ATLANTA – After a week of pain, fear and mourning, the capital of Georgia on Saturday hosted a march and rally in the city center to protest the murder of eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, by an armed man who focused on three massage businesses in Atlanta. .
Hundreds of activists chanted “Stop Asian hatred” as they left Woodruff Park in downtown Atlanta on their way to State Capital, where they would join hundreds of others following a protest in the wake of a shooting that killed eight people wash.
The wandering demonstration began after a series of speeches and along sidewalks in the city center, past movie sets and the transit station.
Activists pecked and bullied the use of megaphones and activists shouted messages: “Asians are not a virus.”
The protest was described as a #StopAsianHate event that would enable people to ‘come together to grieve, heal and support’.
Around noon, the crowd of Woodruff Park joined hundreds of people gathered in Liberty Plaza, in the shadow of the Golden Dome in Georgia.
State Representative Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American to be elected to the legislature in Georgia, lamented on Saturday that the victims of the shooting “had no one in their community to see their backs, and we are sitting with deep anger and sadness and sad. According to her, legislators must make changes to ensure that such a tragedy is never repeated.
Senator Raphael Warnock said: “We need reasonable gun reform.” He added that stronger laws on hate crime are needed.
Senator Jon Ossoff confirms the sentiments, adding: ‘Let’s we build a state and a nation where you can register to vote on election day, but you cannot buy a gun on the day you intend to to kill. ‘
At Liberty Plaza, many people who were there said it was their first protest. Elisa Park, 54, of Marietta held her head before Tuesday when she heard or experienced the anti-Asian sentiment.
“I kept quiet for a while, you know, wiping it away, holding your head, working hard,” she said. “But not this time.”
Mrs. Park said she came after the protest to put pressure on lawmakers to stop the violence against Asians. Mrs. Park added that she was not the only one who has lived in heightened fear since the shooting. According to her, her co-workers and some female friends of Asian descent are afraid to just walk alone with their dog.
This is Mrs. Park’s first protest. Her aunt was afraid for her safety, said me. Park said. She did not know what to expect, but she was moved by the sea of people who came to support.
“It’s not just Asians here, there are African American people, white people, Latinos,” she said. “It’s really empowering.”
Saturday was also the first protest for 11-year-old Hemming Li as well as his mother, Wen Zhou, 40, of Forsyth County.
The two, as well as Hemming’s father, family friend and 6-year-old sister, went an hour’s drive to the protest to express their anger over Tuesday’s violence and its handling by police.
An increase in attacks on Asian Americans
-
- Eight people, including six women of Asian descent, were killed in the Atlanta shooting at the massage parlor. The motives of the suspect are being investigated, but Asian communities across the United States are on standby due to an increase in attacks against Asian Americans in recent years.
- A stream of hatred and violence against Asian Americans in the US began last spring in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. Community leaders say the unrest is fueled by the rhetoric of former President Trump, who referred to the coronavirus as the “China virus.”
- In New York, a spate of xenophobia and violence is exacerbated by the economic downturn of the pandemic, which has hit the Asian-American communities in New York a severe blow. Many community leaders believe that the authorities are ignoring racist assaults.
- In January, an 84-year-old man from Thailand was forcibly knocked to the ground in San Francisco, resulting in his death two days later in a hospital. The attack, which was captured on video, turned into a rally.
Hemming and his sister kept plates they had made days before with the caption “Stop Asian Hate” in blue.
Me. Zhou said she would never think they would protest with her family, but the killings of Asian immigrant mothers hit too close to home.
“The recent event makes us feel unsafe,” she said.
The protest comes a day after President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited with the Asian-American community leaders in a city that is still suffering from Tuesday’s attacks. “We have been reminded once again that the crises we face are many – that the enemies we face are many,” she said. Harris said in a speech to the meeting Friday.
She added: ‘Racism is real in America and has always been so. Xenophobia is real in America, and has always been so. Sexism too. ”
Mr. Biden noted that the investigation into the attack was ongoing, and that he and Ms. Harris is regularly updated by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Christopher A. Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“Whatever the motivation, we know this: Too many Asian Americans have walked the streets up and down and become anxious, waking up every morning for the past year and feeling that their safety and the safety of their loved ones on the game is, “Mr. Biden said in his own remarks.
Jane Zhong, 60, of East Cobb, a first-time protester, wore a white tea flower during the rally on Saturday as part of a Chinese tradition commemorating those who died.
For me. Zhong hit the death of one of the victims of the spa shooting, Xiaojie Tan, too close to home. Both are Chinese immigrants and mothers with a daughter who completed their college last year.
“I knew I had to show up,” she said.
Me. Zhong, who heard about the protest by WeChat, a Chinese messenger service, said: “I am here to express my anger.”