Executive Summary

Asian Americans face a somber reality in 2022: Despite a new administration, a relative decline in the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, and an improved economy, attacks against the Asian American community continue to increase at alarming rates.

No longer can we blame the current wave of anti-Asian American hate and violence on a single politician or on a pandemic.

The root causes are deeper, systemic and tied to the xenophobia, fear, and “othering” of Asian Americans, manifested in harmful stereotypes and misperceptions, that have persisted in our society since Asians first arrived in the U.S.

This year’s expanded STAATUS Index builds on the work of the ground-breaking 2021 study to better understand these stereotypes and misperceptions with a representative sample of Americans across racial groups, demographics, and geographies. The data from 5,113 respondents provide multiple important issues and opportunities:

• The U.S. is in the midst of a racial crisis, and there is broad agreement that people of color are much more discriminated against and much less advantaged than White Americans.
• Like Black and Latino Americans, Asian Americans face high levels of discrimination, yet many Americans are unaware of the spike in anti-Asian American racism and hate over the past year.
• Asian Americans are least likely among all racial groups to feel we belong and are accepted in the U.S., even if born in the U.S.
• On one hand, Americans see the contributions of Asian Americans to the U.S. and view Asian Americans in stereotypical “model minority” terms as nice, smart, hard-working, and successful in business.
• On the other, an increasing percentage of Americans in 2022 question the loyalty of Asian Americans and blame Asian Americans for the COVID-19 epidemic, fueling the “perpetual foreigner” stereotype.

Read full STAATUS Index Report