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Atlanta Assassination: Spotlight on Growing Anti-Asian Racism in the US

2021-03-19T12:07:46.693Z


The attack in Atlanta on Asian massage parlors, which left eight dead, highlights the growing problem of racism in the USA: rhetoric about the “China virus” fueled hatred and resentment.


The attack in Atlanta on Asian massage parlors, which left eight dead, highlights the growing problem of racism in the USA: rhetoric about the “China virus” fueled hatred and resentment.

Atanta - At the end of a rampage in Atlanta, eight people were dead, including six Asian women, according to media reports.

Although the arrested suspect gave sex addiction as a motive, and not racism.

But regardless of this, the attack highlights the discrimination against the Asian community in America.

Americans: Indians of Asian descent are facing increasingly violent hatred and racism.

Since 2016, hate crimes against members of the Asian community in the US have been on the rise again, according to figures from the Californian Center for the Study of Hate and Exremism.

In the Corona year 2020 they exploded by 150 percent, especially in the metropolises of New York, Los Angeles and Boston.

As of March 2020, a study by the Brookings Institution counted around 3,000 violent anti-Asian attacks.

There has always been prejudice against immigrants from Asia and their descendants in the USA, although they are comparatively well integrated.

Many of them managed social advancement and are economically successful.

But since the corona pandemic, Americans of Asian descent have suffered from hostile rhetoric and racism even more than before.

The coronavirus started its journey around the world from China, causing anger in the US and other countries about the Chinese crisis management - and in some a diffuse anger at people with Asian facial features.

Attack in Atlanta: the curse of the "China virus" formula

Former US President Donald Trump and other members of his leadership circle fueled such resentment by talking about the “China virus” or “Kung-flu”.

Shortly before the Atlanta attack, Trump used the formula "China virus" in an interview with his house broadcaster

Fox News

.

China's official

Xinhua

news agency

reported on allegations cited in the United States by Congressmen Judy Chu and Ted Lieu of Asian descent against the former Trump administration of inciting racism and discrimination.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been recommending strongly for a while not to associate the virus with any region or ethnic group - explicitly because of the hatred that Asian Americans face.

The 21-year-old Atlanta suspect has already been charged with eight murder cases because of the fatalities.

The young man, a white man, is said to have targeted three Asian massage salons and spas and shot at those present.

The police said there were several Asian victims and two white victims.

The suspect claimed his sex addiction was the driving force behind the fatal attacks, police said.

He sees massage parlors as a temptation that he wanted to eliminate.

US President Joe Biden also emphasized that investigators had not yet linked the attack to hate crimes.

At the same time, however, Biden condemned the "brutality against Americans: inside of Asian origin in the last few months".

+

US President Joe Biden was shocked by the Atlanta act - and by growing racism against immigrants from Asia.

© JIM WATSON / AFP

The quick clarification of the case therefore does not solve the fundamental problem either.

Many conservatives in the United States fear a multicultural society as a threat to the white majority American culture.

This is not primarily directed against Asians, but also against them.

The situation of immigrants from Asia has long been part of the culture war in the USA.

164 Republican MPs voted in September 2020 against a resolution tabled by the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives to condemn violence against the Asian community.

Some saw the resolution as an expression of the “cancel culture” they hated. Others were bothered by the fact that the resolution equated Trump's formula of the “China virus” with the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II and historical discrimination against immigrants from China.

Both are still a thorn in American consciousness to this day.

Atlanta assassination attempt: racism and violence against women

The possible combination of racism and sexism in the Atlanta accused is not accidental, according to the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF).

"More than 68 percent of the reported incidents of harassment and violence against Asians originate from women," said the organization after the attack.

A new poll of Asian American women commissioned by the NAPAWF found that nearly half of them had been exposed to anti-Asian racism in the past two years.

Vivien Tsou, one of the directors of NAPAWF, called for solidarity among non-whites.

"The focus is on anti-Asian hatred, but ultimately everything can be traced back to white supremacy," Tsou told

CNN

.

“Anyone can be a scapegoat for anything at any time.” All ethnic minorities must face this together.

In recent years, right-wing perpetrators have targeted Indians, Jews and Latino immigrants in several cases.

(ck)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-03-19

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