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Journal of Management Studies : Month 2022 doi:10.1111/joms.12898 No, I Do Belong: How Asian American and Asian Canadian Professionals Defy and Counter Workplace Racial Violence during COVID-­19 Jennifer Y. Kima and Zhida Shangb a Tufts University School of Medicine; bMcGill University We explore th...

Journal of Management Studies : Month 2022 doi:10.1111/joms.12898 No, I Do Belong: How Asian American and Asian Canadian Professionals Defy and Counter Workplace Racial Violence during COVID-­19 Jennifer Y. Kima and Zhida Shangb a Tufts University School of Medicine; bMcGill University We explore the different types of racial violence encountered by Asian American and Asian Canadians (whom we refer to as Asians) in the workplace during COVID-­19 and how they respond. Using a grounded theory approach, we found that during the COVID-­19 pandemic, Asians experienced different types of workplace racial violence, most of which manifested as microaggressions, including a revival of the yellow peril trope, physical manifestations of bordering behaviour, and identity denial. In some cases, manifestations of physical violence also emerged. The data revealed that Asians demonstrated various types of agentic responses to challenge and counter unwanted and incorrect identities conveyed by the racial microaggressions. We enhance theory by shedding light on the experiences of Asians whose voice has largely been ignored in the organizational literature. Our study draws together and contributes to the theory on racial violence and racialized identity by highlighting the different types of racial violence faced by Asians and exploring the challenges they encounter in the face of racial microaggressions. Finally, we discuss practical implications of our study results and offer insight into how organizations can help support their Asian employees. ABSTRACT Keywords: AsianCrit, Asian Americans, Asian Canadians, critical race theory, microaggression, racial violence, racialized identity INTRODUCTION The study on the Asian experience in the West is uniquely nuanced. In both the United States (US) and Canada, Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) and Asian Canadians, respectively, (hereinafter referred to as Asians) are praised as ‘model minorities’ that have Address for reprints: Jennifer Y. Kim, Center for the Study of Drug Development, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA ([email protected]). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. J. Y. Kim and Z. Shang ‘made it’ and hence do not experience discrimination (Suzuki, 2002). Notwithstanding the fact that the model minority myth was created to undermine the Black and Latinx movement for racial justice (Uyematsu, 1971; Wake, 1970), it also created a false perception that Asians benefit from White privilege (Omi and Takagi, 1996; Perry, 2019), and hence do not experience systemic oppression (Wu, 2014). Moreover, the treatment of Asians as a monolith even though they represent over 50 different ethnicities, cultures (i.e., Hmong, Korean, and Vietnamese), and socioeconomic gradients, obscures the unique experiences represented by the different Asian diasporas in North America. For example, in the US, Asian Americans have the largest growing income divide among any ethnic group, displacing African Americans as the most economically divided group (Kochhar and Cilluffo, 2018). Despite such disparities, Asians have been excluded from many equity conversations, leaving some of the most vulnerable subgroups obscured and under-­resourced, exacerbating the inequity experienced by this group (Kuo et al., 2020). The recent global COVID-­19 pandemic of 2020 challenged the idea that Asians benefit from White privilege (Bates and Ng, 2021). Following the growing use of racist terms, such as ‘China virus’ and ‘Wuhan flu’, there has been a significant increase in racially motivated aggression against Asians and their identity, ranging from passive avoidance to physical violence. In the US alone there have been over 11,400 reported incidents of anti-­Asian hate crimes, representing over a 1900 percent increase in hate crimes against Asians since the start of the pandemic (A3PCON, 2022), with major Canadian cities reporting similar, if not higher, numbers of racial attacks against Asian Canadians (Pearson, 2021; Wu et al., 2020). Racial violence against Asians during COVID-­19 has been reported everywhere, including the workplace. However, beyond the self-­reported numbers released by organizations such as Stop AAPI Hate, relatively little is understood regarding how these acts of aggression and violence against Asians manifest in the professional setting, and what effects they have on the Asian identity (A3PCON, 2022). The management literature, in its current state, lacks the examination of racial power and violence, due largely to the fact that management literature, including identity and sensemaking literature within it, was created mostly by White scholars who never intended the frameworks to be used for such purposes (Nkomo, 2021). The result is a dearth of organizational scholarship explored through the minority lens (in our case, the Asian lens), a gap that can lead to costly oversights. Asians make up one of the fastest growing populations in North America, with Asian Americans and Asian Canadians representing roughly 6 and 18 percent of the population in the US and Canada, respectively. Importantly, Asians also represent a diverse and growing part of the larger workforce (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019; Statistics Canada, 2016). Not understanding and addressing how Asians experience racial violence in the workplace during COVID-­19, not only allows for demeaning and invalidating behaviours against Asians to continue, but also silences the Asian voice, perpetuating White-­centred, race-­blind scholarship and practices. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to answer recent calls in the literature to enhance management studies by including race as a ‘core analytical concept’ (Nkomo, 2021, p. 213) as well as calls to shed light on the impact of COVID-­19 on marginalized populations (Hoff, 2021; Kantamneni, 2020). We do so by spotlighting the Asian experience through the following research questions: how has racial © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 2 3 violence against Asians manifested in the workplace during COVID-­19 and how do they respond? We focus on Asians in the US and Canada given the two countries’ similar treatment of their Asian communities throughout their history (Ho, 2014; Nguyen et al., 2019). We eschew the frameworks and definitions of racial violence based on the intent and motivation of the aggressors, drawing instead from AsianCrit –­ an adaptation of Critical Race Theory (CRT) for Asians –­and racialized identity and racial violence, to provide an in-­depth look at how Asians experience workplace racial violence during COVID-­19. Our study makes several key contributions to scholarship. First, we expand the identity literature with a study that explores the racialized identity through the Asian lens during the pandemic. We introduce AsianCrit, an adaptation of CRT, to expand the dialogue centred on how the racialized Asian identity is used to support systemic racism within organizations and discuss where Asians fit in the ongoing discourse on race. Second, we add to the growing bodies of literature exploring racial violence in the workplace. Specifically, we unearth the different ways racial violence against Asians manifested in the workplace during COVID-­19 and use an interdisciplinary approach that draws from both AsianCrit and Asian studies to understand the legacy, evolution, and implications of modern forms of workplace racism against Asians in North America. We marry the literature on Asian studies (Chou and Choi, 2013; Yeh, 2014; Zhu, 2013) and the growing body of research examining various forms of workplace racial violence (Deitch et al., 2003; Espiritu, 2008; Jun and Wu, 2021; Kim et al., 2019; Liu, 2017) to highlight the ways racial violence is experienced by Asians and dispel commonly held misconceptions about Asians being immune to racial discrimination. Lastly, our work provides a set of practical implications for diversity practitioners and leaders. Our findings add to the growing body of literature demonstrating the harm that racial violence can pose on Asian employees in the workplace. Importantly, our results demonstrate the need for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training that acknowledges and addresses the unique experience that Asians have been enduring and will continue to endure long after the pandemic is over. This is particularly important in the aftermath of the pandemic where recovery and healing are necessary in all domains, including workplace relationships. Our paper is organized as follows. First, we provide a brief historical context for the racialization process for Asians in North America. We use Asian Critical Theory (AsianCrit), an extension of Critical Race Theory (CRT), to analyse the ways in which racialized identities are contested and renegotiated by the targets. We do so by discussing CRT, delineating its strengths and limitations before providing an overview of AsianCrit framework and discussing how its tenets can be used to analyse the Asian experience in the workplace. We follow this with a discussion on workplace racial violence using the racial microaggression framework and discuss the negative effects of microaggressions on the work identity of Asian professionals. We then describe our methods related to data collection and analysis and present our findings. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings on work outcomes for Asian professionals and provide suggestions for future research on extending racialized identity scholarship within organizations. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License Asians countering racial violence during COVID-­19 J. Y. Kim and Z. Shang LITERATURE REVIEW Historical Influences on the Racialization of Asians Racialized identities are defined as group identifications that have been socially constructed as ‘racially’ distinct with notable cultural dimensions, and are malleable, flexible, and situational (Ahmad and Bradby, 2007). The formation of racialized identities, such as Asian, Black, Indian, Latinx, and White in the US (Braun et al., 2007) and Black, Chinese, Aboriginal, South Asian, and White in Canada (Veenstra, 2011) has largely been influenced by historical and cultural contexts, many of which were undergirded by White supremacist ideologies. When communities from Asia began emigrating to North America, they had very little common with each other (Tamura, 2003; Wu, 2014). Today, Asian immigrants represent over 50 different ethnic diasporas and cultures with distinct histories, cultures, and political views, including Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Pakistani, Taiwanese, and Thai, to name a few. Despite the diversity represented, White supremacy has fuelled a racialization process that lumps all Asian cultures into one category, characterizing them as a monolithic racial group, possessing inferior traits compared to the dominant White majority, a process that seemingly justifies their marginalization (Museus and Iftikar, 2013; Suzuki, 2002). This type of racialization has historical origins and stems from Western societies’ attempt to dominate the Eastern world by constructing the mysterious, intriguing, yet primitive, strange, and despotic ‘Orient’ as the inferior Other (Said, 1994). Racist constructions of Asian identities have continued to shape the lives of Asians within North America. Throughout the 19th century, Asians were labelled ‘yellow peril’, denoting the economic threat and menace they posed to White laborers and Western civilization at large (Chou and Choi, 2013; Zhu, 2013). These attitudes lead to xenophobic policies (i.e., Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 in the US; Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923 in Canada; and government sanctioned internment of Japanese American and Canadian citizens during World War II) (Ng, 1999; Wu, 2014) as well as violence that included the burning and vandalization of Chinese settlements and public lynching. For example, one of the biggest lynching in US history was the Chinese massacre of 1871 in which 19 Chinese immigrants were killed and hanged (Lew-­Williams, 2018); similar acts of violence also occurred in Canada (Associated Press, 1907). In the 1980s, Japan’s economic competitiveness fuelled heightened racism towards Asian Americans, leading to attacks and murders of Asians, many whom were not of Japanese descent (Wu, 2014). Gradually, however, the portrayal of Asians in the West shifted. Though Asians are still viewed as a threat to Western civilization in certain contexts, the dominant monolithic depiction of Asians has shifted from ‘yellow peril’ to ‘model minority’ (Pettersen, 1966). The model minority stereotype suggests that Asians are universally successful, do not experience racism, have an edge in obtaining education and employment due to their diligence, and are considered White or White-­adjacent, a view that has readily been adopted in every Western country with a significant Asian presence (Ho, 2014; Museus and Iftikar, 2013; Suzuki, 2002; Yeh, 2014). The racialization of Asians as ‘model minorities’ or ‘honorary Whites’ subjugates Asians in several ways. Labelling Asians as a model minority perpetuates the false narrative that poverty and lack of social mobility are character flaws (i.e., ‘If you © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 4 5 are poor, it’s because you are lazy’) and ignores the role that systemic racism plays in oppressing different racial minority groups. Furthermore, it reinforces racism towards other communities of colour, pits Asians against other minority groups, including Blacks and Latinxs (i.e., ‘If the Asians can succeed, why can’t they?’), and fuels resentment towards Asians by other communities of colour (Guthrie and Hutchinson, 1995; Kim, 1999; Yu, 2006). Second, the racialization of Asians under the monolithic, model minority label and their proximity to Whiteness obscures the systemic racism faced by Asians who are often excluded from racial discourse and efforts to distribute help and resources (Gee and Peck, 2018; Museus and Iftikar, 2013; Ngo and Lee, 2007). The assumption that Asians are a model minority conceals the growing disparities that exist within this group. For example, though Asians Americans have a median income ($87,194) that is higher than the national median ($63,179), this is largely driven by the fact that the majority of Asian households tend to have multiple generations, and hence, more adults living in a single household compared to other racial groups (United States Census Bureau, 2021). Moreover, within this diverse group, the income gap is quite stark: while Indian Americans have a median income of $100,000, Burmese Americans have the lowest national income at $36,000 (Asante-­Muhammad and Sim, 2020). Additionally, despite the fact that Asians have the worst leadership outcomes out of any group (Gee and Peck, 2018), Asians are often excluded from organizational DEI initiatives, which are often ‘construed as targeting Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people’ (Ng, 2021), even though these efforts would close the equity gaps among the lower-­status and historically underserved groups within the Asian community. These are just a few examples illustrating how Asians are silenced and held down by systems of oppression (Iftikar and Museus, 2018). Asian Critical Theory (AsianCrit) Framework As discussed, the formation of racialized identities is strongly undergirded by White supremacy. To understand racialized identities pertaining to Asians and how they have been used to bolster dominant systems of racial oppression in the organizational context, we turn to AsianCrit, an adaptation of CRT. First, we briefly discuss CRT and explain how it can be extended to study different communities of colour. CRT has been widely utilized in the legal and educational field to understand how White supremacy shapes the legal and education system and the experiences within it (Delgado and Stefancic, 2001; Iftikar and Museus, 2018). A growing group of scholars have started to apply it to the study of organizations, which is fitting given that the workplace is largely an extension of the broader racially divided society in which we live (Bohonos, 2021; Nkomo, 2021). The most often cited CRT tenets were those introduced by Delgado and Stefancic (2001) and are rooted in beliefs such as treating race as a construct; acknowledging the ubiquity of racism in all aspects of life; and understanding that Whites who wield decision-­making power in society only support policies that elevate people of colour when Whites also benefit. Though CRT has helped researchers centre race and White supremacy in their analyses, the CRT framework does have limitations when applied to the Asian experience (and other minorities, as well). First, several scholars (Gotanda, 1995; Harris, 1994; © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License Asians countering racial violence during COVID-­19 J. Y. Kim and Z. Shang Yosso, 2005) have noted that CRT has ‘disproportionately informed scholarship focused on Black and White populations’ (Iftikar and Museus, 2018, p. 948). Such scholarship is integral to address the serious racial oppression faced by Black communities, particularly in the US. However, an adapted racial framework can provide in-­depth critical analyses that addresses other racial minority groups, providing a holistic understanding of racialization and White supremacy. Though CRT is general enough such that it can be applied to analyse all communities of colour, scholars studying non-­Black communities have to generously adapt the tenets to their population of interest before they can engage in a deeper and more nuanced analyses of their population (Iftikar and Museus, 2018; Valdes, 1996). Consequently, CRT scholarship has fallen short of generating understandings related to the other racial groups. Specifically, for Asians, CRT does not directly address how the racialization process shapes Asians’ ‘views about racial oppression and justice, other group’s perceptions of them, their communities’ views of each other, and institutional decision-­making that excludes or marginalizes them’ (Iftikar and Museus, 2018, p. 939). To address such shortcomings while still utilizing the core tenets of CRT, scholars have begun to apply critical frameworks that have been adapted and tailored for specific communities of colour (TribalCrit: Brayboy, 2005; i.e., Latinx Critical Theory: Valdes, 1996). Similarly, recognizing the need for a conceptual framework that centres racial realities of the Asian experience, Iftikar and Museus (2018) introduced AsianCrit framework –­an adaptation of CRT-­consisting of adapted CRT tenets that can be used to understand how White supremacy shapes the experiences of Asians in North America. The tenets are outlined below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Asianization –­the racialization of Asians-­stems from White supremacy and pervasive nativistic racism in the West that racializes Asians as perpetual foreigners who pose a threat to Western existence (Chon, 1995; Museus and Kiang, 2009). Transnational contexts underscore the need for situating Asian communities and White supremacy within global economic, political, and social processes that shape how racism against Asians are enacted (i.e., the rise of China as a political and economic force and its impact on Asian diasporas in North America) (Museus and Iftikar, 2013). (Re)constructive history acknowledges that Asians have been made invisible and voiceless and aims to elevate the voices of Asians through shared narratives and the incorporation of the Asian experience in scholarship and practice. Strategic (anti)essentialism recognizes the ways White supremacy racializes Asians while also recognizing that Asians are agents of change who actively intervene to counter the racialization process. Intersectionality recognizes that White supremacy and systems of oppression intersect on different identities (i.e., sexism, ableism, heterosexism, classism, etc.) to shape the experiences of Asians. Story, theory, and praxis are based on the narratives of racially marginalized communities that can be used to challenge the dominant, White, European epistemology and offer alternative epistemological accounts grounded in the realities of people of colour. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 6 7 Commitment to social justice highlights the fact that AsianCrit is dedicated to ending all forms of oppression and exploitation. It is important to note that AsianCrit is not intended to replace CRT (Museus and Iftikar, 2013). Instead, it is an adaptation of CRT that provides distinct tenets that have been tailored to the Asian experience and can help advance critical analyses of White supremacy’s impact on the lives of Asians, while connecting this experience to the broader CRT landscape. Similar to how CRT has created an ongoing dialogue to critically analyse White supremacy, AsianCrit provides an avenue for the inclusion of Asian American and Asian Canadian experiences within the broader CRT landscape, providing scholars, practitioners, and policy makers to connect, collaborate, and act based on shared knowledge that centres around the Asian voice. Though AsianCrit has primarily been used in the educational field (Hawkman and Shear, 2020; Iftikar and Museus, 2018; Museus and Iftikar, 2013), its framework can also be applied in organizations to help stimulate much needed critical work on Asian professionals. Furthermore, it can be added to the growing body of work exploring the lived experiences of Asians working in organizations (Kim et al., 2021; Liu, 2017). 7. Examining Workplace Racial Violence against Asians during COVID-­19 Applying AsianCrit to management studies. Next, we apply AsianCrit to the organizational setting and discuss its relevance for examining racial violence against Asian professionals during the pandemic. Such an examination serves an important purpose. AsianCrit based on its existence alone gives credence to the racism experienced by Asians. Grounded in the reality that nativistic racism in America is pervasive and results in the racialization of Asians, AsianCrit underscores how racialization of Asians as a perpetual foreigner or a yellow peril can dehumanize and ostracize them. Asians represent a significant portion of the professional workforce, sometimes even surpassing their representation in the general population, albeit mostly at the entry level, in certain industries, such as science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Not addressing the racism they face, particularly during a time marked by an increase in anti-­Asian sentiment and heightened racialization, allows for racism against Asians within the workplace to go unaddressed, increasing the alienation, fear, and threat felt by Asians (Kantamneni, 2020; Ong et al., 2013; Shang et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2011). Relatedly, one of the tenets of AsianCrit is the assumption that Asians have historically been made invisible and voiceless when it comes to having their struggles with racism spotlighted, highlighting this issue as something that needs to be addressed. Generally, there has been little public acknowledgement on the racism experienced by Asians in the workplace (Wong and Halgin, 2006; Wu, 2014). Indeed, Asians are often left out of studies exploring workplace racial discrimination (Osseo-­Asare et al., 2018). This is detrimental not only to Asians but also to other communities of colour who are locked into the narrative that racism does not exist, all of which can deprioritize DEI initiatives aimed at making organizations more equitable (Acholonu and Oyeku, 2020). Relatedly, by elevating the Asian voice, AsianCrit can be a vehicle for countering the marginalization, silence, and de-­prioritization long experienced by Asians in North © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License Asians countering racial violence during COVID-­19 J. Y. Kim and Z. Shang America (Wu, 2014). Not including the Asian voice, which has largely been missing from the management literature, hinders the advancement of the Asian experience and allows their marginalization to silently continue in organizations, tacitly supporting dominant systems of oppression. To counter this, a growing group of management scholars have begun calling for more representative studies that can challenge, modify, and thereby enrich the current management literature with diverse narratives (Fernando et al., 2019; Kantamneni, 2020; Nkomo, 2021). AsianCrit applied to the study of organizations can help contribute to this effort to challenge the dominant narrative and provide alternative epistemological views that can enhance efforts to re-­design and rebuild a more inclusive workplace. Manifestations of racial violence against Asians in the workplace. As organizations are microcosms of the larger system, which has largely been undergirded by White supremacy, it is also a place where racism is enacted. In most modern organizations, however, due to changing social norms and values, blatant displays of racial violence are usually neither condoned nor tolerated (Jones et al., 2017). Instead, racial violence is likely to manifest in subtle, indirect ways known as microaggressions. Originally coined by African American psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce, microaggressions described covert acts of racism enacted by Whites on Blacks (Pierce, 1974). Later, this definition was expanded by Sue et al. (2007) who developed a microaggression framework, which defines racial microaggressions as subtle behaviours or comments that usually unintentionally demean a person of colour based on the person’s race. Though the aggressor –­the person committing the microaggression –­is often unaware of his or her racialized transgressions, the target is usually not only aware but also feels the psychological and emotional harm resulting from the microaggression (Kim et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2011). Microaggressions are categorized into three types: microassault, microinsult, and microinvalidation. Microassault, the most blatant type of microaggression, manifests as racial slurs or acts that are intentionally hurtful to the target (i.e., calling an Asian person a ‘chink’ or ‘gook’). There is no ambiguity: the behaviour or comment is clearly meant to hurt the target. The second type of microaggression, microinsults, are subtler than microassaults, and are comments or behaviours that indirectly convey an insult based on the target’s race. For example, a common phrase that Asian Americans or Asian Canadians encounter ‘Where are you really from’ reveals the assumption that Asians are not considered to be natives in predominantly White countries (Sue et al., 2009). The third type of subtle microaggression, microinvalidations, are comments or behaviours that diminish the racial reality faced by people of colour, one example being ‘Asians can’t experience racism’. These statements, though not as insulting as microinsults, convey the belief that Asians do not experience racial discrimination. A fourth level, representing the subtlest type of microaggression, overvalidation, was identified in a qualitative study examining the types of microaggressions experienced by Asians in the workplace (Kim et al., 2015). Overvalidation describes ways through which the aggressor acts in a positive manner based on model minority stereotypes (i.e., good at math, hard-­working, diligent, etc.) that exist about Asians. How might these types of microaggressions affect Asians and their work identity? The research exploring the Asian identity in response to these slights highlights different © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 8 9 effects. For instance, the awareness of the perpetual foreigner stereotype has been shown to be a significant predictor of identity conflict and lower sense of belonging to the mainstream culture among Asian Americans (Huynh et al., 2011; Roshanravan, 2009). Na et al. (2017), in turn, demonstrated a negative link between lack of coherence and clarity regarding one’s identity and psychological well-­being among Asian Canadians. The perpetual foreigner juxtaposed to the model minority stereotype forces Asians to dwell in their ambiguously non-­White, yet White adjacent state in the mainstream North American racial hierarchy, instead of staking their claim as people of colour in a White supremacist society (Roshanravan, 2009). Taken together, these findings suggest that Asians regularly endure identity threats –­‘harm to the values, meanings, or enactments’ of their identity (Petriglieri, 2011, p. 644), which can have lasting psychological, affective, and behavioural effects over time (Dutton et al., 2010; Higgins et al., 1986), and prevent them from forming coherent, stable, and positive identities. Still, other studies suggest more agentic interpersonal responses to counteract identity denial through which an individual is not recognized as a member of an important in-­ group. For example, Cheryan and Monin (2005) showed that Asian Americans reacted to identity denial situations by using identity assertion techniques in the form of claiming participation in American practices, such as playing American sports, listening to American music, and having American friends, demonstrating to core group members (here, White majority) that they do belong and should be treated as such. Another study by Siy and Cheryan (2013) showed that when exposed to common stereotypes, Asian Americans were more likely to exhibit negative emotions. However, these two studies were done in a controlled, lab environment and the results may not reflect what is actually done in a public organizational setting where people are less likely to respond to expressions of prejudice (Rasinski et al., 2013; Swim and Hyers, 1999). Consequently, the results may have overemphasized the typical reactions. Moreover, how these reactions carry over to the organizational setting is still relatively unknown. In the workplace, Asians encounter White colleagues who racialize them in insensitive ways, owing largely to the fact that the workplace is where many White people meaningfully interact with ethnic minorities, including Asians, for the first time (Block, 2015; Wingfield and Alston, 2014). Nonetheless, a growing body of scholarship has begun exploring this topic in the workplace. One such study reported a range of impression management techniques used by Asian American journalists in the professional setting to influence their colleagues’ impressions of their racial identity (Roberts et al., 2014). These ranged from avoidance characterized by minimizing racerelated communication and actively downplaying one’s race to racial humour, characterized by reducing negative meaning around one’s race through the use of humour. Another study revealed the use of strategic self-­orientalism among a group of Asian Australian professionals through which they cast themselves as exotic commodities for the benefit of White people in predominantly White institutions, ultimately to secure recognition under the White gaze (Liu, 2017). These studies suggest that there are various types of responses used by Asian professionals to manage and negotiate how they are seen by their colleagues. Despite these efforts to enhance Asian scholarship in management, not much is known about how the Asian identity is affected during periods of heightened racialization © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License Asians countering racial violence during COVID-­19 J. Y. Kim and Z. Shang and the ensuing intensified racial violence, as illustrated by COVID-­19’s impact on anti-­Asian violence, which is not showing any signs of stopping, and has even been increasing (Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, 2021). Importantly, there remains a gap in the management literature due to the lack of studies exploring the unique space that Asians occupy as both a model minority and a perpetual foreigner –­ two seemingly contradictory sides of a coin that nonetheless are used to uphold the myth of meritocracy within organizations, while ostracizing and silencing Asians. Thus, the organizational literature exploring Asian identities and experiences in the workplace can greatly be enhanced with a study that examines how powerful socio-­ contextual cues in the form of COVID-­19 can affect racial violence against Asians in the workplace and what Asians do in response to these acts of racial violence. We draw on tenets of AsianCrit, focusing on the evolving nature of the racialization of the Asian identity and the associated racial violence that has ensued during COVID-­19. We explore the narratives shared by Asians, examining how they process racial violence during the pandemic, how this affects their work identity, and importantly how Asians respond to racial violence that has spotlighted their Asian identity in unwanted ways. Armed with these primary motivations and to extend the literature on the barriers faced by Asians in the workplace (Kim et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2011), we propose the following research questions: (1) How has racial violence against Asians manifested in the workplace during COVID-­19? (2) How do Asians experience and respond to racial violence in the workplace during COVID-­19? METHODS The study utilized an interpretivist, inductive approach to both data collection and data analysis to explore how COVID-­19 has affected the types of racial violence experienced by Asians in the workplace. Similar to other studies using grounded theory methods (Gray et al., 2018; Meister et al., 2017), we bounded the context where we would derive findings and insights, and relied on purposeful sampling –­choosing participants in a context where the phenomenon of interest is likely to be present (Patton, 2014). We narrowed our focus to Asian Americans and Asian Canadians located in the US and Canada to generate insights into their experiences working in predominantly White institutions in North America. Research Context We note an important study context, that is, COVID-­19 and its influence on our research questions. The study took place during a pandemic that was racialized as an Asian virus through the use of terms such as ‘Kung flu’ by high-­ranking leaders and politicians, which legitimized the hostility and violence towards Asians. Unfortunate as it was, studying racial violence enacted against Asians in this context allowed us to unearth and capture, at the most extreme level, how the racialization of Asians and their identities, legitimized by racist rhetoric from the highest levels of media and political leadership, can manifest in the organization and inflict harm on Asian professionals. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 10 11 Sampling and Participants We recruited participants through a snowball method by reaching out to our professional network, resulting in a dozen initial participants who then referred us to other Asian professionals. This effort was supplemented with recruitment from online Asian professional groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. To qualify for this study, participants had to (1) self-­identify as Asian American or Asian Canadian, and (2) have at least 1 year of full-­time professional work experience in Canada or the US. A total of 35 Asian professionals (26 Asian Americans; 9 Asian Canadians) were interviewed. The sample was 74 percent female and included East, South, Southeast, and multi-­ethnic Asians. The median age was 32.6, and median number of work experience was 8.2 years. For additional demographic information, see Appendix A. Primary sources of data were collected by both authors who conducted in-­depth, semi-­structured interviews with all participants. Interviews were conducted over Zoom (videoconferencing software) and were audio-­recorded and transcribed verbatim. Each interview, which ranged from 35 to 63 minutes in length, began with questions about the participants’ professional background, using questions such as ‘Please describe your overall work experience’ and were followed-­up with ‘How has COVID-­19 affected your interactions at work?’. We kept the prompts general to discourage demand characteristics and allow participants to share incidents of racial violence that were salient to them. More than half of the participants volunteered incidents involving COVID-­related racial violence without us prompting. When participants described a salient incident involving COVID-­19 related racial violence, follow-­up questions such as ‘Could you tell me more about what happened? What was going through your head?’ were asked to more fully understand the experience and its impact. See Appendix B for interview guide. By sharing their narrative and the specific incidents within them, individuals were able to process the memories and events and share the impact of these situations on their identities (Ibarra and Barbulescu, 2010; McAdams, 2003). The interview protocol was amended to include relevant follow-­up questions based on the emerging themes related to COVID-­19. Participants were offered a $15 Amazon E-­gift card following study completion as a token of appreciation for their time. Though there has been an ongoing debate regarding the ethics of payment of research participants (Anderson, 2019), we deemed the relatively modest value of a $15 E-­gift card an appropriate way to thank the participants for their time. We presented the gift card as a sign of appreciation rather than as a form of compensation. Several participants chose not to accept it, sharing that they were happy simply to participate in the study. Ethical Awareness Given the highly sensitive nature of the research topic, particular consideration was given to protect the confidentiality and privacy of the participants with regards to recruitment, data collection, analysis, and synthesis. For example, when recruiting participants via social media outlets such as LinkedIn and Facebook, a primary concern relates to collecting user data available on the social media platform without the consent of the participant (Hokke et al., 2020). We purposefully did not collect any information available on the social media platform and instead sent interested participants a Qualtrics survey through which they could access the informed consent and choose to share relevant demographic information. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License Asians countering racial violence during COVID-­19 J. Y. Kim and Z. Shang We also provided transparency around how their data would be used: during the informed consent process, participants were informed that though the conversation would be audio-­ recorded, it would be immediately deleted after transcription and that any identifying information would be removed. Further, all transcription was done in-­house by the two authors to ensure utmost protection of participants’ privacy. This was particularly important given that many transcription companies use contractors, which increases the potential for data breach (Bikman and Whiting, 2007). During the transcription process, any potentially identifiable information was removed and anonymized (i.e., using pseudonyms, generalizing location, removing organization names, etc.) to protect the identities of the participants. The transcribed data was then stored on an encrypted cloud storage to which only the two authors had access. Lastly, the authors decided to unpublish the data to prevent deductive disclosure (Kaiser, 2009). Relatedly, in the reporting of the results, where appropriate, we specified the specific ethnic background of the participant in relation to the quotations they shared. However, when an incident mentioned by a participant was deemed unique and specific, we chose to anonymize their ethnicity (i.e., Asian American vs. Vietnamese American) to prevent deductive disclosure and ensure their confidentiality. Analysis We used a grounded theory approach to analyse the data (Glaser and Strauss, 2009), which involved an iterative process (Gioia et al., 2013). Throughout the coding and theorizing process, we kept memos of our reflections and shared them during regular meetings during the data analysis process. To address discrepancies, we re-­read the relevant narratives and discussed until agreement on the coding was achieved. This was an iterative process that revolved around coding and consulting the literature (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). For example, we started by looking at manifestations of racial violence, which in turn triggered questions around misidentification, for which we would return to the data. We reached theoretical saturation after 30 interviews at which point, additional interviews did not generate additional codes, categories or themes (Glaser and Strauss, 2009). However, we conducted six additional interviews to confirm saturation. Stage 1: Open coding. During this stage of data analysis, we independently read the transcribed interviews to create open codes (Corbin and Strauss, 2007). We chose to use an open approach to coding and relied on in vivo codes, allowing for the emergence of novel themes. This allowed us to capture a range of blatant and subtle types of racial violence. For example, all incidents involving racial violence were openly coded to capture the various behaviours and comments through which they manifested, the valence associated with them, and the effects they had on the target. This initial step gave us a general sense of the different racial violence narratives. Additionally, when coding each narrative, we examined both content and form by noting emotions conveyed through body language, facial expressions, tone, and volume used by the participants. Doing so allowed us to code the valence of the experiences. Stage 2: Axial coding. In this stage, in order to create second order categories, we consolidated the vast array of first-­order codes into broader themes (Gioia, 1998). Six general themes emerged from this process. For example, we categorized codes © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 12 13 of narratives related to experiencing ‘physical forms of shunning or avoidance’ in the workplace under the broad theme of ‘physical manifestations’. This is because all these narratives were described as powerful moments in which participants felt particularly targeted due to noticeable, physical behaviours through which they were avoided by other majority group members. Once the broader themes were identified, we returned to the data to look at the frequency in which they occurred across and within participants, confirming these six as general themes that were mentioned by most participants. Throughout this process, we referred to extant literature on racial violence, microaggressions, and racialized identity to look for commonalities and differences between our findings and previous research (Blee, 2005; Liu, 2017; Roberson et al., 2003; Sue et al., 2007). Stage 3: Selective coding. During this stage, we iterated between data and theory more frequently, while continuing to consult the literature to confirm emerging patterns that emerged from the analysis (Kim and Meister, 2022; Roshanravan, 2009; Sue et al., 2009; Yeh, 2014). As we grew sure with the theoretical categories, we explored underlying dimensions that would further help connect the categories. For instance, of the six themes, we noted that three closely resembled old-­fashioned, traditional forms of blatant racial violence (i.e., Avoiding sitting next to an Asian colleague or yelling ‘Go back to China’ to an Asian) while the other themes relating to types of denial were more subtle (i.e., colleagues frequently discussing China and/or Chinese culinary practices with the participant even if the participant is not Chinese). Through this process, we further consolidated the themes into two forms (blatant or explicit) through which racial violence is enacted in organizations. Finally, during this stage, the incidents that could be categorized under the microaggression framework were categorized into one of the main types of microaggressions to show the prevalence of different types of blatant versus subtle microaggressions experienced by Asians. We show the emergent structure in Table I. RESULTS In the following section, we present the different types of workplace racial violence encountered by Asians during COVID-­19. Using the AsianCrit and microaggression frameworks, we unpack how these incidents of racial violence affected one’s work identity and examine the strategies used to navigate these interactions. We examined the data to determine if there were notable differences between the American and Canadian participants; however, we did not find any differences in the frequency, types of microaggression encountered or how they responded. The one theme that was expressed exclusively by the Canadian participants was about challenging the perception that Canada is more accepting of cultural differences than the US. One Korean Canadian healthcare professional, for example, shared ‘a lot of people here think that it’s Canada; there’s no racism but there is still a lot of racism in Canada’ while another Vietnamese Canadian healthcare professional also shared ‘I think this whole about multiculturalism, it is just a cover-­up. This place is no different from the States’. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License Asians countering racial violence during COVID-­19 J. Y. Kim and Z. Shang Table I. Types racial violence and illustrative quotations Blatant Types of racial violence Description Illustrative quotations Physical violence Physical aggression A patient started to yell [racist things] at an Asian orderly who was working with me. This lady was probably confused and wasn’t having a good day. She was expressing her anger and her emotions towards my team, and I did not appreciate it at all. I went in, and I told her that this is not appropriate, and that this is not the place for racism. Then, she spat on me.* visible disgust and anger* [Korean Canadian male working in healthcare] Physical manifestations of boundary creation and maintenance Behaviours of avoidance and shunning And what got me really mad and humiliated. We had a call later. She said, ‘Oh. Here’s the assignment. And then she mentioned me. And then she requested that I sit further away from her’. She didn’t mention this to others to create more space. She just mentioned that to me. But the people she mentioned on the same team, a lot of them are sitting next to each other. *raised hands, furrowed eyebrows, anger* [Chinese American female working in financial services] They will literally stand up and find another seat that is five seats away from me! *no visible emotion* [Taiwanese American female working in health care] I’ve had times… patients would call you names. ‘Like I refuse your care, you’re going to get me sick’. To the point where they fire you as a nurse and want someone who is White. *no visible emotion* [Multi-­ethnic Asian Canadian female working in healthcare] Yellow peril Comments portraying Asians as dirty, diseased, and unclean I’ve heard chink once, virus people. *mocking, sarcastic tone* [Multi-­ethnic Asian Canadian female working in healthcare] Mostly from my non-­COVID patients [who] are able to speak. They will make jokes like ‘You know, the outbreak is from you guys’. Like very passive jokes that are uncalled for. *raised voice* [Taiwanese American female working in healthcare] (Continues) © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 14 15 Table I. (Continued) Subtle Types of racial violence Description Illustrative quotations Identity denial Assumptions of being foreign Assumptions that all Asians are Chinese I had some relatives coming to visit me. And my relatives weren’t coming from China. They were coming from New York. And then [my colleagues] were like, ‘Oh, from China? You should be careful because it’s in China.’. [Chinese American female working in higher education] It’s annoying! You know, when they ask a question about Wuhan, which I didn’t even know about. I learned about Wuhan as recently as they have. Or asking about the transmission thing. Does it infect Asian people a little bit more. I don’t really know what to say. I’m not f*cking Chinese! I didn’t go to China. I’ve been here y’all! *raised two hands and raised voice* [Vietnamese American female working in the service industry] Denial of racial reality (Individual) Denial of the racism faced by Asians But when I have reported anti-­Asian student behaviour, especially in light of COVID to my supervisor, they’re always like ‘This is a really difficult time for them. Everyone is doing distance learning. They’re all stressed out’. And they try to explain and justify student behaviour so that’s an area where they have not been efficient. *rolled eyes and raised voice* [Chinese American female working in education] Denial of racial reality (Systemic) Systemic denial of racism faced by Asians At the non-­profit and at my current company, everyone just pretended that there wasn’t any discrimination going on. We talked about the pandemic, but no one ever mentioned Asian Americans and discrimination. The entire organization was silent on that. *shaking head and furrowed eyebrows* [Multi-­ethnic Asian American female working in law] Types of COVID-­19-­Related Racial Violence Encountered We first explored if and how Asians experience racial microaggressions in the workplace during COVID-­19. This involved determining if racial microaggressions were experienced, what types of microaggressions were experienced, and how they were experienced (i.e., emotions associated). Of the 35 interviewed, 25 confirmed experiencing at least one powerful racial microaggression in the workplace during COVID-­19. See Table I. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License Asians countering racial violence during COVID-­19 J. Y. Kim and Z. Shang Physical violence. We uncovered examples of threats of violence and actual physical aggression, something that we did not expect to find among a professional sample. One Chinese American woman healthcare worker was followed and verbally threatened by a man while on hospital grounds whereby the aggressor screamed racial expletives and threatened to sexually assault her. Another Korean Canadian nurse shared an incident in which he was spat on by a patient who was yelling racial slurs at him and his Asian colleague. The majority of cases involving physical violence or threats of violence happened in the hospital setting, mirroring the research on healthcare workers and the emotional and physical abuse they experience relative to the general population, especially during the COVID-­19 pandemic (Charney et al., 2020; Giorgi et al., 2020). These manifestations did not fit under the microaggression framework and were categorized as physical forms of racial violence. Though we did not expect to find these forms of racial violence, their presence is not surprising. Although most modern forms of racial violence enacted against Asians prior to COVID-­19 have not been violent (Kim et al., 2015; Sue et al., 2009), the rise in the number of physical racial violence against Asians related to COVID-­ 19 as reported by numerous media outlets (Jan, 2020; Lieu, 2020; Park Hong, 2020) appears to be mirrored in certain workplace settings. Specifically, this finding highlights vulnerable groups such as Asian healthcare workers who may be more prone to experiencing physical violence and threats compared to Asian professionals working in corporate settings (Shang et al., 2021). Physical manifestations of boundary maintenance. Physical manifestations of behaviour that heightened racial differences between Asians and the majority group emerged as a salient type of microaggression related to COVID-­19 (Chrobot-­Mason et al., 2009). Creating physical boundaries or boundary maintenance refers to the strategies used to cultivate differences between groups (Essers and Benschop, 2009; Milkie et al., 2014), and can manifest in symbolic or physical ways. In our sample, boundary maintenance emerged as physical avoidance, which we categorized as microassaults due to their blatant nature. This was a novel finding that had not been documented in previous research on workplace racial microaggressions experienced by Asians (Kim et al., 2015). Mirroring the literature, participants shared that they had not previously experienced these blatant microassaults in the workplace, making these incidents salient to them. All participants who experienced physical distancing from others attributed it to COVID-­19. Physical manifestations of boundary maintenance emerged as physical avoidance and shunning of Asians by those around them, including colleagues, supervisors, and clients. One Vietnamese American working for a technology company shared an experience in which her colleagues began physically avoiding her at work once the pandemic began. Frustrated, she raised her voice and shared: ‘People would distance themselves from me. A lot of people would stop talking to me because I’m Vietnamese!’. Another Chinese American consultant working in finance shared a similar experience, noting while shaking her head and raising her voice: ‘There was one [senior] leader who sits right next to me. And she asked me [in the middle of a meeting] to sit one seat away from her! She asked me to sit further away! Just me! It becomes obvious that I was being singled out!’. Furthermore, several healthcare professionals, including doctors and nurses, © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 16 17 noted a sharp increase in patients refusing their care and asking to be seen by a White healthcare provider since the pandemic began. These microassaults were interpreted by participants as blatant denigration and exclusion tied directly to their Asian identity and participants universally attributed these acts to COVID-­19. These types of avoidance served as jolting reminders to Asians that created an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ dynamic that amplified racial boundaries. Yellow peril. The theme of Asians posing a threat to White existence emerged as a salient type of racial microaggression. Though the portrayal of Asians through the yellow peril lens (i.e., subhuman, dirty, diseased, and unfit for citizenship in the Western world) has diminished over the years (Wu, 2014), our results confirmed that COVID-­19 has led to a ‘renaissance’ of the yellow peril stereotype in the workplace. Most forms of racial violence tied to yellow peril emerged as microassaults consisting of blatant comments made by leaders, colleagues, and clients about the eating habits of Asians (i.e., ‘Asians need to clean their food. It’s because they eat dog!’), portrayals of Asians as disease carriers and spreaders (i.e., ‘[Asians] brought the virus!’) and stereotypes portraying Asians as dirty, uneducated, and barbaric (i.e., ‘Chinese people are so disgusting!’). Most of the participants shared that they had not previously experienced these types of encounters in the workplace, and they universally attributed the emergence of yellow peril microaggressions to COVID-­19. This finding is notable because it reveals that the workplace, a place where generally blatant racism is neither expressed nor tolerated, is not immune to displays of overt expressions of racism (Perry et al., 2015). As per AsianCrit, the portrayal of Asians as deviants, yellow peril, disease carriers, or barbarians threatening White existence illustrates how the racialization of Asians can be enacted in organizations, and how easily Asians can go from being admirable model minorities to abominable, foreign threats. Further, this finding sheds light on how Asian professionals are alienated and made to feel inferior to their White counterparts, illustrating how the racialization process subjugates and oppresses Asians in organizations. Identity denial. Identity denial emerged as another salient type of microaggression, manifesting mostly as microinsults –­actions that subtly conveyed demeaning messages to the target. Identity denial refers to a type of acceptance threat when an individual has a core part of their identity repeatedly questioned or denied by others (Cheryan and Monin, 2005). Specifically, it describes a situation when an individual does not match the prototype of an in-­g roup member and consequently has that identity called into question or go unrecognized by fellow group members. One of the in-­g roup prototypes related to one’s American or Canadian identity, an identity that our Asian participants strongly associated with but that was repeatedly denied by others. Typical examples that Asian Americans and Asian Canadians experienced were recurring questions that questioned their American or Canadian identity, such as ‘Where are you really from’ or ‘Do you speak English?’ statements that serve as palpable reminders that Asians do not fit the prototype of what it means to be American or Canadian (Cheryan and Monin, 2005; Lalonde et al., 1992; Sanchez et al., 2018). A second in-­ group prototype related to one’s specific ethnic group identity (i.e., Japanese, Korean, © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License Asians countering racial violence during COVID-­19 J. Y. Kim and Z. Shang Vietnamese), which were denied by assumptions that all Asians are monolithically Chinese. Participants shared various ways in which they were made to feel misidentified in the workplace that left them not only confused and angry, but also excluded and ostracized. We pay particular attention to how these types of microaggressions evolved during the pandemic. Participants shared that, unlike microaggressions related to bordering behaviours or yellow peril, which they had not experienced in the workplace prior to COVID-­19, microaggressions related to identity denial had been experienced even before the pandemic. They had experienced identity denial that portrayed Asians as a monolith, denying their interethnic and cultural differences (i.e., being mistaken for another Asian, being told all Asians look alike, etc.). One Hong Kong Canadian nurse shared: ‘Even before COVID, I’ll say, “I’m Chinese, and [my colleagues] would be like” Oh, I thought you were Japanese because you look Japanese’. Nonetheless, what was noteworthy was that these types of microaggressions have intensified and increased in frequency during COVID-­19. Following the pandemic, these microaggressions have taken centre stage with stronger negative undertones. Further, we noted that this type of microaggression affected different Asian subgroups in different ways (i.e., Chinese vs. non-­Chinese), which we discuss below. One theme that emerged as particularly salient was the assumption that all Asians, regardless of their ethnic background or nationality, are Chinese and can speak on behalf of China. Among the Asians who had experienced COVID-­related microaggressions, all participants who were not ethnically Chinese shared encounters in which they were assumed to be Chinese by those at work, a trend that was unanimously attributed to COVID-­19. One Vietnamese American who worked in the service industry observed that her colleagues of many years treated her as if she were Chinese, and shared in a slightly raised voice: It was a different flavour when COVID happened. I’d hear different comments, [directed at me] like ‘I thought only Chinese people could get it’ or asking questions of me as if I’m the representative of China, which I’m not! They also side-­eyed me a little bit more often if I was coughing. Additionally, all Asians, regardless of their ethnicity and nationality, described being singled out by their non-­Asian counterparts to be the spokesperson for all things related to COVID-­19, China, and the Chinese government’s role in the pandemic. One Chinese American high school teacher shared the increased scrutiny she felt from her colleagues with a slightly raised voice and furrowed eyebrows: So, it ends up creating a lot of awkward situations for me. Even when it first broke out, I had some co-­workers who were like ‘Don’t you think this is crazy that this is happening?’. And I know they weren’t asking other people about that! Another way through which participants felt misidentified during the pandemic was the increasing assumption that all Asians from North America are perpetually foreign. Despite seeing themselves as Americans or Canadians, most Asians reported that they were not viewed as such by others, especially by White colleagues, in the workplace. The perpetual foreigner theme is the belief that Asians are not true Americans or Canadians © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 18 19 and will never be in the eyes of the White majority (Sue et al., 2007). The denial of one’s American or Canadian identity has been part of the Asian experience even before the pandemic (Ho, 2014; Sanchez et al., 2018). However, COVID-­19, which has been racialized as the ‘Asian virus’ seems to have amplified these assumptions, intensifying these forms of microaggression against Asians. Participants shared numerous examples in which their colleagues made it clear that they did not view the participants as American or Canadian, but foreign and therefore not belonging. One Asian American healthcare worker shared an example in which she and her co-­workers were talking about COVID-­19 over lunch: It was in the lunchroom. And it was a very Trump heavy group of co-­workers. And they’re like ‘If you hate America so much why don’t you just go back to where you came from?’. I’m from the East Coast. I’m not going anywhere! The same professional noted that these types of encounters have increased during the pandemic, noting ‘It’s just amplified and a lot less subtle during COVID’. Participants noted that the spike in these types of microaggressions laced with undertones of blame, mistrust, and animosity highlighted their alien or foreign status. This feeling of not belonging shared by the participants can be illustrated by one Chinese American teacher who was singled out by her colleagues to be the spokesperson of all things Chinese. She shared in a raised voice: It always makes me feel like I don’t belong. When somebody brings it up, it makes that element of my life very salient and it’s a negative type of reminder because in that moment that part of my identity is not being associated with anything positive. Another Chinese Canadian healthcare worker who had been told to self-­quarantine by a colleague simply because she was Asian shared: ‘I was just really angry and upset that he is taking this whole thing as a joke, and I just ignored him and left’. These types of interactions illustrate how experiencing identity discrepancies can have negative consequences for the target (Meister et al., 2017). Importantly, microaggressions that deny the unique identities of the participants –­be it their ethnicity or American or Canadian identity –­illustrate a core component of Asianization, one of the tenets of AsianCrit through which White supremacy attempts to homogenize and otherize Asians. The two types of identity denial work in tandem by allowing the White majority to lump all Asians under one monolithic label –­‘Chinese’ –­and then categorize this entire group as ‘foreign’. The fact that this is occurring in the workplace and has intensified due to the pandemic should be concerning, as it suggests that the organization is not immune from enactments of racist ideologies. Asianization undergirds the manifestation of White supremacy even in the workplace, revealing how Asians are demarcated for subjugation and made to feel lesser, inferior, and othered compared to their White colleagues. Further, the intensification of these types of microaggressions during COVID-­19 challenges the myth of Asians as nominal Whites or White adjacent, showing the precarious position that Asians occupy in the workplace where they can easily go from model employees to foreign threats in the blink of an eye. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License Asians countering racial violence during COVID-­19 J. Y. Kim and Z. Shang Denial of racial reality. Another type of pre-­existing microaggression emerged as the denial of the racial realities faced by Asians and manifested as microinvalidations, which deny or trivialize the racial reality faced by Asians. These microaggressions emerged in two forms –­denial at the individual (i.e., denial by colleagues) and organizational level (i.e., denial by the institution). We examine how the denial of one’s racial reality was particularly affected by the pandemic. Participants described situations in which colleagues minimized the target’s experience dealing with microaggressions during the pandemic, brushing off or attributing the experience to something other than racism. The constant denial of one’s lived racial experience with racial microaggressions which were exacerbated during the pandemic by close colleagues left many of the participants feeling angry, frustrated, as well as unheard and unseen, and hence invisible. Further, several participants shared that the invalidation of their racial reality was far worse than the actual microaggression about which they were complaining. One Asian American healthcare professional, after experiencing a COVID-­related racially motivated incident with a patient, recalled: When I comment on that [racist episode] to my superiors, the denial of my experience makes it even more frustrating. ‘Are you sure that’s how they meant it or were you just being overly sensitive?’. I’m 40 years old! I’ve been experiencing life as a woman of colour for 40 years! You don’t get to tell me how I feel. This is how I felt. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck! Systemic invalidation manifested in the form of organizational silence on the racism and hardships faced by Asian professionals during COVID-­19. The data revealed that, at the time of data collection (spring of 2020), most of the organizations had remained silent on this issue. Organizational inaction was interpreted as a systemic invalidation of the challenges experienced by Asians and left many feeling ostracized, erased, and invisible. One Japanese American working in healthcare shared his thought process detailing his reaction to his organization’s lack of response. It wasn’t a conversation that was brought up or anything. It’s unfortunate, but I’ve come to expect that. These kinds of non-­responses to the way Asians are viewed, it’s so common and prevalent, I think. And so that response for this is not surprising. And people are okay about it. It’s like ‘They’re Asian. They’re fine. We don’t have to say anything about it’. Further, participants shared that the organization’s silence was made more salient, in response to explicit, systemic cues such as former US President Trump and the media’s racialization of COVID-­19 as an Asian virus. Participants unanimously mentioned and condemned racist terms such as ‘Kung-­F lu’ or the ‘Chinese virus’, noting that this type of nonchalant use of racist terminology at the highest leadership level worsened anti-­Asian sentiment by normalizing it and encouraging people to act on their prejudices. Highlighting the individual and systemic denial of the racism faced by Asians in the workplace, particularly during a time when the Asian identity has become highly © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 20 21 racialized, offers us an opportunity to challenge the dominant narrative and (re)construct history by transcending the invisibility and silence long endured by the Asian community and spotlighting the racism they face in organizations. The absence of their experiences in racial dialogues happening within organizations is not because Asians do not experience racism. Rather, it can be argued that the silencing of the Asian voice is a conduit through which organizational leadership maintains the illusion of an equitable and merit-­based system devoid of racial bias and stereotypes, freeing them from the burden of changing the system to make it more equitable for non-­White professionals. Emotions Associated with Experiencing Microaggressions during COVID-­19 Participants shared the types of affect they felt during and after these encounters with racial violence. These included a range of negative emotions, including anger, frustration, paranoia and despair as they made sense of the threats to their identity. Most shared that though they did not express their emotions to the aggressor, the interaction left them in a negative mood long after it had occurred. One Vietnamese American working in technology shared that dealing with the daily forms of racial violence during the pandemic left her feeling ‘Angry all the time’ with another one sharing ‘It’s draining. After a workday, I just, sometimes I’ll go home and cry. Sometimes, I go home and I just kind of stare into space’. A Korean Canadian healthcare worker shared this sentiment after being verbally and physically attacked by a patient: ‘That time, my eyes were red; I was really pissed. I was just mad, pure anger. I am trying to save you, and this is how you repay me?’. Another Chinese Canadian nurse shared a similar sentiment, ‘At some point, “I can’t deal with you anymore!”. It is super exhausting on your mental energy. I was getting pretty angry!’. Further, several shared the stress, anxiety, and anger they felt over their future physical and psychological safety due to the increasing racial violence they experienced from others in and outside of work. One Korean American working in higher education shared the threat he felt after hearing a colleague openly berate the Chinese community and shared while furrowing his eyebrows: ‘My response was more like “Well, there are sentiments like that, it can also come back to bite me because people perceive that I’m Chinese”’. Another Asian American healthcare worker who had experienced various name calling from patients and was told to go back to her country by her colleagues during the pandemic, talked about the imminent physical threat she felt as she shared in a frustrating tone: I’m far more concerned about my wellbeing, leaving work at two or three in the morning after a call shift because of COVID. I feel like there is a target on our backs and now. A lot of people are letting their, they’re letting the explosions of emotions and racism happen under the guise of COVID, as a blanket or a shield for their true feelings. These findings corroborate previous research on how experiencing various forms of racial violence can have negative affective consequences on the targets (Holder et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2011). It adds to the growing body of research demonstrating that subtle forms of racial violence –­microaggressions –­are not harmless and inconsequential, and can have © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License Asians countering racial violence during COVID-­19 J. Y. Kim and Z. Shang Figure 1. Types of agentic responses to racial violence in the workplace. immediate and long-­term effects on the mental and physical well-­being for those on the receiving end (Constantine et al., 2008; Hall and Fields, 2015; Sue et al., 2009). Responses to COVID-­19-­Related Racial Violence Next, we explore how Asian professionals navigated the different microaggressions during the pandemic. Our data revealed a range of responses. We categorized the responses along the dimension of agentic empowerment, defined as the degree to which people ‘enact change in their own lives or influence others in their environment’ (McAdams and McLean, 2013, p. 234). High degrees of agency can be achieved through demonstrations of empowerment and are characterized by the ability to control one’s fate. In contrast, low degrees of agency can be characterized by low demonstrations of empowerment and beliefs that one cannot control one’s fate. In this section, we outline the most commonly described responses. See Figure 1 for an overview. Direct strategies: Resisting identity denial ascribed by others. Most responses were categorized under high agentic empowerment through which participants exerted a high degree of control over the situation involving an incident of racial violence. Agentic responses high on empowerment occurred immediately or not long after the incident © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 22 23 had occurred and focused on renegotiating their identities with others to reduce discrepancy. These responses showed Asians contesting the identity denial, refusing to be misidentified or mislabelled by the aggressor. We identify and discuss three such tactics: (1) confronting the aggressor, (2) reporting the aggressor, (3) and publicizing the microaggression. Confronting the aggressor. When individuals are confronted with tainted or unwanted identities, one strategy is to directly confront others’ perceptions (Ashforth et al., 2007). Several Asians openly confronted the aggressor immediately following the incident to challenge and correct the incorrect ways they were perceived, publicly rejecting the unwanted or incorrect identity. A typical example would be to challenge the aggressor in the moment. One Vietnamese American working in the service industry shared that she responded to COVID-­19 related jokes or comments directed at her from colleagues by matching their aggression (i.e., shouting ‘I’m not Chinese! I didn’t go to China! I’ve been here, y’all!’). Another bi-­racial Asian American working in technology shared that she would politely but firmly ask colleagues to stop their COVID-­related comments directed at her, ‘The COVID jokes, could you not do that around me?’. All targets conveyed to the aggressor that racial violence in any form was problematic and would not be condoned. Importantly, many publicly affirmed their Asian American or Asian Canadian identity to the aggressor, as was done by one Taiwanese American entrepreneur who confronted and corrected those who misidentified him as being foreign: They see Chinese people or someone like me, even though I’m American through and through, that I’m never gonna be American. I’m Chinese in their eyes. But, I say, ‘I’m born and raised in America. I’m just as American as that kid!’. The literature on prejudice confrontation highlights that typically confrontation is often avoided by targets, leading to regret and cognitive dissonance (Rasinski et al., 2013; Shelton et al., 2006). Our results indicate that confronting racial violence was the more common response. Reporting the aggressor. Another way in which participants challenged others’ views was by reporting the aggressor’s action to someone in the organization who had authority to discipline the aggressor. Participants reported the incidents to their managers or Human Resources (HR) who had oversight over the aggressor, assuming that the aggressor’s action would be documented and reprimanded. Of those who reported the aggressor, some had chosen to previously confront the aggressor, though most of the individuals who reported the aggressor had chosen not to. The main reason for reporting the aggressor as opposed to directly confronting them was the belief that the former would have swifter, broader consequences than if they were to directly confront the aggressor. One Vietnamese American educational consultant who was singled out to teach from home during the pandemic because of her ethnicity reported the incident and shared that if ‘you do not take action, you’re allowing racist issues to persist’. Another Chinese American woman working in education who reported a colleague who had called her racial slur to HR shared: © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License Asians countering racial violence during COVID-­19 J. Y. Kim and Z. Shang I have no problem tattling. It’s made me stronger going forward because I know what I’m capable of, and I have more faith in the power of HR as opposed to many people of colour in the workplace who do not believe that going to HR will do anything. Raising awareness. A third type of strategy for changing the perception of others emerged as publicly raising awareness about the incident not long after it had occurred and was exercised by most of the participants who had experienced racial violence in the workplace during COVID-­19. Raising awareness took different forms, including writing about the incident in a public forum (i.e., news outlets and blogs) and openly talking about the incidents with colleagues, friends, and family. We illustrate with this narrative shared by an Asian American healthcare worker whose story about navigating COVID-­19 related racial violence was published in the Washington Post. [There was] a healthcare Facebook group soliciting stories, and I reached out. For me, it felt good to contribute to awareness of this thing that is going on, and to be able to speak out so that other people can be aware, and I can get this off my chest. They say that people are less likely to target victims who are more willing to speak out or fight back, and that’s what happened. You get that two-­fold by targeting Asian Americans who have a stereotype of not trying to act out or being passive. I think we should speak out in general about this! I don’t know what else can be done. It’s not something that can happen overnight. Letting people know that Asian Americans are real Americans, that can help! In this example, she explains her motive to share her personal story dealing with COVID-­19 related racial violence in the workplace with a major news outlet. She demonstrates agency by choosing to share her story. In doing so, she deflects the false identity portraying Asians as foreign, staking her claim as an American; she also defies the stereotype of the silent, submissive, and passive Asian, highlighting her agency (Wong and Halgin, 2006). Other examples included individuals who posted their stories online and used their experience to speak out against discrimination against Asians. One Asian American woman working in education shared that because she was the only person of colour on her team, she felt like she was alone when dealing with race-­related issues, particularly those related to racial violence against Asians during COVID, and therefore chose to publish an online article and share it with her colleagues: [My colleagues] have no idea what it’s like for someone like me in a place where people don’t like me, think I’m weird simply because I’m Asian. That’s my life. So, I wrote that first story in response to that because I wanted [my colleagues] to read it and see what it’s like on a deeper level for someone who has to deal with xenophobia or racism. But the result of that was finding this different coping mechanism. I hear from strangers from all over the world who will just write and tell me about their stories. ‘You’re someone who is going to validate my story’. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 24 25 Drawing together these findings, we uncovered acts of defiance to counter the identity denial experienced by Asians. In all instances, individuals exercised agency to deflect, counter, and ultimately defy the unwanted identities ascribed to them by their colleagues. These responses aligned with Emirbayer and Mische’s (1998) definition of agency as a ‘practical-­evaluative’ capacity to contextualize past habits and future projects within the contingencies of the moment. The data suggested that these individuals’ acts of agency were informed by their past (i.e., they tended to be vocal people who stood up for what they believed in even prior to COVID-­19) but were also heightened by the unprecedented racialization of Asians. Thus, compared to their past behaviours, many took more proactive steps to cope with the aggressors (i.e., writing an article; openly confronting the aggressor). These findings enhance the existing literature exploring identity responses used by Asians in predominantly White spaces, which are characteristic of many organizations in the US and Canada (Liu, 2017; Roberts et al., 2014). Our results portrayed Asians as dynamic actors actively crafting their identities, instead of as passive passengers who allow others to ascribe unwanted identities to them without consequence. Seen through the AsianCrit lens, these acts of defiance are critical examples highlighting how Asians are actively intervening in the racialization process and legitimizing their experience as an oppressed minority group. Specifically, these interventions involve challenging the ways in which Asians are silenced, oppressed, and used to uphold the status quo, ultimately contributing to the broader efforts to dismantle the structure of racism in the workplace. Indirect strategies focused on coping. Participants also shared indirect strategies they used to deal with heightened racial violence during COVID-­19. These were more internally-­ oriented, cognitive responses focused on coping with the aftereffects of microaggressions and less motivated at correcting others’ perceptions. Seeking social support. Several Asians drew on social support from others in their professional and social circles mainly to validate their experiences. The research shows that during periods of prolonged threat to one’s identity, some individuals seek support from others who will validate their salient identities (Ashforth et al., 2007; Meister et al., 2017). In our sample, though none of the participants ever questioned their American or Canadian identity, seeking social support offered a way to validate their experiences and provided a source of comfort. Most sought social support from fellow ethnic minority colleagues, as well as in-­group family and friends who were experiencing similar microaggressions during COVID-­19. Seeking support from in-­group members (other Asians) was particularly important given that most of the participants felt that their fellow colleagues, particularly White colleagues, did not view COVID-­19 related racial violence against Asians as problematic. One Chinese American working in finance shared this about her support system after experiencing distancing behaviour from a leader and COVID-­19 related jokes from colleagues: ‘I talked to all my other [Asian] friends. We all shared our experiences. We all feel the same thing. We have similar experiences. Our [White] colleagues aren’t treating this seriously. Some of them are making stupid jokes [about COVID] that are offensive’. She goes onto share the importance of having her experiences validated by fellow Asian colleagues, saying: © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License Asians countering racial violence during COVID-­19 J. Y. Kim and Z. Shang I feel validated! My emotions are validated! It’s not something I did. It’s something wrong with [the aggressor]. Not me. I also understand why they don’t want to talk to her directly. You know, it’s a leader-­follower situation. But, her comments, criticisms won’t translate into self-­doubt because I’m validated. They helped me to not to blame myself. Blaming the aggressor. In some instances, when individuals are not seen the way they want to be seen, they attempt to resolve the uncomfortable experience by either internalizing or externalizing the threat (Ashforth and Schinoff, 2016; Pyke, 2010; Shapiro, 2011). Many of the participants chose to externalize the threat, rejecting the threatening identity by blaming the aggressors or ‘condemning the condemner’ (Ashforth et al., 2007, p. 159). By doing so, they located the problem with the aggressor, and not with oneself, attenuating the threat to one’s identity. One Taiwanese American entrepreneur talked about an encounter at work where clients questioned his American identity, saying: ‘They used it to make this cheap jab, but obviously you can’t let that affect you because look at this guy. He’s an idiot. I was born in America. I speak perfect English, man! Level up! Don’t be basic!’. This participant demonstrates a resistance or refusal to be identified with the incorrect identity by putting the blame on the aggressor. By criticizing the aggressors, participants were able to challenge the aggressors’ legitimacy as critics, relegating their criticisms to insignificance (Ashforth et al., 2007) and demonstrating resistance to misidentification. Ignoring the aggressor. Ignoring the aggressor and the threat posed emerged as the last coping strategy, which was also categorized as the lowest level of agentic empowerment. Ignoring the aggressor was also seen as a way to protect oneself by conserving one’s emotional and cognitive energy. We found that ignoring the threat can provide targets protection against experiencing certain negative emotions and can also reduce the cognitive load associated with confronting the aggressor. This is evidenced by a statement shared by one Southeast Asian American working in higher education, regarding how she responds to some forms of COVID-­19 related racial violence against Asians, ‘I do not have the energy to deal with this right now. I have bigger problems. Whatever!’. However, the same participant shared examples in which she confronted aggressors in different situations. Indeed, decisions to ignore or confront rested on perceptions of impact on the aggressor and on the current state of the target. Targets typically chose this option when they perceived that they would not be able to have an impact (low agency) on the aggressor. The Korean Canadian healthcare worker who confronted the patient who shouted racial slurs at him and his Asian colleague, also shared that he chose to ignore certain situations over which he has less control, saying, ‘I’m not gonna spend my time or energy figuring out why they hate me. Just focus my mind on more important things. Even though [addressing] racism is important, it would be better to focus on things that I can control’. Though these responses were non-­confrontational, they illuminate coping mechanisms through which Asians maintained a coherent identity. By seeking support from others to validate their experience or externalizing the threat by blaming the aggressor, our participants deflected the Asianization process. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 14676486, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joms.12898, Wiley Online Library on [26/09/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 26 27 DISCUSSION Our study results have both theoretical and practical implications for understanding workplace racial violence against Asian professionals. Though we focused on racial violence that occurred during COVID-­19, our study highlights the racialized experience long endured by Asians in North America, helping to dispel the long held belief that Asians are a model minority that is immune from experiencing racism (Chou and Feagin, 2014). COVID-­19 served as an important contextual factor that renewed and heightened anti-­Asian sentiments, which have long existed in North America. Yet, historically, anti-­Asian racism has managed to go underexamined in both the mainstream media and management studies based on the belief that Asians are White-­adjacent and do not warrant further investigation (Wu, 2014). The pandemic’s racialization as an Asian virus through the use of racist terms such as ‘China virus’ by political leaders legitimized and normalized the expression of prejudice against Asians, revealing how socio-­political factors such as current events in the form of a global pandemic and its handling by political leaders can heighten expressions of racial prejudice in the workplace where displays of overt racism are typically not condoned (Jones et al., 2017). Though the pandemic itself will eventually come to an end, its second-­hand effects are likely to linger in the broader psyche, manifesting in the workplace as racial microaggressions. The current study focuses on the distinct racialization and the psychological processes of Asians, which can facilitate organizational action to legitimize the lived experiences of Asians. Next, we detail how our study addresses these emerging issues. Our paper’s foremost contribution is the centreing of race in management studies with a study examining how Asians are racialized and marginalized in the organizational setting and contributes to the ongoing effort to dispel the model min