Peran Media Sosial dalam Mengamplifikasi Perlawanan Komunitas Asia di Amerika Serikat terhadap Diskriminasi di Masa Pandemi COVID-19

JUAN SATYA W S A, Dr. Randy W. Nandyatama, M.Sc

2022 | Skripsi | S1 ILMU HUBUNGAN INTERNASIONAL

Pandemi COVID-19 yang merebak di Amerika Serikat (AS) memicu munculnya fenomena diskriminasi yang menyasar komunitas Asia ketika keberadaannya dianggap menjadi penyebab munculnya pandemi. Media sosial mulanya dianggap berperan penting dalam mendukung perkembangan fenomena tersebut, namun belakangan dapat diamati munculnya bentuk-bentuk perlawanan komunitas Asia yang turut memanfaatkan media sosial seperti Twitter, Facebook dan Instagram, tercermin misalnya dalam merebaknya tagar #StopAAPIHate dan #StopAsianHate. Melihat perkembangan tersebut bukan sebagai sesuatu yang seharusnya hanya diterima begitu saja, skripsi ini berusaha menganalisis bagaimana media sosial sejatinya berperan dalam mengamplifikasi perlawanan komunitas Asia di AS terhadap diskriminasi yang terjadi di masa pandemi. Mengaplikasikan teori koreografi perkumpulan, riset ini menemukan bahwa media sosial berperan penting dalam memfasilitasi proses pembentukan identitas kolektif serta mobilisasi massa, sehingga pergerakan yang mulanya dirintis oleh komunitas Asia dapat meningkatkan visibilitas komunitas tersebut di tengah-tengah masyarakat AS, menarik solidaritas berbagai kalangan termasuk dari luar komunitas Asia untuk kemudian bersama-sama mewujudkan aksi konkrit gerakan, tercermin misalnya dalam kemunculan berbagai aksi turun ke jalan maupun inisiatif-inisiatif konkrit seperti penyelenggaraan patroli lingkungan. Capaian tersebut dipandang mampu menyediakan fondasi bagi munculnya respons gerakan yang benar-benar mampu meningkatkan taraf hidup masyarakat Asia di AS, diindikasikan misalnya oleh mulai munculnya respons-respons politis yang perlahan-lahan dihadirkan untuk mengakomodasi perlindungan komunitas Asia.

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States (US) has triggered the emergence of a discrimination phenomenon that targets the Asian communities when their existence is believed to be causing the pandemic. Initially, social media was believed to have an important role in supporting the development of this phenomenon, but recently it can also be observed that social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are actually facilitating the emergence of Asian communities’ resistance as well, reflected for instance in the spread of the #StopAAPIHate and #StopAsianHate hashtags. Seeing this development not as something that should be taken for granted, this thesis attempts to analyze how social media actually plays a role in amplifying the resistance of the Asian communities in the US against discrimination that occurred during the pandemic. Applying the theory of Choreography of Assembly, this research found that social media plays an important role in facilitating the process of collective identity formation and mass mobilization so that the movement that was originally initiated by the Asian community can increase the visibility of the community in the US, attracting solidarity from various groups including from other communities to then jointly realize the concrete actions of the movement, reflected for example in the emergence of various street protests and rallies, as well as concrete initiatives such as the organization of neighborhood patrols. This achievement can be seen as being able to provide a foundation for the emergence of movement responses that would be able to improve the living standard of the Asian communities in the US, indicated for example by the emergence of political responses that are slowly being presented to accommodate the protection of the Asian communities.

Kata Kunci : Media sosial, gerakan sosial, diskriminasi Asia, aktivisme Asia, COVID-19