SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – On Tuesday, March 16, a series of shootings took place across several Atlanta massage parlors resulting in the deaths of eight people, several of whom were of Asian descent. While the motives of the shooter have not been made clear, there is a strong possibility that this was a hate crime. The Minnesota Asian Pacific (MAP) Caucus released the following statement:
“This is the tragic result of increasingly hateful, offensive, and inflammatory rhetoric against Asian people that has taken place over the last year. Racist language and attacks on Asian Americans have skyrocketed as a result of COVID-19 misinformation, and racial epithets spouted by our previous president. Asian Minnesotans have felt this increase in hatred as well. We experience hate in many forms every day, leaving us with the fear of, ‘will our community be next?’
We ask that state and federal governments do more to fight disinformation, hateful language, and hate crimes by funding improved data collection and reporting of hate crimes and consistently working to reduce disinformation. Today, we mourn for those who lost their lives due to the hate and fear that has built up in this country. We will continue to fight this hate, but we ask that our friends, communities, and politicians stand up for all Asian Americans to ensure a tragedy like this never happens again.”
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