When cases of COVID-19 proliferated in the United States starting in March 2020, the virus was frequently dubbed as the “Wuhan flu” or the “Chinese virus,” sparking a modern-day “yellow peril.” Since the start of the pandemic, Asian American communities have come face-to-face with racist and xenophobic violence and discrimination. The anti-Asian sentiments have manifested in plummeting sales and looting of Chinese restaurants, near-deserted Chinatown districts, and bullying toward Asian Americans in school and across social media.

There is a long history of bigotry against Asian Americans in the United States, dating back to as early as the late-nineteenth century during the Chinese Exclusion Act. Over a century later, anyone perceived to be Chinese during the COVID-19 pandemic is at risk of becoming a target of racially motivated hate crimes. That is the painful reality of the everyday Asian American: no matter how hard one works, the status they have achieved, or the nation they identify with—Asian Americans have always been pitched into the "them" category.