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Political Comments About Coronavirus Help Spark Rise in Asian-American Hate Crimes

Political Comments About Coronavirus Help Spark Rise in Asian-American Hate Crimes

Mar 29, 2021 |

Brief #10—Social Justice
By Erika Shannon
Over the course of the past year, there has been a rise in the number of hate crimes against Asian Americans. This is being credited to COVID-19 originating in Asia, along with the rhetoric of former president Donald Trump. Trump often referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” on Twitter, and continued to defend his use of the term at a later press conference. While he finally agreed to not use the term, it had already done damage; it sparked a Twitter movement of anti-Asian sentiment and gave some people the fuel they needed to take that hate off the web and into the real world. According to The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, anti-Asian hate crimes spiked from 49 crimes resulting in charges in 2019 to 122 crimes in 2020. The findings are particularly disturbing because overall hate crimes actually dropped by 7% in 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic and associated business and school closures. In 2021, the racism towards Asian Americans seems to unfortunately not be slowing down.

Nigerian-Born Grandmother Anticipates Taking Oath to Become U.S. Citizen

Nigerian-Born Grandmother Anticipates Taking Oath to Become U.S. Citizen

Feb 5, 2021 |

Brief #4—Americans on America
By Linda F Hersey
Nigerian-born, mother of six grown children, Celine Suala emigrated to the United States in 2012, landed a job as a private security guard, and learned to speak English fluently, in addition to her native Swahili. At 65, she is not about to slow down either. In February 2021, Suala will formally embrace a new identity and complete a personal journey when she takes the official oath to become an American citizen, pledging to “bear true faith and allegiance” to the United States of America. In reciting the 140-word pledge, she will join millions of people who have become naturalized U.S. citizens. In the last decade, more than eight million people became U.S. citizens, with California having the largest foreign-born population, at 27 percent.

As Social Media Giants Move to Curtail QAnon Trump Steps Up His Misinformation Campaign

As Social Media Giants Move to Curtail QAnon Trump Steps Up His Misinformation Campaign

Oct 23, 2020 |

Brief #21—Technology
By Charles A. Rubin
With the U.S. presidential election only weeks away, Facebook and other social media companies are struggling to show that they take the use of their platforms to spread misinformation and hate speech seriously, Facebook announced on October 6, 2020 that it had removed nearly 1,000 QAnon conspiracy theorist groups and promised to halt political ads after the polls close on November 3

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