Op-Ed: Stop Dismissing the Reason Behind the Atlanta Shootings
On Tuesday, March 2, a man was arrested at a massage spa in Atlanta for the murders of eight people, six of whom were Asain women. The murderer told the police that he was a sex addict and saw the Asian-owned massage parlors that he targeted as “a temptation that he wanted to eliminate.” He was charged for murder and assault, and many officials claimed that they did not believe his acts to be racially motivated.
Following the shooting, it has been deeply disturbing to see news sources remain hesitant to cover the full story of the tragic event and the racial motives behind it. This is a prime example of the media failing to do their job by leaving out critical details about the reasoning behind this shooting. Officials continue to dismiss claims that this was an act of racialized violence, and have made it clear that they believe this act was prompted by the suspect having some “issues” as well as the fact that he was having a hard day and was “pretty much fed up [and] at the end of his rope.” One officer in charge of an initial press conference, Captain Jay Baker, told reporters that “yesterday was a really bad day for [the shooter].” News flash: we all have bad days. A bad day simply cannot justify a violent act of terror.
We need to see this as a wake up call and take this time to have the heavily overdue conversation about anti-Asian racism in America, and more specifically, the disturbing spike in the number of hate crimes targeting the Asain community during the Coronavirus pandemic. This rise in hate crimes is largely a result of Donald Trump’s reference to COVID-19 as “the Chinese flu” and refusal to apologize for it. Research by Stop AAPI Hate, shows that there have been 3,800 incidents reported over the course of the pandemic, which is significantly higher than last year’s number of 2,600. Additionally, it is estimated that many hate crimes have gone unreported or not officially documented. This is oftentimes because of doubts from authorities or a lack of support from the community.
Mayor of Atlanta, Kiesha Lance Bottoms, told CNN that she believes the Atlanta shootings “looked like a hate crime,” but according to the acting chief of the Atlanta Police Department, Rodney Bryant, “we are just not there yet.” Other law enforcement officers maintain that the killer’s alleged sex addiction is a possible motive, but these spas were legally run and have no record of any sexual misconduct. The shooter’s assumption that the women who worked in this spa were offering sexual services for money is a problem in itself.
There are many reasons to be disturbed by the Atlanta spa shootings. The hesitation of the media, the law enforcement officers refusal to address the true motive behind the shootings, and the lack of coverage surrounding the spike in anti-Asain hate crimes during the pandemic are just a few of them. As a nation, we need to be better. Regardless of how the media has covered the story, we need to recognize this horrific injustice for what it really is: a vicious hate crime and an act of racial terrorism.
By Sophia Sanders