Asian American Research Journal

As hostility towards Asian Americans has been on the rise since the start of the global pandemic, Asian American elders have been particular targets of public brutality. While Asian Americans have historically been defined and positioned with varying stereotypes depending on their context in America, including the duality of the model minority myth and the international threat, the Asian American elderly do not seem to be registered in either of these categories but continue to exist as victims to these violences. Rather, there seems to be a uniquely intersectional position the Asian American elderly occupy in consequence to them being infantilized that causes Americans to desire to inflict harm upon them. The media has been devoutly displaying the news of these assaults, rampantly spreading them as widely as they can for the nation to see, but there seems to be something cynical about their obsession with images of violence.