Anti-Asian Racism Myths, Stereotypes, and Catholic Social Teaching

Joseph Cheah’s Anti-Asian Racism could not have come at a more opportune time. Trump’s racist rhetoric about Covid-19 as the ‘Chinese Virus’ has infected the American body politic with virulent and violent anti-Asian racism. Presenting Catholic Social Teaching in a new light, Cheah prescribes the vaccine that can prevent and heal the division and hatred that is tearing apart the American social fabric. His book is a must-read for all Americans.

What a much-needed book in this time of yet another rise in anti-Asian sentiment! Cheah is the perfect theologian-author to write it, having been in the forefront of the struggle against anti-Asian racism for many years. His succinct yet profoundly insightful theological contextualizing is a tour de force.

Cheah challenges the politics of exclusion of AAPI in racial discourses in churches, academia, and elsewhere by examining how Black and Asian Americans are racially positioned in American society and how their histories of oppression and liberation are interconnected. Through his discussion of toxic stereotypes he offers ways of building bridges, forming communities, and cultivating an antiracist society. It is essential reading for students, teachers, and those engaging in pastoral ministries.

This is clear analysis of Asian Americans’ complicated and subordinated racial position in the U.S., and more importantly, an invaluable theological application of how Catholic Social Teaching relates to the racism that Asians and Pacific Islanders face, and how readers can meet Jesus amidst our communities.