The Anti-Defamation League and the Committee of 100, an organization of prominent Chinese Americans, on Wednesday, issued a joint statement following the mass shooting of Asian-American massage parlor employees in Atlanta, GA.
According to Rep. Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American to serve in the Georgia House of Representatives, the shootings took place at the “intersection of gender-based violence, misogyny, and xenophobia.” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said about such shootings: “It is unacceptable, it is hateful and it has to stop.”
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said, “We are united with all of our Asian American brothers and sisters in standing up against hate, xenophobia, and violence. Violence towards any minority group is not the answer. The anxiety and fear in the Asian American community are palpable, and we grieve with and support the millions of Chinese Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders across the U.S. who feel targeted. We commend the Committee of 100 for their work in bringing this issue of anti-Asian hate to the forefront and we very much look forward to working with them hand in hand to help solve a crisis that many communities are facing.”
Zheng Yu Huang, President of Committee of 100, said, “We at the Committee of 100 are extremely saddened by the increased attacks against Chinese Americans and the Asian American and Pacific Islander community overall. Chinese Americans are Americans. Period. The violence and rhetoric that is happening now in these communities across the U.S. are horrific, sad, and unacceptable. These acts of hate have no place in America, whether directed against Asian Americans or anyone else. We are extremely thankful to the Anti-Defamation League for standing with us as we collectively work towards concrete actions that will address the roots of the violence and xenophobia directed at the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. Hate has no place in our society.”
According to police, the shooter, Robert Aaron Long, 21, claimed to have a “sex addiction,” and likely lashed out at what he saw as the sources of his temptation. But that did not explain why six of his eight victims were Asian women.
Cherokee County sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker told reporters he thought Long “has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction, and sees these locations as something that allows him to go to these places, and it’s a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate.” He also said Long had “a really bad day,” which was probably the case, but the quip upset the multitudes online.
According to the Associated Press, USA Today, and Northeastern University, the attack was the deadliest since the August 2019 Dayton, Ohio, shooting that left nine people dead. The relative lull in mass shootings in the US was probably the result of the pandemic. In 2020 there was the fewest number of mass killings in more than a decade.
ADL and the Committee of 100 are calling on elected officials and law enforcement to “urgently address racism, discrimination, and violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders with actionable, concrete results.”
They also suggest that “with additional funding, education, and action, there is a chance to put these horrific incidents in the past and move forward as a nation.”
Because these efforts did so much to stem the tide of anti-Semitism in America.