In Atlanta, Georgia, eight people died in a massacre – seven of them women, six of them of Asian origin. A 21-year-old man shot the people in 3 massage salons and spa facilities and then fled, but was caught by the police after a long chase. According to the police, the motive behind the murder is still unclear, but it seems to be very likely that racism and white supremacy were a strong motivation. A huge discussion about racism, Hate Crimes and Sexualized Violence has erupted on Twitter. People are sad, disappointed, and angry, and are now starting a debate on gun control again. We have the best Tweets for you!
#1:
Imagine being less than 24 hours out from losing your loved one(s) and hearing law enforcement defend their murderer by saying “He was fed up, at the end of his rope…yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did.” That feels like an additional hate crime.
— Tiffany Flowers (@MsFlowersTweets) March 17, 2021
#2:
*hate crime happens*
news report: all the victims were of the same demographic but the motive was unknown— black olive emoji (@africanintheus) March 17, 2021
#3:
Stop Asian Hate means stop the violence. Stop the systems of harm. That means learn about the harm embedded in your language, your jokes, your lyrics, your movies, your headlines.
That means protect elders, protect sex workers, protect small business owners.
— Jezz Chung (@JezzChung) March 17, 2021
#4:
Stop calling the Atlanta shooter a “kid.” He’s a 21-year-old man.
— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) March 17, 2021
#5:
Stop the casually racist jokes, interlaced with sexism and sexual violence, that are made at the expense of Asian women who work in places like massage parlors and nail salons. These jokes are not harmless. Dehumanization leads to violence.
— Helen Shangdavision (@helenshang) March 17, 2021
#6:
When men frame a murderer's actions in terms of him "having a bad day" I can't help but hear them telling the world that they themselves are one bad day away from murdering women, & demanding empathy & recognition for that fact.
— Amal El-Mohtar (@tithenai) March 17, 2021
#7:
38,000 gun deaths a year in US: who needs gun control?
2 cases of voter fraud in 2020: let’s pass 253 new voter suppression laws
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) March 17, 2021
#8:
General rule: people don't get to decide whether they are racist; other people decide this based on their actions
— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) March 17, 2021
#9:
honestly i’m just so fucking done and tired with it all. i’m angry that i know the white supremacist shooter’s name before the names of the asian women. i’m angry that it’s working class asians that are targeted and people wanna erase us all as wealthy. i’m just fucking angry
— monica 예주⁷ (@monicayk97) March 17, 2021
#10:
since we're being asked to empathize, there are eight families right now experiencing the worst day of their lives because some awful white dude couldn't handle a bad one
— alex (@alex_abads) March 17, 2021
#11:
all the “unamerican” violences sure do happen quite regularly in america
— read ‘border and rule’ by harsha walia! (@queersocialism) March 17, 2021
#12:
He didn't have a "sexual addiction" – he had racist sexualized fantasies about dominating Asian women. In other words, he had fantasies of white supremacy and acted on them. Name it.
— Minh-Ha T. Pham (@minh81) March 17, 2021
#13:
"Sex was involved, therefore racism is not a factor."
– almost every report I've seen today— Eli Valley (@elivalley) March 17, 2021
#14:
I will never be ashamed of being hated for my race. This shame belongs to the racist. It is not my shame.
— Min Jin Lee (@minjinlee11) March 17, 2021
#15:
Let's sit with one of the reasons why 8 Asian women were murdered tonight. Because they are among the most vulnerable of us, and the shooter knew it.
— Mia Tsai is in revision hell (@itsamia) March 17, 2021
#16:
wtf is “anti-asian sentiment” bitch that’s racism
— yeet lover's pizza (@chunkyfila) March 17, 2021
#17:
it's a hate crime. so call it a hate crime.
— Karen Chee (@karencheee) March 17, 2021
