(CNN) — In a sense, it makes no difference that the murderer accused in the Atlanta spa shootings admits to a racist motive. Asian Americans, already traumatized by a growing wave of hatred, violence and rhetoric, have lived in fear for months.
The killings of eight people, including six Asian women, including four South Koreans, further disoriented and horrified a community that had already been unfairly stigmatized by racial associations during a pandemic that originated in China. And they exposed to the rest of the country the agony of another minority group that was left questioning its place in the United States, at a time of increasing attacks and harassment amid growing white nationalism and internal extremism.
Many Asian Americans feel exposed by a torrent of dangerous and racially motivated rhetoric by national figures on a cultural crusade. Most importantly, it includes former President Donald Trump, who presided over four years of mounting racial tensions and often used the division as a tool of personal power.
Activists speak of a perfect storm of prejudice against the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community that sparked smoldering hatreds when COVID-19 first hit the U.S. and was exacerbated by Trump’s taste for pitching. terms like “the Chinese virus.”
“There is a lot of fear in the community not only because of the hate crimes of the past year, which are the result of xenophobic messages about the pandemic by the former president,” Georgia Rep. Bee Nguyen, Democrat, told CNN on Wednesday . “There is a lot of history of Asian-American violence in this country, and many of our parents or grandparents and ancestors experienced it.”
Hate crimes against Asians increased 150% during the pandemic, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism from California State University, San Bernardino.
NBA veteran Jeremy Lin told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday night that while he had experienced intolerance when he was younger, it was much more pronounced now.
“It feels very different. I think growing up, it was always something that could be a little more subtle or verbal. But I think what we’re seeing now is a lot of real physical violence, murder. Many Asian Americans look over their shoulder when they go out, when they go to the grocery store, ”Lin said.
“I think there is a lot of racially charged hatred right now that we are seeing and feeling.”
The white supremacist threat
Vivien Tsou, National Field Director of the National Forum of Asian-Pacific American Women, described a personal sense of uprootedness and horror after Tuesday’s killings, which she said was deeply felt in her community.
One day when the new Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, told lawmakers that national extremism was the greatest threat to the country, Tsou argued that Asian Americans did not face distinct dangers, but were targeted by The same forces of hatred that black Americans suffered and that were evident in the insurrection against the United States Capitol on January 6.
“While the focus is on anti-Asian hatred, it all stems from white supremacism and anyone can be a scapegoat at any time,” Tsou said.
“This is something that we must face together and be in solidarity,” he said, referring to other ethnic minority groups.
More generally, the ordeal of the Asian American community revealed another dimension of the much-discussed national reckoning of race. A series of current events, from the crisis on the southwest border, to Republican voter suppression efforts, to disparities in the availability of the covid-19 vaccine, all revolve to some degree around issues of ethnic origin. And they are highlighting the particular pain of the American minorities that can never be felt and rarely really appreciated by those of the white majority.
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On Wednesday, a defense attorney asked a potential juror in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer charged with the murder of George Floyd, if he had personal opinions that could shape his judgment.
“Being a black man in America, I experience racism every day,” said the unidentified man. He was later excused from the service despite insisting that he could render a fair verdict.
The exchange not only crystallized the question at the heart of a case with grave national implications: whether the US legal system can bring justice to a dead black man or whether an accused white police officer can obtain a fair trial under the circumstances. so emotional. It exposed the racism that many blacks, Asians, and other minorities believe endemic and that other Americans only see after national tragedies or atrocities.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Democrat, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that the Asian-American community needed the same consideration that was shown to blacks after Floyd’s death amid a wave of police violence across the country. Nacional level.
“In the same way that African Americans across the country ask for support and we ask people to support us during the summer, it is important that people support our Asian brothers and sisters in the same way,” he said. “They are being unjustly attacked and in Atlanta, what we have seen, the worst has happened.”
How much fault does Trump have?
The extent to which Trump, who has often refused to unequivocally condemn white supremacism, and his facilitators are to blame for growing racial prejudice is at the center of controversy following Tuesday’s attack.
Democratic Rep. Judy Chu of California told CNN on Wednesday that the hysteria sparked by the former president, who sometimes referred to COVID-19 as “kung flu” (“kung fu flu,” in Spanish) has been disastrous for the community.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, he has been calling this the Chinese virus,” Chu told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin. “So now we’ve had an increase in anti-Asian hate crimes and incidents.”
The extent to which the plight of Asian Americans was caught up in Trump’s scorched earth strategy was revealed during a debate over a Democratic House resolution condemning violence against the community in September.
A total of 164 Republicans voted against the measure, which some described as “waking culture on steroids.” Some members objected to drawing a parallel between the impact of the phrase “Chinese virus” and the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II and the historic discrimination against Chinese immigrants, which marked the conscience of the United States and still resonate with many. Asian Americans.
The World Health Organization has advised against linking the virus directly to any region or ethnic group precisely because of the hatred and harassment that Asian Americans have suffered.
But one of Trump’s main allies, Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, said in the debate that the measure was an example of a “culture of cancellation” designed to prevent Americans from speaking honestly about where the virus was first discovered. time.
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And while Trump is no longer in office, much of the Republican Party can’t help but his taste for raising the specter of outsiders, often people of color, while hinting that they threaten overwhelmingly white American culture.
On a trip to the southern border this week, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, said that in addition to a stream of Central Americans, Yemenis, Iranians, Ceisans and “even” Chinese were crossing the border. .
Victims demand recognition
The rise in attacks on Asian Americans over the past year, including older members of the community, has left many scared to leave their homes or unwilling to venture beyond their immediate family networks. People have been verbally abused and accused of spreading covid-19. Lin was called a “coronavirus” on the court. There have been especially disturbing cases of xenophobic violence against elderly Asian Americans.
“The Asian American community here is shocked,” Christopher Chan, advisory chairman of the Asian American Action Fund, Georgia Chapter, told CNN on Wednesday. “We want attention to be paid to this growing epidemic of hate crimes, crimes that are committed against Asian Americans.”
The specific motive behind the Georgia shooting in which 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long was charged remains unclear according to police.
But Bottoms said on CNN’s “The Situation Room” that it was hard to believe the alleged killer’s statement that he was acting for a motive rooted in sex addiction.
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“The fact that a lot of the victims were Asian… and that he targeted these Asian massage parlors. It is very difficult to ignore that the Asian community has been attacked and it is happening all over the country, ”said the mayor.
Whether the motive for the murder was racial or not, it appears to have been motivated by some form of hatred.
“I know there have been many questions about whether he is racially motivated,” Tsou said. It’s not just race, it’s gender. These women were doing a daily job to support their family. They came out in the middle of a pandemic. This is another layer of fear that we have put in our communities.
Community advocates say there has long been a problem of objectifying Asian women because they work in massage parlors or spas.
Esther Kao, speaking on behalf of Red Canary Song, a New York collective that advocates for the labor rights of massage salon workers and sex workers (mostly Asian), said that women in the industry had faced a recent wave of racism.
But it is not specific to the sex industry; Chinatown restaurant workers have also received the same type of threats and have also lost income during this time, “Kao told CNN’s” Meanwhile in America “newsletter on Wednesday.
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