When Trump gets coronavirus, Chinese Americans pay a price
Source: Washington Post
When Trump gets coronavirus, Chinese Americans pay a price
After Trump’s diagnosis, researchers found a spike in hostile comments targeting Asian Americans and China.
By Elizabeth Dwoskin
10/9/2020, 6:00:17 a.m.
News of President Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis is fueling renewed attacks against Asian Americans and hostility toward China across social media, according to researchers with civil rights group the Anti-Defamation League.
In an analysis of 2.7 million tweets in the three days after Trump announced his and first lady Melania Trump’s diagnosis on Twitter, the ADL found an 85 percent spike in language associated with hostility against Asians, compared with the previous day. The announcement sparked thousands of online conversations blaming China for trying to purposefully infect the president, the researchers found.
For example, in one since-deleted tweet to her 394,000 followers, pro-Trump former congressional candidate DeAnna Lorraine said that “China must pay for giving Trump COVID,” and swore that “we will have justice.”
Another Twitter user with 114,000 followers blamed Chinese President Xi Jinping for trying to assassinate Trump.
The anti-China rhetoric used by the Trump administration and its supporters throughout the pandemic has left Asian Americans vulnerable to racist attacks, researchers have previously found. Fear, hatred and misinformation online has led to verbal assaults, boycotts of Asian businesses and sometimes violence. A coalition of Asian American groups, along with San Francisco State University, reported this summer that 2,120 hate incidents against Asian Americans have taken place since March.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/09/twitter-asian-americans-discrimination/
