By Grace Hwang
On the evening of March 16, eight people were fatally shot after gunman Robert Aaron Long opened fire at three different spas in the Atlanta area. Among those eight, six of them were Asian women, four of those women of Korean ethnicity. This incident comes amidst an alarming surge of hate crimes against Asian-Americans in the past year, raising concerns among advocates and police that these killings were also racially motivated.
Violence against people of Asian descent has recently increased dramatically in the United States, as well as the number of online slurs attacking them for the coronavirus pandemic. One study showed that racist anti-Asian hashtags, tweets, and phrases surged after former president Donald Trump first tweeted “Chinese virus” on March 16, 2020, ignoring the World Health Organization, who had just urged people not to use such terms for fears that Asians would receive backlash, and then again since the November presidential election, in which increasing political tensions fueled more harsh words online and crimes against Asians. Last year, rising xenophobia resulted in a 150% increase in hate crimes in 16 of America’s largest cities.
In addition, out of the 3,800 recorded hate incidents against Asian-Americans in the past year, 68% of them were reported by women, pointing to not only the racism Asian women face, but also the misogyny that is closely intertwined. The LA Times reported that many Asian women “have taken to social media this week to describe decades of feeling like hypersexualized objects: exotic, petite and docile.” Law enforcement has suggested that Long did show indicators in his interview with authorities of having a “possible sexual addiction” and mentioned that he had gone to massage parlors in the past to “explicitly to engage in sex acts”, although it is still not yet completely clear what Long’s true motives were.
After a brief manhunt later that night, authorities arrested Long about 150 miles south of Atlanta, where he was reportedly on his way to Florida to carry out similar attacks there. The next day, the 21-year-old was charged with four counts of murder by Atlanta police, and four counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office for killing Soon Chung Park, 74; Suncha Kim, 69; Yong Ae Yue, 63; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Xiaojie Tan, 49; Delaina Yaun, 33; Daoyou Feng, 44; and Paul Andre Michels, 54.
Long has not yet been charged with a hate crime; however, Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has said that hate crime charges would be “appropriate”. President Biden announced that he would wait until further investigation before commenting on the shooter’s motives but condemned discrimination against Asian-Americans, saying that it was “very, very troubling.” Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman and first Asian-American to take office, also offered her condolences, saying, “I do want to say to our Asian-American community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged all people.”
Although this incident was no doubt a horrific tragedy and left many grieving, fearful, and outraged, many are also hoping that it will start a more persistent and tangible effort to recognize and address the discrimination of Asian-Americans in this country, as well as get rid of the hate in their communities.
