"Leaning on Community: Four perspectives of the COVID-19 pandemic from Asian youth"

This submission, which is centered around Asian and Asian American community strength, is by four students who shared their reflections on the pandemic.

We are a group of four young Asian Americans taking an Asian American studies class this summer, and we have written about our experiences as Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although we are all from different ethnic backgrounds within the Asian community and we have each dealt with different struggles during the pandemic, we were all able to find one thing that unified all of us: our focus and reliance on community during hard times. 

We have noticed how difficult it is as Asian Americans to grapple with Western individualism, especially when we come from cultures and regions where collectivism is emphasized.. This dichotomy was especially apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic to us. While many Westerners focused on themselves, we noticed that people in our Asian communities would band together -- finding vaccine appointments for each other, making sure things were accessible in different languages, ensuring we had all the necessary equipment to stay safe in our homes, and coming together across different ethnic groups within the Asian communities to fight any racist incidents that we were more vulnerable to.

This collection of quotes from our group members emphasize the need for community during difficult times.

“When my grandmother was hospitalized, no one was allowed to accompany her, causing difficulty when the staff wanted to communicate. Everyone had to be connected via phone call at any given hour of the day [to be understood]. I think the complications of misunderstanding and being misunderstood extend throughout many Asian communities due to the lack of accurate information translated and circulated throughout our communities. Vaccine appointments [are] highly complex and inaccessible, especially to those who don’t speak English or a more common language. Many more refused the vaccine and the existence of the virus because of how information travels and [widespread digital] propaganda. I think this shows a reliance on community, whether positively or negatively, to access information and support because existing systems are not made in our best interests.”

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, my family was extra alert and more aware of the tense relationship between our identities as Asian Americans and the rest of the world. We relied on our community for safety and security as our identities were being attacked. When the pandemic first started, I remember my parents being able to locate and secure masks, gloves, and other personal protective equipment from our community...Our community itself was under a test of strength but, we knew that we could depend on each other.”

“When it was around the time that the covid vaccine was becoming more available, it was clear that the healthcare system was not suited to take care of our immigrant communities. None of my family or my mom knew how to access a vaccine appointment if you were immunocompromised, however our extended family and community banded together to help my mom get her appointment and anything else she needed. Asian Americans, Asian diaspora and Asian immigrants heavily rely on community, and I think that this was especially highlighted during the pandemic.”

“It was not unusual to see another attack on Asians on the news. Many of these attacks are racially motivated, since attackers would often say Asians have brought Covid to America, and use racial slurs against the victims. In response to these attacks, many Asian Americans have bonded together in order to combat these issues,  further uniting the different Asian American communities. I brought this up since I believe Covid 19 has shown how strong communities can be when united, especially when everyone is working towards the same goal.”

Through our struggle we are united, and through collective action we will find liberation.