Asian Americans respond to the Atlanta massage parlor shooting that left 8 dead

This appeared in The Millennial Source

With the COVID-19 pandemic sparking racist attacks on the Asian community this last year, many were quick to see an obvious racial motivation to this recent attack that resulted in the deaths of six people of Asian descent.

More than 24 hours after a man opened fire inside three massage parlors in the Atlanta, Georgia area, killing eight people and injuring others, an official motive for the shootings was unknown. Yet, for many Asian Americans, who have spent the last year facing escalating incidences of hate crimes and bigoted attacks, the killer’s targets sent an unmistakable message.

In recent years, minority groups have been the target of ideologically driven mass shootings, from the white supremacist shooting of a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015 to the Islamic extremist killings at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida in 2016.

With the COVID-19 pandemic sparking racist attacks on the Asian community this last year, many were quick to see an obvious racial motivation to this recent attack that resulted in the deaths of six people of Asian descent. Even if the shooter’s motivation cannot be definitively proven, though, the shootings represent a painful and terrifying…