thousands of people demonstrate against anti-Asian violence

They cried out their anger. Several hundred people demonstrated on Saturday, March 27 in New York, in the United States against violence targeting Asians, ten days after the murder of six women of Asian origin in Atlanta. Similar protests are also taking place in some 60 other American cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago.

“The pandemic has lasted for a year and violence against Asians has only intensified”, said Judi Chang who is part of Answer, the pacifist and anti-racist collective which called for demonstrations. The growing hostility towards Asians, she said, is due to rhetoric that portrays China as a threat.

“All Asians I know have been harassed, assaulted”, she explained during the demonstration organized in New York. “They spit on us, they shout at us. They watch us, people leave when we get somewhere.”

On March 16, a white man killed eight people in Atlanta, including six women of Asian descent. Arrested after opening fire in three Asian massage parlors, Robert Aaron Long admitted the facts and was charged with murder. During his interrogation, he denied any racist motive, presenting himself as a “sexually obsessed” eager to delete “a temptation”.