Majority in poll say discrimination against Asian Americans is worse than a year ago

A majority of Americans across racial groups say in a new poll they believe discrimination against Asian Americans is still on the rise as the U.S. continues to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A poll published Wednesday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that more than half of respondents in every racial group said they believed that anti-Asian discrimination was on the rise.

Among Asian Americans surveyed in the poll, 71 percent said incidents of discrimination were on the rise. Fifty-five percent of Hispanic respondents, 59 percent of whites and 66 percent of Black respondents said Asian Americans were experiencing more discrimination than they were a year ago.

Overall, 78 percent of respondents said they were at least somewhat concerned about violence against Asians increasing in the U.S.

Asians now rank third among racial groups who are seen as experiencing “a great deal or quite a bit” of discrimination in the U.S., behind Black and Hispanic Americans. Forty-one percent of respondents said that white Americans also experience “a great deal or quite a bit” of discrimination.

The poll also measured experiences of discrimination during retail shopping; nearly 6 in 10 Black Americans polled said they have faced discrimination or racial profiling while in a store, and 4 in 10 Asian respondents said the same.

Nearly 6 in 10 Asian respondents added that they sometimes feel unsafe in public, compared to 63 percent of Black respondents who said the same and just 16 percent of white respondents who said they felt unsafe in public at times.

The AP-NORC poll surveyed 1,842 adults and the poll was conducted between April 29 and May 3. The margin of error is 3.2 percentage points for the overall population, 7.2 percentage points among Asian respondents and 6 percentage points among Black respondents.