STAATUS Report Part. 1: Are U.S. Race Relations Getting Better or Worse?

With the recent release of The Asian American Foundation’s (TAAF) STAATUS Index (Social Tracking of Asian Americans in the U.S.) 2023, we’re getting a glimpse at what life is like for AA+PIs in this country.

The report, which was released May 2, is a nationally representative study—surveying more than 5,000 people of all races and backgrounds, from around the country—aimed at understanding how Americans view AA+PIs and how that might impact the way we’re treated in this country.

While many people and organizations were tracking the attacks during that time...no one was really examining the underlying causes and how non-AA+PIs’ views of our community could have an impact.

The inaugural STAATUS Index was released in 2021, when anti-AA+PI hate and violence was at a peak. But while many people and organizations were tracking the attacks during that time, TAAF CEO Norman Chen says no one was really examining the underlying causes and how non-AA+PIs’ views of our community could have an impact. When the first STAATUS Index report came out, it was one of the first national studies of its kind about Asian Americans in 20 years.

“It was long overdue,” Chen says.

The study focuses on specific themes: race relations in the United States, (mis)perceptions of AA+PIs, visibility and awareness, belonging, and future directions.

This week, we’re diving into race relations.

History continues to repeat itself

Overall, 57 percent of Americans think relationships between different races in this country have gotten worse in the last five years, a stat that’s up from 50 percent in 2022.

This isn’t surprising given the rise in reported anti-AA+PI racism and violence, killings of unarmed Black people, and anti-semitism (which often leads to racism against BIPOC communities) we’ve seen in recent years. And then there are states and school districts challenging and, in some cases, outright banning any curriculum that even hints at the United States’ legacy of white supremacy and racism. So, it’s no wonder history is repeating itself and atrocities against BIPOC folks—including AA+PIs—continue to perpetuate.

Seventy-five percent of Americans think racist attacks against Asian Americans are still a problem today—up from 67 percent of Americans last year who said racist attacks against Asian Americans had increased in the previous year.

Not only are age-old stereotypes about AA+PIs still present today, but these results show there’s also a lack of knowledge and awareness about our community and the important roles we’ve played throughout this country’s history.

And about three-quarters of respondents this year say the attacks against Asian Americans, between March 2021 and March 2022, were a result of the community being blamed for COVID-19. Other factors include Asian Americans being seen as perpetual foreigners (47 percent), the belief that the Chinese government is spying on the United States (47 percent), and people seeing China as an economic competitor (33 percent).

As Chen says, not only are age-old stereotypes about AA+PIs still present today, but these results show there’s also a lack of knowledge and awareness about our community and the important roles we’ve played throughout this country’s history—not to mention the fact that people still conflate Asian Americans with Asians from Asia, despite them being two very distinct and different entities.

AA+PIs are not immune to racism

When it comes to who has the greatest advantages in this country, as expected, more than half of survey respondents (51 percent) say it’s whites—only eight percent think it’s Asian Americans. Meanwhile, Black people are seen as the group that’s most discriminated against, and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders as the most disadvantaged group. Forty-seven percent of respondents say Asian Americans are discriminated against, compared to the 56 percent who believed this last year.

Surprisingly, most white folks (62 percent) see Asian Americans as closer to themselves than to non-white groups, in terms of our status in this country, whereas the majority of Asian Americans (71 percent) see ourselves closer to our fellow BIPOCs.

Like other BIPOC communities, AA+PIs are not (and never have been) immune to prejudice, stereotyping and racism. These are issues we’ve been facing since we first arrived in this country.

Like other BIPOC communities, AA+PIs are not (and never have been) immune to prejudice, stereotyping and racism. These are issues we’ve been facing since we first arrived in this country (some of which you can learn about in The 442 right here on JoySauce).

Policies such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Executive Order 9066 (which led to the illegal incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II), as well as the violence against the AA+PI community during the pandemic, all have one thing in common: AA+PIs being scapegoated and paying the price—sometimes with their lives—for things that were not their fault.

Can we say the same thing about white people?

An indicator of the work that needs to be done

So, what does this all mean?

It means there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done.

But while the STAATUS Index may level set us on what appears to be the status quo, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be challenged—that’s what they’re there for.

And the report just serves as an indicator of what needs to be done to make those changes in order for AA+PIs to feel like we belong and are safe in this country.