Asian Americans in North Carolina call for hate crime charges in Atlanta shootings

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — On Tuesday, a gunman in Atlanta killed eight women, six of Asian descent. Some Asian Americans in North Carolina are now calling for the suspect to be charged with a hate crime.

This latest incident follows an increase in violence against Asian Americans over the past year. According to a study by California State University’s Center for the Study of Hate &
Extremism, anti-Asian hate crimes surged 149 percent, while overall hate crime dropped seven percent in 2020.

Phian Tran, community engagement director at North Carolina Asian Americans Together (NCAAT) says she’s noticed a shift in attitude since the start of the pandemic.

“I’ve definitely had a couple of altercations with the whole people trying to racialize the virus,” she said.

Tran says she feels the Trump administration’s language surrounding COVID-19 fueled that hate.

Cara Starling, former president of UNCW’s Asian Student Association, says she feels people look at her differently in public than they did more than a year ago.

“I see them visibly move away, it’s because they think I’m diseased,” Starling said. “I’m afraid to tell people I’m Chinese sometimes. I’ve lived here my whole life and yet sometimes you can still feel like an outsider when you see people look at you with such disgust.”

Most recently a gunman in Atlanta killed eight women, six of Asian descent. The suspect, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, claims it was not motivated by race.

Long told authorities it was brought on by a sex addiction, and viewed the spas as a temptation he wanted to eliminate. However Tran and Starling believe the two are not mutually exclusive.

“I feel that that is not quite a holistic analysis of the situation considering the history of sexualization and fetishization of Asian women,” Tran said.

“The shooting in Atlanta was certainly an act of racism, it was a deliberate hate crime,” Starling said. “That’s what it was and I believe it needs to be charged as one and the media needs to stop portraying the perpetrator as a victim.”

Several Asian American lawmakers testified Thursday on Capitol Hill on the rise in violence and discrimination against Asian Americans. Tran and Starling hope conversations like these can bring about real change.

“Solidarity, prevention, and addressing the root cause is what is going to stop this,” Tran said. “We can’t stop this cycle of violence which is nothing new, until we address that root cause rather than putting band-aids on it.”

You can view NCAAT’s statement on anti-Asian hate here.

You can report instances of anti-Asian bias or discrimination here.