Who is to Blame for This Country’s Economic Decline?

Who is to Blame for This Country’s Economic Decline? Shifting the blame from Asians and Asian Americans to the American Business Model

BY SAMAN ESSA

From its roots in slavery to plantation-based economies, and from the modern-day working conditions of minimum-wage workers in capitalist corporations to the below-average pay of factory workers of American-based companies abroad, the U.S. has a history of loving cheap labor. For decades, Americans have protested, rallied and lobbied to bring attention to the discrepancies of Black and Brown wages as compared to Whites wages, and demanding that Americans take a closer look at the systemic racism that inhibits communities of color from making socio-economic progress.

Historically, Asian Americans have evaded these conversations and deliberately remained uninvolved, thereby conforming to the “model minority” stereotype. However, racial tensions and the drive to seek social justice through the Black Lives Matter movement has prompted them to rethink their role and responsibility in this regard. Furthermore, the rising number of hate crimes directed against them are throwing this community into the mix of minority victimization by the majority group.

President Trump’s redubbing of the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” has helped normalize anti-Asian sentiment. This has no doubt played a role in the astounding 875% increase of hate crimes directed against Asian Americans within just the past three months (UN Report, 2020).

Asian Americans have long been told to “go back to where you came from.” In the wake of the pandemic, many White Americans feel that their jobs and health have been compromised and thus place even more blame on this racial group.

The pairing of “virus spreading” and “Asian” may lead the average White American to imagine that both of them are very closely related. Similarly, the terms “Asian” and “outsourced” also produce an inference that lays the foundation for negative stereotyping (Hamilton & Gufford, “Illusory correlation in interpersonal perception: A cognitive basis of stereotypic judgments,” 1976). As a result, numerous Asian Americans have been threatened with death; others have become victims of hate crimes.

This charged hatred and blame can also be examined through the lens of terror management theory. In their 1986 publication “Advances in experimental social psychology” (vol. 29, pp. 61-139), Greenberg, Solomon, and Pyszczynski posit that human beings who are made aware of their vulnerabilities and inevitable death become paralyzed with fear. Seeing themselves as vulnerable, these in-groups may resort to increased negative stereotyping and aggression against out-groups. This differentiation becomes particularly heightened when mortality saliency is increased. Given the ongoing pandemic and the ensuing rampant fear and concerns of death, preserving one’s self and fellow in-group members has become more immediate. Not only does this bring our attention to the incomprehensible discrimination toward yet another minority group, but it also brings into focus the true culprit behind the financial insecurity experienced by all Americans — the American Business Model. Corporations rely on Black and Brown people to operate their companies at a measly pay, which is why so many American manufacturing jobs have been outsourced to Asia.

Instead of creating jobs in the U.S. for Americans, each of whom must be paid a legally mandated minimum wage, corporations employ middle-class, Englishspeaking Asians abroad to handle customer service, technical issues and similar jobs at far lower prices. A study by Tajfel, Billig,

Bundy & Flament (European Journal of Psychology; April/June 1971) found that it is harder to blame one’s own than others. By shifting the blame from Asians and Asian Americans to corporations, Americans are actually taking partial ownership for the state of our economy. Blaming others and inciting xenophobic attitudes only diverts this blame.

As the pandemic continues to hurt

Americans financially across all racial and ethnic backgrounds, more fuel is generated to punish and express anger toward Asian Americans for “stealing” American jobs. If American corporations were to end outsourcing, would CEOs be willing to accept the financial losses associated with employing Americans? Corporations can maintain lower product costs by lowering their labor costs. However, if products were to be produced here, the cost of making them would rise exponentially and make them more expensive to purchase.

More importantly, would Americans be willing to give up cheap outsourced labor for American jobs and, consequentially, American prices? ih

Saman Essa is a counseling psychology doctoral student, Department of Psychological, Health & Learning Sciences, University of Houston.