AN INTERROGATION OF SAN FRANCISCO’S ANTI-ASIAN RACISM THROUGH ITS DEADLIEST PANDEMICS

The intent of this paper is to interrogate the prevalence of anti-Asian racism across San Francisco’s two most deadly pandemic outbreaks- the 1918 influenza and 2019 coronavirus. Asian Americans were excluded from San Francisco’s public healthcare system and targeted by public health and city officials during the 1918 influenza and earlier health crises, including the city’s smallpox and bubonic plague outbreaks. Asian Americans in San Francisco today are overrepresented within the city’s coronavirus fatalities and are increasingly targeted by race-based attacks. Asian American-owned small businesses, particularly restaurants owned by Chinese Americans, have experienced monumental losses throughout the coronavirus pandemic. In a culmination of historical data, including newspapers published in the early 20th century and quotes from public health officials, and recent reports published on the Asian American experience in San Francisco, this study finds that San Francisco’s early history of xenophobic treatment of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean immigrants lay the foundation for the anti-Asian racism which Asian Americans experience in San Francisco today