NAAAP’s statement on Atlanta shootings

StopAsianHate – together.

Last Tuesday, a white gunman walked into three Atlanta small businesses and shot and killed eight people. Six of them were Asian women.

Murdering Asians because of their race is a hate crime. Murdering women because of their gender is a hate crime. These shootings were motivated by hate. And they weren’t the first.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, reports of hate crimes against Asians and Asian Americans have increased by 150%. And women are more than twice as likely as men to be the victims of those crimes. (Source: StopAAPIHate and AP3CON)  These statistics are more than numbers; they are a daily reality for every Asian American in the U.S. Our elders are afraid to walk home alone, during the day or at night. Our business owners arrive at work every day hoping their stores haven’t been vandalized. Our loved ones are harassed on the street with the same slurs we’ve heard on endless loops from media pundits and elected leaders.

We are grieving. We are angry.

And we are calling for change.

On the night following these tragic incidents, NAAAP Atlanta leaders and our national Wellness Program Director held a listening session for our members to heal, mourn, and mobilize. And in the coming days, NAAAP will provide resources for bystander intervention training, workplace resources for inclusive leadership and allyship, and community organizing.

But we cannot do this work alone.

Words can’t bring back the lives we’ve lost. Nor will they end the culture of white supremacy that claimed those lives. Americans of all colors must stand together to eradicate the centuries-old racial violence that has plagued this country since its founding.