ViTAL Chats: Anti-Asian Hate
Edited by Dr. Anita Young
“ViTAL Chats” is a podcast for people who are interested in ViTAL and passionate about health care innovations to learn more about our club activities, student involvement, as well as to discuss important topics in health care.
The transcript for this episode can be found below. Sources for the information are also available cited.
00:00 — Welcome back to Vital’s podcast. My name is Thy Nguyen, the host for today’s episode. Vital is a Northeastern’s healthcare innovation organization that empowers future healthcare professionals with an entrepreneurial mindset. We encourage our student audience to explore beyond the traditional pathways that are often seen in the healthcare field. Today’s episode will discuss the current upward trend in anti-Asian hate crimes and existing health disparities among Asian-American population. We hope that after listening to this podcast, you will be able to describe hate crime acts toward the Asian community and summarize the longstanding health inequity in the system that the Asian-Americans are facing.
00:56 — At the end of 2019, everyone all looked forward to a new decade, but hardly did they know that one of the most fearful pandemic will soon begin in 2020. COVID-19 was first reported in Wuhan, China and believed to be transmitted from animals to humans in Wuhan’s wet markets. The virus soon rapidly spread globally by mid-January 2020 and at the end of the month, the World Health Organization declared a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern.”
01:30 — As the majority of Americans has adjusted to a new secluded lifestyle, such as mask mandatory and social distancing restrictions, the Asian community has been facing an increase in discrimination and racist harassment. Anti-Asian hate has always existed and with COVID-19, some people believe that Asian descent are responsible for causing and spreading it which increases the tension. Back in the late 1800s when Chinatowns were established, Asian Americans have encountered attacks and marginalizing stereotypes driven by individual-level racism and xenophobia. At the institutional-level, the state government has often reinforced the violence through racist and xenophobic discriminatory rhetoric and exclusionary policies, such as Chinese Exclusion Act of 1881. In 2020, COVID-19 has further triggered the anti-Asian hate crime. According to a recent report from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, over 2,800 hate incidents were reported in the United States since the beginning of the pandemic. The number rose by 150 percent in 2020 despite the fact that the overall hate crimes decreased.
03:00 — However, the reported number is just the tip of the iceberg. Hate crimes are underreported because victims lose trust in the authorities or are threatened by the attackers. Moreover, the racist assaults are often overlooked by the authorities. FBI defines hate crime as a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. It does not include acts of harassment or slurs which are usually encountered by Asian American. In addition, the offenders are not always charged as a hate crime due to lack of evidence of a racist motive. For example, in February, a Chinese man was stabbed in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood by a 23-year-old man from Yemen. The perpetrator was later charged with attempted murder. The unrecognized and underreported hate crimes have put the Asian community at greater risk and made it more challenging to collect the reliable data to which Asian Americans are being targeted.
04:12 — The fatal shooting at three Atlanta spas in mid-March has outraged the public on a national scale. Eight victims were killed, including six Asian women. The perpetrator denied holding any racial hate or bias and admitted that his crime is a form of vengeance for his sexual addiction. These recent attacks have raised a difficult question involved in identifying a racist motive. Did the assaults just unintentionally happen towards Asian victims? Or did the attackers target Asians in an unspoken way that can not be used as proof in an investigation? There is no widely recognized prototype for anti-Asian hate comparable to a noose or a swastika. Moreover, Asian American have been an invisible population and often not classified as a person of color.
05:10 — Besides hate crimes, Asian American also face health disparities. The American Journal of Public Health published a report showing the inequity that the Asian Americans community are encountering. U.S Filipinos are at higher risk of being obese or overweight and having high blood pressure, diabetes, or asthma than non-Hispanic Whites. Native Hawaiians are twice as likely to be obese as whites in their state. The report also identifies that among all social determinants of health, immigration status is unique to Asians. It takes five year of living in the United States for legal permanent residents to be eligible for Medicaid. Therefore, 20 percent of Asian children have no health insurance compared to 4 percent of children overall.
06:05 — So what are some factors that exacerbate the inequity gap among Asian Americans?
Language barriers have greatly influenced these disparities. The Office of Minority Health reports that the number of people 5 years or older who have limited English proficiency varies among Asian Americans: 48.9% of Vietnamese, 44.8% of Chinese, 20.9% of Filipinos and 18.7% of Asian Indians are not fluent in English. Hospitals and health systems need to have mechanisms to facilitate the population for better communication. However, the current mandates do not let them be reimbursed so the hospitals are not incentivized.
06:58 — Another reason is that there is a lack of data disaggregation among Asian-American populations. There are differences between the subgroups and they need to be addressed in order to achieve an optimal health. Asians are often omitted as a population and the collected data of one or some subgroups usually represents all Asian-American populations. However, it’s important to look at disaggregated data to see significant patterns of health equity. For example, in New York city, the overall rate of smoking is 18.6% in whites and 14.1% in Asian Americans. Within Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) subgroups, the prevalence data varies and are especially greater in some populations. In detail, Korean American’s smoking rate is 35.5%. Dr. Karen Kim, Associate Director of the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center and a Professor of Medicine, shared that 50 percent of diabetes are undetected in Asian American population. She explained that Asians are a “skinny-fat” population and have diabetes at a lower weight. Even though American Diabetes Association guidelines address the lower body mass index for this population in diabetes screening, the guidelines are not implemented in a systematic way. As a result, half of Asians with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes are undiagnosed and this could lead to progression of cardiovascular disease. One last important information needed to be highlighted is that there is a significant ethnic difference in the metabolism of drugs. For example, Asian population has a reduced CYP2D6 isoenzyme activity, a hepatic enzyme that metabolizes a quarter of prescribed medications, including codeine and cardiovascular drugs. As a result, there is an increase in drug activity and adverse events in this community. Even though the genetic polymorphism is addressed, it is not highly emphasized in the healthcare system which might lead to poor treatment outcomes.
09:30 — The recent set of violence and killings towards the Asian community has raised the urgency of fighting against racism and discrimination. Numerous rallies have taken place in dozens of cities in the United States. Marchers gather in major cities nationwide, such as New York, Washington, Chicago, and San Francisco. They spill out onto the streets, fighting for justice.
10:44 — Several organizations were formed to support the Asian American community. In March 2020, Stop AAPI Hate reporting center was launched in response to the alarming escalation in hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization helps track and responds to the attacks, violences, and discrimination against the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Stop AAPI Hate center provides multilingual resources for impacted individuals and technical support from rapid response to preventative measures. In addition, it serves as the leading aggregator of anti-Asian hate incidents and reinforce the local and national policies to advocate human rights and civil rights protection.
11:14 — In early March this year, GoFundMe launched #StopAsianHate campaign collaborated with the Gold House organization and the Coalition of Coalition of Asian Pacific in Entertainment (CAPE). The campaign curates local fundraisers from across the country to advocate hate crime victims and uplift protection for the AAPI population. It has successfully raised more than $1 million and the donations are still in an upward trend.
11:38 — Other organizations and communities focus on addressing and reducing the health disparities among Asian-American population. The Center for Asian Health founded in 2000 promotes the community-based participatory research and patient-centered outcomes research. Its mission is to diminish the health disparities and support health equity among Asian Americans through research, training, and community engagement.
12:11 — Black Lives Matter has broken the intolerance and empower all minority communities to stand up and fight against racism and discrimination together. Now that the anti-Asian hate crimes become more mainstream, a strong allyship with other minority populations is formed to support and protect each other from racism. With all the efforts from individuals and communities, hopefully we can reduce the existing discrimination and disparities among minority groups.
12:11 — Thank you for listening. We hope this podcast provides you with great insights about the anti-Asian hate crimes and the existing disparity in American health care system. To learn more about Vital and get updated with our activities, you can follow us on social media, @vitalnortheastern, and check for updates on our website, www.northeastern.edu/vital.
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