Discrimination and assimilation: Evidence from anti-Chinese sentiments in the United States

This paper studies the interactions between members of a discriminated minority, members of the majority group, and political leaders. We construct a novel dataset of all tweets posted by “White American” and Chinese users located in the United States from January to August 2020. Using a variety of supervised and unsupervised text-analysis techniques, we show that anti-Chinese discrimination on Twitter significantly increased following (i) the COVID-19 outbreak, and (ii) Donald Trump’s tweet referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus." We then study the reaction of the Chinese minority and find that, after Trump’s tweet, Chinese users were significantly more likely to (i) tweet assimilation-related content, and (ii) tweet criticism against the Chinese Communist Party. The rise in assimilation-related content is generally stronger for users who were more integrated before the shock. • Discrimination is an increasingly common phenomenon and assimilation decisions of a minority group often result from interactions with the majority group and political leaders. • We use novel social media data to study the discrimination behavior of White Americans and the assimilation behavior of the Chinese American community in the U.S. • Anti-Chinese discrimination increased following the COVID-19 outbreak, and Donald Trump’s tweet referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus”. • After Trump’s tweet, Chinese users responded by asserting more frequently their Americanness and by increasingly distancing themselves from the Chinese Communist Party.