Abstract
Since the onset of COVID-19, incidents of racism and xenophobia have been occurring globally, especially toward people of East Asian appearance and descent. In response, this article investigates how an online Asian community has utilized social media to engage in cathartic expressions, mutual care, and discursive activism amid the rise of anti-Asian racism and xenophobia during COVID-19. Specifically, we focus on the 1.7-million-strong Facebook group “Subtle Asian Traits” (SAT). Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the 1,200 new posts it publishes daily have swiftly pivoted to the everyday lived experiences of (diaspora) East Asians around the world. In this article, we reflect on our experiences as East Asian diaspora members on SAT and share our observations of meaning-making, identity-making, and community-making as East Asians collectively coping with COVID-19 aggression between January and May 2020.
Highlights
It’s fucking me up emotionally how one day a Korean film with subtitles can sweep The Academy Awards and the idea of inclusivity/progression is in the air
We focus on the 1.7-million-strong Facebook group “Subtle Asian Traits” (SAT)
We reflect on our experiences as East Asian diaspora members on SAT and share our observations of meaning-making, identity-making, and community-making as East Asians collectively coping with COVID-19 aggression between January and May 2020
Summary
The centrality of SAT as a hub for the East Asian diaspora to cope with racism is evident through the volume of content posted daily. Due to the volume of posts and pace of new updates on the page in a non-chronological fashion, it is unlikely that members would return to previously seen posts to keep track of the development of discourse on comment threads, unless they had bookmarked them to do so These occasional incidents of “fighting racism with racism” and “out-grieving each other” are significantly outweighed by numerous voices calling for rationality and solidarity, they still reveal the limitations of SAT as a space for discursive activism given that the values and ethos of all 1.7 million of us cannot be singularly aligned
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