As an Asian-American myself, I have been getting texts from friends whose parents are terrified to go out in public wearing masks or who have come home shaken after being demeaned at work. So I started calling leaders of the Asian-American community to see how they were feeling and what they were hearing from their friends, families and constituents.

As it turned out, they were also unnerved. Federal lawmakers, a former presidential candidate and leaders of nonprofit groups said that they were hearing from their scared parents, just as my friends had been, and that they themselves were feeling uneasy in public.

The sad lesson I heard again and again went something like this: It doesn’t matter if you immigrated here 30 years ago, if you were born here or even if you were elected to Congress. The hateful episodes over the past several weeks have reminded even the nation’s most prominent Asian-Americans that some people in this country will always view them as outsiders.