The Atlanta attacks were not just racist and misogynist, they painfully reflect the society we live in
The Atlanta attacks were not just racist and misogynist, they painfully reflect the society we live in
By Jamie Chai Yun Liew
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, L’Université d’Ottawa/
University of Ottawa
I am heartbroken but I’m not surprised.
The targeted killing of eight women in Atlanta, six of them Asian, is a brutal result of decades-long exclusion and oppression, legitimized in law and colonial reverberations, that allow a white-dominated settler society to thrive, justifying differential treatment of racialized migrants.
Let’s unpack this a bit
Many blame former U.S. president Donald Trump for calling COVID-19 the “Asian flu,” “Kung Flu” and “China Virus,” among other terms, for this increase in violent attacks and harassment. And while it’s certainly contributed, these violent attacks, harassment and hate expressed against people of Asian descent did not begin with Trump or the pandemic.
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