When George Floyd was murdered on Memorial Day in Minneapolis, protests about police brutality and racial equality became a fixture on streets across America and the world.
Layered into the multi-racial and multi-generational demonstrations was a focus on the health disparities both before and during the pandemic experienced by people of color. Hispanics and African Americans have infection rates that are four or five times higher than whites. Non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native persons have rates five times higher than that. Asian Americans have infection rates that are slightly higher than whites, but for the Asian community, the deleterious effects of the Coronavirus pandemic also include a demonstrable increase in xenophobia and anti-Chinese racism.
Tom's next guest has studied the prevalence of such racism against the Chinese-American community.
Dr. Charissa Cheah is a professor of psychology at UMBC. She received a National Science Foundation Rapid Response Research Award this spring to research the effects of racism toward the Chinese-American community during the pandemic.
