College Waregem "Corona Time" Photograph Controversy

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Overview

College Waregem "Corona Time" Photograph Controversy refers to the ongoing backlash to a viral image of students from the College Waregem, a high school in Belgium, wearing traditional Chinese costumes and conical hats and holding a sign that reads "Corona Time." Many online criticized the photograph, calling it both racist and insensitive to the victims of COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Shortly after the picture went viral, it was removed from the college's Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Background

On March 8th, 2020, a Sin-Paulus Campus College Waregem, a high school in Belgium, posted a photograph of a group of students dressed in red traditional Chinese costumes and conical hats holding a cardboard sign that reads "Corona Time."

Two days later, Instagram^[1] @broodjekaasmetsambal, an awareness group focused on racism toward the Asian community, posted the photograph on Instagram. They wrote, "The photo above was posted by the Sint-Paulus school community, Campus College Waregem, on their social media channels including Instagram and Facebook. In the meantime, the school has silently removed the photos, but this certainly does not solve the problem and shows once again how much it is necessary to deal with racism and discrimination in education. As an educational institution, you have a very large influence on the future generation. The fact that you approve of this kind of behaviour and promote it yourself on your channels is far from responsible and shows that something is wrong with you.^[4] The post received more than 5,800 likes in less than two days (shown below).

Developments

Online Reaction

The following day, the photograph began to spread on social media. Twitter ^[2] user @angryasianman tweeted the photograph with the caption "I do not know." The post received more than 19,000 likes and 8,300 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). Facebook^[3] account AsiansNeverDie shared the image with the caption "Yup. They did that. Not a single person in this photo thought it was not okay to do this..😑 This photo was posted on a high school website in Belgium. College Waregem" The post received more than 9,300 reactions, 2,300 comments and 1,700 shares in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).

The school has yet to comment on the controversy. The photographs have been removed from their social challenge, and their Instagram page has been set to private.

Media Coverage

Several media outlets covered the reaction to the photograph, including The Independent,^[4] The Daily Dot, ^[5] India Today^[6] and more.

Search Interest

External References