The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate adverse impact on communities of color, revealing the deep roots of structural racism in this country. This symposium examines the individual and interpersonal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Asian and Black Americans' mental health, critical consciousness development, cross-racial solidarity and activism. In the first presentation, data from a 2021 national needs assessment on Asian Americans (N=3,170) are used to explore the mediating effect of perceived danger on the discrimination-mental health relationship, with ethnicity as a moderator. Given the role of the media in shaping public opinion during the pandemic, the second presentation examines the role of ethnic newspaper and social media consumption in mental health outcomes, intergroup attitudes, and cross-racial solidarity in a sample of 1,078 Asian and 367 Black Americans surveyed in May 2022. The final presentation reports results from a qualitative study that explores Chinese American young adults' (aged 18-26) experiences of negotiating race and ethnic identity development and across the lifespan and the role of pandemic-related events in shaping identity and critical consciousness development.