Processing Anti-Asian Violence

On March 16th, there was a series of mass shootings at three massage parlors in Atlanta, Georgia. The shooter, Robert Long, killed eight people and one was injured. Six of the victims were Asian women. According to the police, Long was motivated by his sex addiction. However, according to the national Korean newspaper called The Chosun Ilbo, there was a report that a spa employee who escaped during the shooting heard the shooter say, “I’m going to kill all Asians''. He was charged with four counts of murder in Atlanta, and four counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault in Cherokee County. Long was not charged with a hate crime but that’s what people are calling it.

I have to say, as an Asian woman, there are a lot of mixed feelings that I have. The thing about this case that stuck out to me was how the original spokesman officer – he is no longer a part of the case and is being investigated (good thing too) – said in his official statement that the Long “had a bad day” and then tried to pin the blame onto his sex addiction. Apparently Long saw the massage parlors as sexual temptation, and he decided to target the parlors so he could “eliminate the temptation” for others. That man believed in what he did and he was proud of what he did.

I have not felt so enraged and disgusted in a very, very long time. You see, when I have a bad day, I’ll eat any chocolate I have in my stash, have a cup of tea, and distract myself by watching Netflix or Disney+. What I don’t do is go on a murderous shooting spree and kill eight people and injure another. To hear the officer actually try and save that murderer’s reputation and try to make him sound sympathetic just goes to show how far people go to protect white lives and how little POC lives mean to them. Seriously, the man opened fire and killed people and he was proud of what he did, and yet the officer still tried to salvage his reputation.

This is such fucking bullshit. 

To be completely honest, I’ve become numb to a lot of reports about incidents about Asian hate crimes. Since the early stages of COVID, there’s been a huge spike in reported hate crimes against Asians and Asian Americans. I’ve tried to not dig too deeply into a lot of them because of how damaging it became to my mental health. Over the course of the pandemic, the number of reported hate crimes continued to rise. A lot of people were becoming bolder and more outspoken in their hate due to former President Trump (yuck). It started with the Kung Flu comments and with people calling it the Chinese virus, which is still happening today. It has also escalated to full on attacks on Asian people and assault on the elderly (I will admit that when I see a report of the attacker getting their ass handed to them by the person they attacked I cheer). The situation was out of hand a long time ago, and honestly?

I’m tired and out of fucks to give and hope to hold on to.