Racism, Risk, and Supply: U.S. Policies Toward COVID-19 and Asia, and Current and Future Impacts on Asian Americans

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 illuminates the contradictions of U.S. relations with Asia economically, culturally, and socially in relation to Asian immigrant labor, goods and manufacturing, and with Asian Americans. We explore the importance of Asia as a supplier of labor and goods to the U.S. health system in order to analyze how the U.S. navigates its interdependence with Asia while demonizing Asians/Americans and attempting to protect its borders metaphorically and materially. We analyze how Asian American nurses are fighting the battle against the pandemic on the frontlines while also fighting the stereotypes and stigma that some Americans may have against them because they associate Asian Americans with the spread of COVID-19. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.