Racial Attacks during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Politicizing an Epidemic Crisis on Longstanding Racism and Misinformation, Disinformation, and Misconception

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has affected everyone's life on a daily basis for more than a year. However, some racial groups have experienced a double pandemic, that of COVID-19 and racist attacks incorrectly tied to the pandemic. Harassment and physical intimidation were the source of many anti-Asian attacks. The number of unarmed black people assaulted and killed by police almost tripled during 2020 when compared 2019. In this panel, we will attempt to analyze recent racial attacks in terms of malinformation, such as misinformation, disinformation, or shallow, historical stereotypes of ethnic minorities as another layer of the pandemic originating with racism or inflamed grievances. The panelists will discuss the proposed topic drawing from each panelist's expertise and an interactive discussion with the audience will follow after each panelist's presentation. Members and attendees at ASIS&T who have an interest in the spread of dis- and misinformation via social media and politicizing the pandemic crisis will find our topics useful to their research. Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology | Oct. 29 – Nov. 3, 2021 | Salt Lake City, UT. Author(s) retain copyright, but ASIS&T receives an exclusive publication license.