Hostname: page-component-7f64f4797f-kg7gq Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2025-11-11T06:19:31.838Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Racism is not just hate speech: Ethnonationalist victimhood in YouTube comments about the Roma during Covid-19

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2022

Petre Breazu Open the ORCID record for Petre Breazu [Opens in a new window]  and
David Machin
Petre Breazu
Affiliation:
Loughborough University, United Kingdom
David Machin*
Affiliation:
Shanghai International Studies University, China
*
Address for correspondence: David Machin School of International Studies Zhejiang University 866 Yuhangtang Rd. Hangzhou, 310058, China portvale100@googlemail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Research shows that racism and xenophobia soared during the Covid-19 pandemic and this was certainly the case with the Roma in Romania. In this article, using critical discourse analysis, we analyse comments left below a television news clip posted on YouTube early in the crisis. This gives us valuable access to the way racism and xenophobia are linguistically expressed in social media, particularly in this Romanian context. It yields insights into how more overt forms of racism can sit alongside others which are less so, all united by a sense of shared embittered victimhood on behalf of Romanian citizens. We show how this takes place as the affordances of social media allow for a collective expression of frustration and mobilisation, reflecting on how social media may increase exposure to more extreme forms of racism. (Critical discourse analysis, Covid-19, online racism, Roma, social media, white victimhood)

Information

Type
Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , June 2023 , pp. 511 - 531
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Achim, Viorel (2010). Romanian abolitionists on the future of the emancipated Gypsies. Transylvanian Review 19(4):22–36.Google Scholar
Ansell, Amy Elizabeth (2016). New right, new racism: Race and reaction in the United States and Britain. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Augoustinos, Martha, & Every, Danielle (2007). The language of ‘race’ and prejudice: A discourse of denial, reason, and liberal-practical politics. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 26(2):123–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barker, Martin (1981). The new racism: Conservatives and the ideology of the tribe. London: Junction Books.Google Scholar
Ben-David, Anat, & Fernández, Ariadna Matamoros (2016). Hate speech and covert discrimination on social media: Monitoring the Facebook pages of extreme-right political parties in Spain. International Journal of Communication 10(27):1167–93.Google Scholar
Bergmann, Eirikur (2020). Understanding nativist populism. In Neo-nationalism: The rise of nativist populism, 29–52. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berta, Peter (2020). Ethnicizing a pandemic: COVID-19, culture blaming, and Romanian Roma. Society for Romanian Studies Newsletter 42(1):1–7.Google Scholar
Billig, Michael (2005). Laughter and ridicule: Towards a social critique of humour. London: SAGE.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloch, Katrina Rebecca; Taylor, Tiffany; & Martinez, Karen (2020). Playing the race card: White injury, White victimhood and the paradox of colour-blind ideology in anti-immigrant discourse. Ethnic and Racial Studies 43(7):1130–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo (2006). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo (2015). The structure of racism in color-blind, ‘post-racial’ America. American Behavioral Scientist 59(11):1358–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouvier, Gwen (2019). How journalists source trending social media feeds: A critical discourse perspective on Twitter. Journalism Studies 20(2):212–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouvier, Gwen (2020). Racist call-outs and cancel culture on Twitter: The limitations of the platform's ability to define issues of social justice. Discourse, Context & Media 38:100431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouvier, Gwen, & Way, Lyndon C. S. (2021). Revealing the politics in ‘soft’, everyday uses of social media: The challenge for critical discourse studies. Social Semiotics 31(3):345–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breazu, Petre (2020). Representing the Roma in Romanian media: A multimodal critical discourse analysis. Örebro: Örebro University doctoral thesis.Google Scholar
Breazu, Petre, & Eriksson, Göran (2020). Romaphobia in Romanian press: The lifting of work restrictions for Romanian migrants in the European Union. Discourse & Communication 15(2):139–62. doi: 10.1177/1750481320982153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breazu, Petre, & Machin, David (2018). A critical multimodal analysis of the Romanian press coverage of camp evictions and deportations of the Roma migrants from France. Discourse & Communication 12(4):1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breazu, Petre, & Machin, David (2019). Racism toward the Roma through the affordances of Facebook: Bonding, laughter and spite. Discourse & Society 30(4):376–94. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926519837396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breazu, Petre, & Machin, David (2020). How television news disguises its racist representations: The case of Romanian Antena 1 reporting on the Roma. Ethnicities 20(5):823–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camfield, David (2016). Elements of a historical-materialist theory of racism. Historical Materialism 24(1):31–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capdevila, Rose, & Callaghan, Jane E. M. (2008). ‘It's not racist. It's common sense’: A critical analysis of political discourse around asylum and immigration in the UK. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology 18(1):1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charmaz, Kathy (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. London: SAGE.Google Scholar
Cheshmedzhieva, Desislava (2009). Media representations of Roma and Gypsies: The metaphor of war in newspaper materials on Roma in Bulgaria and Gypsies in the UK. Language, Individual & Society 3:30–38.Google Scholar
Costache, Ioanida (2020). ‘Until we are able to gas them like the Nazi's, the Roma will infect the nation’: Roma and the ethnicization of COVID-19 in Romania. Online: https://medium.com/center-for-comparative-studies-in-race-and/until-we-are-able-to-gas-them-like-the-nazis-the-roma-will-infect-the-nation-roma-and-the-eb24d7c3cdc4.Google Scholar
Creţan, Remus, & Light, Duncan (2020). COVID-19 in Romania: Transnational labour, geopolitics, and the Roma ‘outsiders’. Eurasian Geography and Economics 61(4–5):559–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Creţu, Gabriela (2014). Roma minority in Romania and its media representation. Sfera Politicii 1(22):112–20.Google Scholar
Doane, Ashley (2006). What is racism? Racial discourse and racial politics. Critical Sociology 32(2–3):255–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doane, Ashley (2017). Beyond color-blindness: (Re) theorizing racial ideology. Sociological Perspectives 60(5):975–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobrincu, Dorin (2019). România la centenar: O perspectivă critică. Archiva Moldaviae 11(XI):465–75.Google Scholar
Eatwell, Roger, & Goodwin, Matthew (2018). National populism: The revolt against liberal democracy. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Entman, Robert M., & Rojecki, Andrew (2001). The black image in the white mind: Media and race in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erjavec, Karmen (2001). Media representation of the discrimination against the Roma in Eastern Europe: The case of Slovenia. Discourse & Society 12(6):699–727.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erjavec, Karmen; Hrvatin, Sandra B.; & Kelbl, Barbara (2000). We about the Roma: Discriminatory discourse in the media in Slovenia. Ljubljana: Open Society Institute – Slovenia.Google Scholar
Flowerdew, John, & Richardson, John E. (2017). The Routledge handbook of critical discourse studies. London: Taylor & Francis.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1972). The discourse on language. In Medina, José & Wood, David (eds.), Truth: Engagements across philosophical traditions, 315–35. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
FRA (2020). Persistent Roma inequality increases COVID-19 risk, human rights heads say. Online: https://fra.europa.eu/en/news/2020/persistent-roma-inequality-increases-covid-19-risk-human-rights-heads-say.Google Scholar
Friedman, Jonathan C. (ed.) (2010). The Routledge history of the Holocaust. London: Taylor & Francis.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gândul (2020). BOMBĂ CU CEAS. Următorul oraș care va deveni focarul de CORONAVIRUS al României. Zeci de persoane, depistate pozitiv în ultimele zile. Se cere intervenția Armatei! Gandul, April 4. Online: https://www.gandul.ro/stiri/bomba-cu-ceas-urmatorul-oras-care-va-deveni-focarul-de-coronavirus-al-romaniei-20-de-persoane-depistate-pozitiv-in-ultimele-zile-se-cere-interventia-armatei-19415200.Google Scholar
Gilroy, Paul (2012). ‘My Britain is fuck all’ zombie multiculturalism and the race politics of citizenship. Identities 19(4):380–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guy, Will (2001). Between past and future: The Roma of Central and Eastern Europe. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press.Google Scholar
Hamiduzzaman, Mohammad, & Islam, M. Rezaul (2020). Save life or livelihood: Responses to COVID-19 among South-Asian poor communities. Local Development & Society 1(2):177–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hancock, Ian (1997). Genocide of the Roma in the Holocaust. In Israel W. Charny (ed.), Encyclopedia of genocide, vol. 2, 501–508. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.Google Scholar
Harris, Chris (2018). Europe's corruption watchdog ‘deeply concerned’ over Romania reforms. Euronews. Online: http://www.euronews.com/2018/04/11/europe-s-corruption-watchdog-deeply-concerned-over-romania-reforms.Google Scholar
Heikkilä, Niko (2017). Online antagonism of the alt-right in the 2016 election. European Journal of American Studies 12(2):1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huber, Lindsay Pérez; Lopez, Corina Benavides; Malagon, Maria C.; Velez, Veronica; & Solorzano, Daniel G. (2008). Getting beyond the ‘symptom’, acknowledging the ‘disease’: Theorizing racist nativism. Contemporary Justice Review 11(1):39–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Husband, Charles, & Downing, John (2006). Representing ‘race’: Racisms, ethnicities and media. London: SAGE.Google Scholar
Jipa, Andrei (2020). Vladimir Tismăneanu, amendat de CNCD pentru derapajul la adresa romilor din Țăndărei. Ce sancțiune a primit Mediafax, April 6. Online: https://www.mediafax.ro/cultura-media/vladimir-tismaneanu-amendat-de-cncd-pentru-derapajul-la-adresa-romilor-din-tandarei-ce-sanctiune-a-primit-19117118.Google Scholar
Kelso, Michelle (2013). ‘And Roma were victims, too’: The Romani genocide and Holocaust education in Romania. Intercultural Education 24(1–2):61–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KhosraviNik, Majid (2017). Social media critical discourse studies (SM-CDS). In Flowerdew & Richardson, 582–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Korunovska, Neda, & Jovanovic, Zeljko (2020). Roma in the Covid-19 crisis: An early warning from six EU member states. Open Society Roma Initiatives Office. Online: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/roma-in-the-covid-19-crisis.Google Scholar
Krzyżanowski, Michal (2020). Discursive shifts and the normalisation of racism: Imaginaries of immigration, moral panics and the discourse of contemporary right-wing populism. Social Semiotics 30(4):503–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krzyżanowski, Michal; Triandafyllidou, Anna; & Wodak, Ruth (2018). The mediatization and the politicization of the ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 16:1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Machin, David, & Mayr, Andrea (2012) How to do critical discourse analysis. London: SAGE.Google Scholar
Mădroane, Irina Diana (2012). Roma, Romanian, European: A media framed battle over identity. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines 5(2):102–19.Google Scholar
Marushiakova, Elena, & Popov, Vesselin (2009). Gypsy slavery in Wallachia and Moldavia. In Kamusella, Tomasz & Jaskulowski, Krzysztof (eds.), Nationalisms today, 89–124. Oxford: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Matache, Margareta, & Bhabha, Jacqueline (2020). Anti-Roma racism is spiraling during COVID-19 pandemic. Health and Human Rights 22(1):379.Google ScholarPubMed
Matache, Margareta; Leaning, Jennifer; & Bhabha, Jacqueline (2020). The shameful resurgence of violent scapegoating in a time of crisis. Open democracy, May 5. Online: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/shameful-resurgence-violent-scapegoating-time-crisis/.Google Scholar
Matamoros-Fernández, Ariadna (2017). Platformed racism: The mediation and circulation of an Australian race-based controversy on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Information, Communication & Society 20(6):930–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGarry, Aiden (2017). Romaphobia: The last acceptable form of racism. London: Zed Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGarry, Aiden, & Drake, Helen (2013). The politicization of Roma as an ethnic ‘other’: Security discourse in France and the politics of belonging. In Korkut, Umut, Bucken-Knapp, Gregg, McGarry, Aiden, Hinnfors, Jonas, & Drake, Helen (eds.), The discourses and politics of migration in Europe, 73–91. London: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaughlin, Daniel (2020). Coronavirus pandemic deepens despair and danger for Europe's Roma. The Irish Times, April 5. Online: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/coronavirus-pandemic-deepens-despair-and-danger-for-europe-s-roma-1.4221540.Google Scholar
Millán-Guerrero, Rebeca Olivia; Caballero-Hoyos;, Ramiro & Monárrez-Espino, Joel (2021). Poverty and survival from COVID-19 in Mexico. Journal of Public Health 43(3):437–44. doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdaa228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mutler, Alison (2020). Depiction of Roma as crows exposes deeper racism within Romania. Radio Free Europe, April 16. Online: https://www.rferl.org/a/depiction-of-roma-as-crows-exposes-deeper-racism-within-romania/30558933.html.Google Scholar
Nacu, Alexandra (2011). The politics of Roma migration: Framing identity struggles among Romanian and Bulgarian Roma in the Paris region. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 37(1):135–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, Jacqueline K. (2013). Denial of racism and its implications for local action. Discourse & Society 24(1):89–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Nions, Helen (2010). Different and unequal: The educational segregation of Roma pupils in Europe. Intercultural Education 21(1):1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Papacharissi, Zizi (2015). Affective publics: Sentiment, technology, and politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pink, Sarah (2016). Digital ethnography. In Kubitschko, Sebastian & Kaun, Anne (eds.), Innovative methods in media and communication research, 161–65. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Pitu, Lavinia (2020). Copiii romi vânduți ai României. DW, February 19. Online: https://www.dw.com/ro/copiii-romi-v%C3%A2ndu%C8%9Bi-ai-rom%C3%A2niei/a-52435041.Google Scholar
Plainer, Zsuzsa (2020). ‘The Roma in Țăndărei’: A few thoughts on prejudices and groupism in media representations of the Romanian Roma during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social Review 13(1). doi: 10.15170/SocRev.2020.13.01.01.Google Scholar
Rorke, Bernard, & Mangiacavallo, Rosi (2018). Carry on regardless: Italy's Roma eviction toll tops 300 in August. Online: http://www.errc.org/news/carry-on-regardless-italys-roma-eviction-toll-tops-300-in-august.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Oliver Jens (2018). România în 100 de ani: Bilanţul unui veac de istorie. Bucharest: Humanitas.Google Scholar
Schneeweis, Adina Alexandra Giurgiu (2009). Talking difference: Discourses about the Gypsy/Roma in Europe since 1989. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota dissertation.Google Scholar
Siapera, Eugenia, & Viejo-Otero, Paloma (2021). Governing hate: Facebook and digital racism. Television & New Media 22(2):112–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, Katie, & Lecouteur, Amanda (2008). Modern racism in the media: Constructions of the ‘possibility of change’ in accounts of two Australian ‘riots’. Discourse & Society 19(5):667–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sohoni, Deenesh, & Mendez, Jennifer Bickham (2014). Defining immigrant newcomers in new destinations: Symbolic boundaries in Williamsburg, Virginia. Ethnic and Racial Studies 37(3):496–516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, Miri (2014). Challenging a culture of racial equivalence. The British Journal of Sociology 65(1):107–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoica, Ionel (2020). Cum s-a ales praful de cazul Tandarei, megadosarul de trafic de minori: 25 de inculpati achitati, DIICOT a facut treaba de mantuiala. Ziare.com, February 8. Online: https://ziare.com/stiri/diicot/cum-s-a-ales-praful-de-dosarul-tandarei-megadosarul-de-trafic-de-minori-25-de-inculpati-achitati-pentru-ca-procurorii-diicot-au-facut-treaba-de-mantuiala-1596770.Google Scholar
Suler, John (2004). The online disinhibition effect. Cyberpsychology & Behavior 7(3):321–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tileagă, Cristian (2015). The nature of prejudice: Society, discrimination and moral exclusion. Milton Park: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turda, Marius (2007). The nation as object: Race, blood, and biopolitics in interwar Romania. Slavic Review 66(3):413–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vamanu, Alina, & Vamanu, Iulian (2013). ‘Scandalous ethnicity’ and ‘victimized ethnonationalism’: Pejorative representations of Roma in the Romanian mainstream media after January 2007. In Kubik, Jan & Linch, Amy (eds.), Post-communism from within: Social justice, mobilization, and hegemony, 265–92. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
van Dijk, Teun A. (1991). Racism and the press: Critical studies in racism and migration. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
van Dijk, Teun A (1998). Ideology: A multidisciplinary approach. London: SAGE.Google Scholar
van Dijk, Teun A (2009). Critical discourse studies: A sociocognitive approach. Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis 2(1):62–86.Google Scholar
van Leeuwen, Theo, & Wodak, Ruth (1999). Legitimizing immigration control: A discourse-historical analysis. Discourse Studies 1(1):83–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar