Our Response to the Atlanta Spa Shootings

Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights stands in mournful solidarity with Asian American communities across this country in calling for an end to hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders – and against all women of color. We are reeling in sadness and anger from the senseless murders of eight people, six of whom were Asian women, in a shooting spree that spanned several Atlanta spas this Tuesday.

Asian Americans have experienced a meteoric rise in violence against them, triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak and stoked by former President Trump’s racist language. Hate crimes targeting Asian Americans increased by 150% last year, according to the Center for Study of Hate Crime and Extremism, remaining high even as other types of hate crimes have subsided.  

This racialized violence is rooted in a history of anti-immigrant laws and policies targeting Asians and fueled by misogynist tropes and stereotypes that have dehumanized Asian women for far too long. The explosion of violence that took these lives is far too familiar to people of color and historically marginalized communities.

We have been here before.

We were here in 2019, when a white supremacist targeting Latinos shot and killed twenty-three people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

We were here in 2018, when a shooter massacred eleven Jewish people worshipping in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

We were here in 2015, when nine Black churchgoers were shot to death in Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

We were here in 2012, when a white supremacist murdered seven Sikh worshippers in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

These horrific attacks, and too many others to name, are all connected by the ugly thread of white supremacy. We can root out and dismantle white supremacy by acting together against all forces of discrimination and prejudice. That includes looking beyond carceral solutions for a restorative justice approach that holds transgressors accountable.

To our fellow Chicagoans, we urge you to learn about and connect with Asian American organizations like South Asian American Policy & Research Institute (SAAPRI), Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC), and Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago. A series of locally-led bystander intervention trainings to help prevent and act against hate crimes is being hosted here.

May our grief and heartbreak drive us to take action towards a safer and better future.