Across the nation, such attacks, part of a rising wave of anti-Asian incidents over the past year, have surprised many Asian Americans. The murders of eight people, including six Asian women, among them four South Koreans, further shocked and horrified a community already unjustly stigmatized by the racial association during a pandemic that originated in China.
"There is a lot of fear in the community not just because of the hate crimes of the last year, which are the result of xenophobic messaging around the pandemic by the former President," Georgia state Rep. Bee Nguyen, a Democrat told CNN's, Erin Burnett.
There is a level of frustration in the Asian American community over prosecutors' refusals to file hate crime charges.
Asian Americans were considered a high-risk group even before the pandemic, according to mental health experts. Asian Americans had some of the highest rates of depression and suicide and were less likely to seek help compared with other racial groups, a study found by the Asian American Federation.
"These violent assaults have a devastating impact on our community as they are part of an alarming rise in anti-Asian American hate during the COVID-19 pandemic," co-founders of STOP AAPU Hate said in February 9 statement.
And on that note, on March 26, President Biden tweets, "On this National Day of Action and Healing, my Administration stands united with the Asian American community in the face of rising violence. Hate can have no safe harbor in America. It must stop- and it's on all of us together to make it stop.
There is no excuse for any of these crimes, these suspects targeted Asian people in random violence for no reason whatsoever other than to do so. Please don't just sweep this under the rug. Call your local representatives. Don't ignore this issue because that feeds the culture of permissible racism towards Asians.
Astrology in the Age of Doubt
You Should Read Paris Hilton's Memoir, Too
How Can Schools Do Better?
