The COVID-19 Hate Crime Act: Anti-Chinese Sentiment and Xenophobia in Times of Austerity
Chu Li · Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research/Advances in social science, education and humanities research · 2022
On March 16, 2021, the fatal shootings that took place at three massage parlors in Atlanta, Georgia, targeting women of Asian descent took away 8 innocent lives.However, this is only one of the tragic incidents that caused racial animus occurred during the pandemic.An upsurge of anti-Asian sentiment was detected in the early days of the pandemic, leading to a bipartisan effort to fight bias-driven incidents against Asian Americans led to Congress's passage of the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act.This paper conducts a descriptive study to examine the efficacy of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act through literature review, mainly focusing on three themes: historical, political, and social.The paper first evaluates the design of the bill, then analyzes and explains factors that hinder its effectiveness, and lastly, proposes alternative solutions.The paper finds that the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act serves more of a symbolic purpose, a needed wake-up call, but inadequate to bring the progress Asian communities need and to temper the deeply rooted xenophobia.