The Discourse of Anti-Asian Hate amid COVID-19 Pandemic: Analyzing Youtube Videos

Background and Purpose: For Asian Americans (AAs), the significant life challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic were exacerbated by the surge of anti-Asian hate crimes. While discussions of discrimination against AAs spiked in the media and communities during the pandemic, social work research on this topic remains limited. The few existing literature mostly focuses on the early stage of the pandemic or is conceptual and anecdotal. To fill this gap, the present study used YouTube videos to examine the phenomena of anti-Asian hate based on the frameworks of microaggressions and hate crime. The study also explored anti-Asian hate experiences of AAs and their efforts to overcome the impact of anti-Asian hate surfaced over the pandemic.

Methods: We conducted a collection of YouTube videos through keyword searches, including terms such as 'anti-Asian hate,' 'anti-Asian discrimination,' and 'anti-Asian harassment,' resulting in a total of 1,041 videos. For the purpose of this qualitative study, we selected the top 100 videos with the highest view counts among those created between January 2020 and December 2022. After excluding videos deemed irrelevant to the study's focus, a final sample of 70 videos was retained for analysis. Using the grounded theory method, two researchers independently coded the video contents as they watched the videos and read the video transcripts. Then, they discussed the identified codes and themes until a consensus was reached.

Findings: Approximately 79% of videos were news reports about anti-Asian hate crimes/incidents during the pandemic and the passing of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Bill. The remaining videos were created by YouTubers socially experimenting with discrimination against Asians or media shows, community activists, AA scholars, and policymakers attempting to raise public awareness toward anti-Asian hate. While short in length, videos provided AAs’ personal testimonies of anti-Asian hate and counternarratives aimed at disturbing recent anti-Asian hate crimes and rhetoric that stemmed from labeling the COVID-19 virus as “Chinese Virus.” The demographic characteristics (e.g., race/ethnicity, age, gender, etc.) of victims and attackers in the YouTube videos were diverse, although older adults and women tended to be more vulnerable victims. Discrimination against AAs was observed across different social environments. It ranged from physical/verbal attacks to different forms of microaggressions: microinsults that stigmatized AAs as second-class citizens and microinvalidation that diminished AAs’ experiences of anti-Asian hate. Such oppressions negatively impacted individual AAs on biopsychosocial domains of well-being for both those who were directly and indirectly hurt by anti-Asian hate, which also affected their daily routines. Nevertheless, collective efforts at community levels to ally with AAs and protect them from racial harassment and attacks were also observed.

Conclusion and Implications: The qualitative examination of the YouTube videos yields important implications for social work. To provide culturally sensitive services to AAs, it is important for social workers to understand and educate the public on the wide range of oppression AAs experienced and its chain effects at multiple levels of the system. Future research should also closely examine the long-term effects of pandemic-related anti-Asian hate and the implementation of the Hate Crimes Bill.