Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Mar 29, 2021
Date Accepted: Mar 29, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Apr 21, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
They yelled me Coronavirus: A Content Analysis of Racism towards Chinese amid Coronavirus Outbreak. An Exploratory and Descriptive Study using Twitter.
ABSTRACT
Background:
As the first COVID-19 cases were noticed in China, many racist comments on Chinese individuals spread. As there is a huge need to better comprehend why all these targeted comments and opinions developed specifically then, this paper emerged to carefully examine racism and advocacy efforts on Twitter in the first trimester of 2020 (from January 15th to March 3rd, 2020).
Objective:
The first question aimed to understand which type of racism was displayed on Twitter during the first semester of 2020. The second question was to inquire about Twitter users' behaviors regarding advocacy and activism.
Methods:
Content analysis was utilized. Using the NCapture browser link and the NVivo software, Tweets in English and Spanish from the Twitter data stream were pulled from January 15th to March 3rd, 2020. A total of 19,150 Tweets were captured using the advanced Twitter search engine with the keywords and hashtags #nosoyunvirus, #imNotAVirus, #ChineseDon’tComeToJapan, #racism, “No soy un virus” and,” Racismo Coronavirus.”After cleaning data, a total of 402 Tweets were codified and analyzed by the research team.
Results:
Data confirms racism during the first months of the Coronavirus outbreak towards Chinese Individuals. Physical and verbal aggression were highly denounced as well as some forms of rejection. Advocacy efforts were huge inside and outside the Chinese community; an allyship sentiment was foster by some White members and an identification with the oppression experienced by Chinese in the Black and Muslim worldwide community. Art, Asian food sharing, and community support activities were the main forms of activism showed on Twitter during the first semester of 2020.
Conclusions:
Tweets displayed individual, cultural, and institutional racism against Chinese individuals. Individual racism was the most reported form of racism—specifically, physical and verbal aggression. As a form of resistance against racism, Twitter users created spaces for advocacy and activism. The hashtag “I am not a virus” helped break stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination on Twitter. White, Black, and Muslim allyship relationships were also present to support Chinese individuals. Activism through social media manifested through art, food sharing, and community support.
Citation
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