Research Question: Multiracial coalitions are critical to fighting for social, political, and economic equality. But because of their position within the American racial hierarchy, Asian Americans can be uncertain coalition partners. We ask whether the increase in salience of discrimination against Asian Americans in the wake of COVID-19 leads to an increase in the willingness of Asian Americans to join multiracial coalitions.

Data: We use data from an original survey experiment, fielded through Cint. There are a total of 900 respondents, all of whom identify as Asian American. We supplement these experimental data with publicly available observational data from the National Asian American Survey.

Methods: Using a variety of standard analytic techniques, we examine how discrimination and increased salience in discrimination leads certain groups of Asian Americans to be more interested in being part of an interracial political coalition.

Challenges: Given the diversity of Asian Americans, it can be difficult to disaggregate subgroups. We leverage the observational data to help address this concern.

Findings: We find that some subgroups of Asian Americans, namely Republicans and second generation Asian Americans, become more likely to be interested in multiracial coalitions when primed to think about the COVID-19 related discrimination against Asian Americans.