Racism: The other virus sweeping America during pandemic

In a commentary published in the Chicago Tribune, author Julie Morita writes about the surge in negative speech directed toward Asian Americans on Twitter in the wake of COVID-19. Morita cites an analysis of nearly one million tweets from November 2019 to March 2020 – a study undertaken by a team including Shaniece Criss, a Furman University health sciences professor. She and other researchers found negative speech toward Asian Americans increased by 70 percent, while negative speech aimed at other racial minorities decreased 4 percent over the same time period.