This could be the proverbial gasoline on the fire. NPR is reporting an interview with FBI Director Christopher Wray wherein he says that the motive for the killing of eight people in Atlanta, six of them Asian American, does not appear to be race.
“While the motive remains still under investigation, at the moment, it does not appear that the motive was racially motivated,” Wray told NPR.
Several local and national officials say it is too early to rule out race as a motivator, even if Long told police otherwise. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said it’s hard to ignore most of the victims were Asian, especially considering that nationwide reports of anti-Asian hate crimes spiked last year, though she noted the matter is still being investigated.
“He claims that it was not racially motivated, that this was based on some sex addiction, but I’m taking that with a grain of salt,” Bottoms told CNN Wednesday. “This is a man who murdered eight people in cold blood, so it’s very difficult to believe what he says.”
And here’s this dummy kicking in his two cents.
WOW… He went there.
First Ron Johnson. Now Chip Roy.
"We're racist, in case you didn't know. We revere the Confederate Flag, in case you were wondering. We're proud of our historic racist metaphors, including lynching."
Racism is alive & well, thanks to Republicans.
— ? Agent K ➖?️♂️ ? ?️ ? ? ⏱️ ? ⚖️ ➖ ? (@gary_kline) March 18, 2021
Words have consequences. And many lawmakers said as much on Capitol Hill Thursday, in the first House hearing on discrimination against Asian Americans in more than three decades.
As California Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu put it:
“I served in active duty so you can say whatever you want under the First Amendment, you can say racist stupid stuff if you want. But I’m asking you to please stop using racist terms like ‘kung flu’ or ‘Wuhan virus’ or other ethnic identifiers in describing this virus. I am not a virus and when you say things like that, it hurts the Asian American community.”
Lieu was responding to Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, who used “an old saying in Texas” describing lynching, saying Americans “want justice” for victims but that he had concern about “the policing of rhetoric in a free society.”
New York Democratic Rep. Grace Meng responded in kind:
“Your president and your party and your colleagues can talk about issues with any other country that you want, but you don’t have to do it by putting a bull’s-eye on the back of Asian Americans across this country, on our grandparents, on our kids.”
Violence and discrimination against Asian Americans have spiked over the last year, with more than 500 reported instances of violence in the first two months of 2021, according to a recent report from the organization Stop AAPI Hate — and likely even more unreported.
I have to side with Ted Lieu. The kung flu cracks aren’t doing anybody any good.
He who shall not be named started all of that Kung Flu and Wuhan Virus crap. Covid-19 should be officially named after the Orange Monster, especially as his and his cronies in-actions have caused more than half a million deaths from the virus! The Orange Monster and his repibliQanons are directly responsible, and should be charged and convicted of over 500,000 cases of criminally negligent homicide!!
Too effing many racists have been getting away with their bigotry, and now their murders and attempted murders. Fck all of them. And the ones in public office should resign or be removed. This isn’t the 19th century and we know that too often the enemy looks like the white guy next door.
Racism doesn’t just affect black or brown peoples, it affects negatively on all those that the apartheid South African regime referred to as ‘non-whites’.
The white supremacists must be educated out of existence.
As an Asian American who’s been crying over the shootings, thank you all for your support. I don’t really see an end to any of this soon but maybe someday. Although I won’t hold my breath, I have to hope my children will have it better.