionally, Americans must understand all the laws governing hatred towards other people based on religion, nationality, class, race, or origin.
References
Dharma, S. et al. (2019, May). 21st Century Civic Education: Creating Awareness of Cultural Diversity as Citizens of the World. In 1st International Conference on Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies (ICSSIS 2018) (pp. 305-310). Atlantis Press. https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/icssis-18/125906313
Li, Y., & Nicholson Jr, H. L. (2021). When “model minorities” become “yellow peril”—Othering and the racialization of Asian Americans in the COVID‐19 pandemic. Sociology Compass , 15 (2), e12849. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/soc4.12849
Mineo, L. (2021). The scapegoating of Asian Americans. The Harvard Gazette: National & World Affairs. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/03/a-long-history-of-bigotry-against-asian-americans/
Okunloye, R. W., & Omolekan, J. A. (2017). Civic Education: A Veritable Instrument for achieving Sustainable Development in Nigeria. KIU Journal of Social Sciences , 3 (2), 7-14. http://www.ijhumas.com/ojs/index.php/kiujoss/article/view/75
