President Biden and Vice President Harris visited the Asian community in Atlanta. In three massage parlors in and around that city, a gunman killed eight people this week, including six women of Asian descent.
Biden and Harris spoke with Asian-American politicians and other members of the community for more than an hour. Biden said afterwards that it was heartbreaking to hear how they live in the constant fear that something will be done to them.
The unrest after the murders is great. The shooter said after his arrest that he had no racist motive, but Asian Americans point to research showing that they have been increasingly victims of violence in the past year.
‘We must not be silent’
“Racism is present in America,” said Harris, whose mother was born in India. “We shouldn’t be silent about that. The president and I will always speak out against violence, hate crime and discrimination.”
Biden added that Asian Americans have been attacked and reviled especially since the outbreak of the corona pandemic. Some people see them as the cause of the outbreak of the virus, which was spread from China. “We must all stop this hatred,” said Biden.
Sex addiction
The shooter, a 21-year-old man, has been charged with eight-time murder. He was picked up a few hours after his actions a few hundred miles from Atlanta.
The man has said he opened fire in the massage parlors because of problems with a sex addiction. He would have wanted to “eliminate” his temptations.