The Anti-Asian hatewave can’t be stopped with sermons. But the sermons can’t hurt.
As the weekend approaches, Asian-led churches are preparing to
urge their communities to step up to the wave of violence. It came to a head
this week when a man gunned down eight people, six of them Asian women, in
three Atlanta-area massage spas.
One pastor put it this way: “I’m going to urge people with love
and peace that we need to step up and address this issue.” Rev. Beyond
Han says, “it’s time for us to act.”
Georgia police say they haven’t yet determined whether the motive
for the shootings was racial. The shooter said he killed to remove sexual
temptation.
One cop’s public explanation went viral.
Here’s the quotation from the Georgia Sheriff’s Captain that
started the backlash against his agency. It’s from Jay Baker who said of the
accused murderer:
"…[he] was pretty much
fed up and had been, kind of, at the end of his rope. And yesterday was a
really bad day for him, and this is what he did.”
It also was a “really bad day” for those
who were shot, only the eight of them who died probably don’t know it.
Just the kind of cop you want on your side.
This wasn’t a sudden, off-the-cuff kind of remark one might make under
pressure. He’d been railing about “Asian-caused” COVID on his Facebook
page, promoting the idea.
The company that made anti-Asian shirts featured
on Captain Jay Baker’s Facebook page received a $15-thousand loan for Covid-
related paycheck protection.
Meantime, the confessed shooter, Robert Aaron
Long, 21, has been charged with four counts of murder with four counts still to
come.
Hate Crimes against Asians continue.
--Three people were arrested for beating and
robbing an Asian man in a San Francisco laundromat.
--An older Asian woman attacked on a San
Francisco street beat her attacker bloody before EMS arrived and handcuffed him
to a stretcher.
--A church in Seattle was hit by anti-Asian
graffiti written in hay for the fourth time this year.
Police in major cities with large Asian populations...
New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, the District of Columbia, Atlanta, and others
have stepped up patrols.
It’s easy to blame the South, well known as a
wellspring of racism, for the hatewave. But it wouldn’t be completely
fair. At least in the south, one knows what to expect. It’s in the
supposedly tolerant and welcoming cities of the North where the real work
starts.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but
you’re welcome to them. ®
Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com
Do I really need a disclaimer about my adult
Asian daughters here? Or my Asian spouse?
© WR 2021
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