Asian American businesses are facing racist obstacles driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. They need our support.
Irene Jiang/Business Insider
- Asian American small businesses are struggling to weather the pandemic on top of dealing with COVID-related racism.
- Some Asian American entrepreneurs are turning to e-commerce to survive.
- Now more than ever we need to support small businesses if we want them to still be around once the pandemic is over.
- Jocelyn Azada is the director of supply chain sustainability at Nielsen.
- This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
As the novel coronavirus became formally known as COVID-19 and declared a pandemic in March, businesses in the US started closing to slow the spread, including restaurants and small retailers that depended on local communities to sustain them. Asian American businesses were some of the first hit, as revenue at Chinatown businesses across the country began trending down in January due to fear by customers of any link to what was first touted as the "Chinese virus."
This was not made any better by politicians, including President Trump, repeatedly using the phrase. As months go by, some businesses have had to close shop while others changed course to remain in operation while riding out this period of uncertainty.
Asian American businesses are incredibly important for multiple reasons. For the Asian American community, they provide avenues to connect to their culture and purchase items that they can't find easily in regular shops. For others, they provide a glimpse into the rich cultures they represent.
The US Census reported that there are over 2 million Asian American-owned businesses servicing neighborhoods across the country. With 42% of them in "Accommodation and Food Services" and "Retail" industries, versus just 21% of all businesses, Asian American businesses have been hard hit.
A recent UCLA study found that between February to April of this year, about 233,000 Asian American small businesses have closed, and in May 2020 the Asian American jobless rate was 21%. The idea that Asian Americans and their businesses are some of the worst hit may be shocking to those who still believe in the Asian American model minority myth.
The racism effect
Anti-Asian rhetoric is adding insult to injury when it comes to businesses already trying to survive the effects of the pandemic. According to the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, hate incidents have seen an upward trend since the outbreak of the virus. In a recent report they've compiled over 2,500 incidents of anti-Chinese and anti-Asian rhetoric between March and August of this year. Many of these incidents have taken place in places of work and in public spaces, and includes multiple incidents of vandalism of Asian American businesses. The actual number of incidents that have occured is expected to be much larger, as those are just the ones that have been reported to the organization.
Pearl River Mart, an emporium of Asian goods in New York City, was impacted by COVID-19 early on and laid off most of their employees, many of whom have been working for them for decades.
It was difficult, but to stay in operation, they continued marketing their brand on social media and sending e-newsletters to customers. They also found a need in their community for face masks and PPEs for front-line workers, raised funds, and used their import business to obtain supplies from China and other Asian markets.
They now sell face masks online which supplements their revenue, as well as utilize their design, production, and distribution channels to create the Chinatown Collection — a merch collection bringing together beloved Chinatown businesses, creative artists, and neighborhood non-profits.
The shift to e-commerce from brick and mortar has been a lifesaver for Pearl River Mart. With consumers on lockdown, the only place they can shop was online. Big box retailers with robust purchasing systems have benefited from this turn, as many are considered "essential" companies because they sell food and household items necessary for everyday living.
Asian American snack food company Dang Foods is a small business supplier that's been selling its healthy snacks in grocery stores since 2011. Dang, founded by Vincent Kitirattragarn, started an e-commerce site in 2018. And while its products are currently selling in stores, they've seen a big shift in consumers shopping online for their coconut chips, Thai rice chips, and Keto-friendly bars.
Though young entrepreneurs such as Kitirattragarn have found ways to stay in operation during the pandemic, many businesses in Asian communities such as Chinatowns, Little Indias, and Koreatowns have shuttered. Because of this, the places where locals and visitors used to shop the stores for Asian goods and visit restaurants to dine with family and friends have also gone digital to reach customers, some using third-party services to help with deliveries and find distributors to sell their goods online.
Stories like these demonstrate the resiliency of small Asian American businesses. Still, small Asian American businesses and restaurants face numerous obstacles, such as language and cultural barriers, and the lack of a relationship with a financial institution. While some Asian language translations regarding federal financial aid for businesses were eventually made available on the US Small Business Administration website, they were not provided when these programs first launched.
For non-native English speakers, culturally appropriate translations would have eased some of the initial barriers to entry to navigating the process of applying, let alone receiving, this federal aid. The impacts of these structural barriers were widely documented throughout the summer and early fall as multiple reports showed that minority owned businesses have not been able to secure governmental assistance like the Paycheck Protection program to bolster them through this downturn.
We can all play a part to help these businesses. Using our power as consumers by continuing to support small and local Asian American businesses is key. These businesses add character to our neighborhoods, provide jobs for employees, and build local economies. This not only helps small businesses, but strengthens our overall economic environment and recovery, as diverse businesses created 67% of the new jobs in the US from 2009-2012, the years following the Great Recession. Better yet — connecting with your local businesses and business owners creates a sense of community and economic resiliency, an antidote for the social distancing and lockdowns that we are facing everyday.
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