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Yellow Peril and cash cows: the social positioning of Asian international students in the USA

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Higher Education
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Christina W Yao at University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Christina W Yao
Chrystal A. George Mwangi at George Mason University
Chrystal A. George Mwangi
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Abstract

Asians and Asian Americans in the USA have long been a part of a contentious racial history, yet the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted discriminatory stereotypes and beliefs. As revealed through this discourse analysis, Asian international students were simultaneously positioned as scapegoats, bearers of disease, cash cows, and political pawns, all within the context of the pandemic. Asian international students navigated their shifting social positionings within a national context that was heavily influenced by racist nativism. Findings indicated that during a health pandemic, Asian international students were positioned as both the Yellow Peril and cash cows within U.S. higher education.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00814-y
1 3
Yellow Peril andcash cows: thesocial positioning ofAsian
international students intheUSA
ChristinaW.Yao1· ChrystalA.GeorgeMwangi2
Accepted: 5 January 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022
Abstract
Asians and Asian Americans in the USA have long been a part of a contentious racial his-
tory, yet the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted discriminatory stereotypes and beliefs. As
revealed through this discourse analysis, Asian international students were simultaneously
positioned as scapegoats, bearers of disease, cash cows, and political pawns, all within the
context of the pandemic. Asian international students navigated their shifting social posi-
tionings within a national context that was heavily influenced by racist nativism. Findings
indicated that during a health pandemic, Asian international students were positioned as
both the Yellow Peril and cash cows within U.S. higher education.
Keywords International students· Asian· Racist nativism· Higher education· Social
positioning· United States
COVID-19 was first identified as an infectious disease in Wuhan, China, in December
2019. In subsequent months, fear of the virus permeated the globe as countries scrambled
to contain and manage the effects of the virus. When COVID-19 was first tracked in the
United States (U.S.) in January 2020, Asians and Asian Americans experienced racist and
discriminatory attacks fueled by bigotry and fear of the virus (Yan etal., 2020). Simultane-
ously, President Trump tweeted and later defended his use of the term “Chinese virus” and
“kung flu” to refer to COVID-19 (Kuo, 2020). These many acts that singled out Asians
and Asian Americans are reminiscent of the historical Yellow Peril concept that began in
the early nineteenth century within the United States, in which Asians, specifically Chi-
nese people, were considered forever foreigners as bearers of disease and scapegoats for
economic competition (Ho, 2020; Lee, 2007). As a result, COVID-19 became a racial-
ized global virus that contributed to distrust, blame, and retaliatory acts against Asians and
Asian Americans.
* Christina W. Yao
cy9@mailbox.sc.edu
Chrystal A. George Mwangi
chrystal@educ.umass.edu
1 Department ofEducational Leadership andPolicies, University ofSouth Carolina, Columbia, USA
2 Department ofEducational Policy, University ofMassachusetts Amherst, Research &
Administration, Amherst, MA, USA
Published online: 13 January 2022
Higher Education (2022) 84:1027–1044
/
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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