Discrimination & Ethnic Racial Socialization
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Parent-Teen Connect #6: Bullying, Discrimination & Ethnic Racial Socialization Cixin Wang, Ph.D. ([email protected]) Yeram Cheong, Ph.D. ([email protected]) Xiaoping Shao, M.D. 1 Agenda • Check in & recap problem-solving steps: How did it go the past week? • Bullying, hate incidents / bias, and hate crime • How to talk to teens about race, discrimination, and racism. • How to teach teens skills to combat racism/bullying • How to support others in our community 2 Recap: Problem-Solving Steps 1 2 3 4 5 6 Stay calm! Identify the Brainstorm Create a list of Pick a solution Review what pros and cons from the list, happened problem solutions for each and make an possible action plan solution 3 COVID-related Bullying & Violence in Asian Americans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skzrMtbKhe0 4 Impact of COVID-19 on anti-Asian racism • About 2,583 of anti-Asian hate incidents reported to Stop AAPI Hate between March 19th to August 5th. • Types of hate incidents: • Verbal harassment (e.g., name calling, being yelled at; about 70% of the reports) and shunning (deliberate avoidance of the AAPI individual based on race; about 22% of the reports). • Physical assault (9%), being coughed at or spat upon (7%) • Potential civil rights violations (e.g., workplace discrimination, being barred from public transportation; less than 3%). 5 Recent Research on COVID-19 (Cheah, Wang et al. 2020 in Pediatrics): • Data were collected through an online survey completed by 543 Chinese American parents and 230 of their children aged 10- to 18- years old across the United States between March 14th to May 31st, 2020. >50% from D-M-V area 6 Recent Research on COVID-19 (Wang et al.): Parental Concerns about Child Bullying and Discrimination Participants • Chinese American parents of children at ages 12-18 Method • Interviews on parental concerns and reasons for child’s experiences of bullying and discrimination • Parental responded coded on frequency of themes mentioned Table 1. Parental concerns Coding Frequency (%) Parental Concerns Child racial bullying and discrimination during COVID-19 19 (51%) Political climate, anti-Asian sentiment, & racial division 21 (57%) Family safety due to discrimination 17 (46%) Asian stereotypes (e.g., MMM, bamboo ceiling, perpetual foreigner) 7 (19%) Concerns about Asian American stereotypes and related discrimination 10 (27%) Overemphasis on race in COVID-19 2 (5%) 13 Recent Research on COVID-19 (Wang et al.): Parental Concerns about Child Bullying and Discrimination Table 2. Reasons for Prevalence and Lack of Bullying and Discrimination during COVID-19 Coding Frequency (%) Reasons for Bullying Media coverage 9 (24%) Political climate 9 (24%) Personal characteristics 9 (24%) Asian stereotypes (e.g., MMM, bamboo ceiling, perpetual foreigner) 7 (19%) Ethnic-racial / cultural differences 6 (16%) School characteristics (e.g., few Asians in school) 4 (11%) Reasons for Lack of Bullying School characteristics 17 (46%) Social distancing protects against discrimination / bullying 15 (41%) Peer friendship 10 (27%) COVID as a shared global experience 7 (19%) Neighborhood characteristics 6 (16%) 14 Impact of Victimization & Discrimination • Poor physical and mental health (poor quality of sleep, depression, anxiety) • Disruptions in academic engagement • Difficulties with social relationships 15 Bullying vs. Hate Incident vs. Hate Crime Bullying Hate Crime Bias or Hate Incident Definition Any unwanted aggressive At the federal level, a crime Acts of prejudice [based behavior(s) by another motivated by [hostility or] on person’s group youth or group of youths bias against race, color, membership, such as that involves an observed religion, national origin, race, religion, sexual or perceived power sexual orientation, gender, orientation, disability] imbalance and is repeated gender identity, or disability that are not crimes (Anti- multiple times or is highly (CPS; Department of Bullying Alliance; CPS) likely to be repeated (CDC). Justice). Examples Pushed, shoved, tripped, or Harassment; abusive phone or text spit on; Physical violence; messages, hate mail; Being subjected to rumors Property damage online abuse; or lies; displaying or circulating Being made fun of, called discriminatory literature names, or insulted; or posters; Excluded from group malicious complaints. 16 Asian American’s Experiences of Racism in CONTEXT • Model minority myth • The pervasive idea about “problem-free” immigrant and that Asian’s hard work and determination has enabled them to bootstrap their way out of hardship. • White American positioned Asian Americans as weapons in pitting against Black communities in 1960s and present. • Rhetoric of the “Yellow perils” • Anti-Asian U.S. legislations 17 Anti-Asian U.S. Legislation Fueled by “Yellow Peril” Sentiment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfXF7Xps33E (Ho, 2020) • 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act Racially identified Chinese for restricted entry into the U.S. • 1892 Geary Act Required Chinese in the U.S. to carry a Certificate of Residence to prove their legal entry • 1907-1908 Gentleman’s Agreement Agreement with the Japanese government for Japan to self-restrict the emigration of Japanese laborers • 1917 Immigration Act Imposed a literacy standard for immigrants to ban people from the Southeast Asia from entering the U.S. • 1924 Immigration Act Further refined to impose a system of quotas that discriminated on the basis of nationality and race The most restricted immigration law in a national history (banned all immigration of “aliens ineligible for citizenship”) 18 Finding a Scapegoat in Disease Outbreaks • 1830s Impoverished Irish immigrants seen as bearers of Cholera • 19th century, Tuberculosis referred as the “Jewish disease” or “tailor’s disease.” • 1900 Chinese immigrants blamed for the ‘bubonic plague’ • 1916 Italian immigrants blamed for the ‘polio’ or infantile paralysis epidemic • 2012 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) • 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa • The World Health Organization (WHO) enforced a new guidelines for “the naming of new human infectious diseases” (2015) to not include geographic locations or people’s names to reduce stigma and insult. Source: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/163636/WHO_HSE_FOS_15.1_eng.pdf;jsessionid=CF15E52560316288EA4D202A625C6240?sequence=1 19 Microaggression: Subtle prejudice lingers! • Originally coined by Chester Pierce – racial microaggression • “Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.” (Sue) • 3 Types of microaggression: microassault, microinsult, and microinvalidation 20 Microaggression Examples THEMES Examples Underlying Message Aliens in one’s own land “Where are you really from or where You are not a true American were you born?” “What are you? You are so interesting You are a perpetual foreigner in looking!” your own country Ascription of intelligence “You are a credit to your race.” People of color are generally not “You must be good in math!” as intelligence as Whites. To a woman of color “I would never All Asians are intelligent and guessed that you were a scientist!” good in math/science “You got A in math, so what? You Asians It is unusual for a woman to have are supposed to be good at math and strong mathematical skills; bad at sports” Stereotypes about “All Chinese are rich, just like in “Crazy socioeconomic status Rich Asians movie” Color blindness “ When I look at you, I don’t see color” Assimilate to the dominant culture. “America is a melting pot.” (vs. salad Denying the significance of a person mix/mosaic) of color’s racial-ethnic experience and history Denying the individual as a racial/cultural being Denying the experiences of individuals by questioning the credibility/validity of their 21 stories. How to Talk to Your Teens about Anti-Asian Racism? 22 What is Ethnic-Racial Socialization? • Transmitting messages about race/ethnicity to children directly and indirectly. • Examples: • Promoting ethnic pride and celebrating your cultural heritage (language, visits, music, holidays) • Reading books about physical differences in skin/hair/eyes/etc. • Talking about the meanings of your first and last names • Discussing issues in the news or school • Discussing Chinese immigration and history • Preparing for racial biases and discussing the prejudice they may encounter • Modeling what it means to be Asian or Chinese (e.g., interdependence, collectivism, family cohesion, sacrifice) • Etc. 23 Why is it Important to Talk about Race, Racism, and Discrimination with Teens? • Children experience ethnic-racial discrimination. Not talking about racism is more psychologically and emotionally harmful to your children than talking about it. • Communication with children can increase children’s racial-ethnic identity, self-esteem, social competence, psychological functioning, resilience, coping, academic outcomes, and family cohesion, as well as lower depressive symptoms. • Parental support is important! Parents who employ positive ERS strategies have children who have stronger cross-race friends and social skills (Hamm, 2001). • Parents’ cultural socialization practices, coupled with a moderate level of preparation for bias has shown to predict youth’s higher self-esteem (Harris-Britt et al., 2007) 24 25 Teach Children Skills • Convey disapproval or discomfort, without provoking a defensive reaction. --“This is