ATLANTA — As Georgians woke up to the horrific details of a spate of shootings that killed eight people Tuesday, including six victims who were of Asian descent, the words of a Georgia state senator a day earlier seem an ominous foreshadowing.
During a point of personal privilege Monday morning, Georgia state Sen. Michelle Au told her fellow senators about the alarming rise in hate crimes against Asian-Americans in Georgia and beyond during the coronavirus pandemic.
Au is a first-generation Chinese-American who was elected in November. She grew up in New York and moved to Georgia in 2008 after medical school at Columbia University.
"Asian Americans are part of our country's plurality. We are some of the many, and we're part of that one," she said. "And all I'm asking right now, as the first East Asian state senator in Georgia, is simply to fully consider us as part of our communities. Recognize that we need help, we need protection, and we need people in power to stand up for us against hate."
The Johns Creek Democrat invoked an 150% increase in hate crimes against Asians and Asian-Americans from 2019 to 2020, a surge advocates link to the rise in anti-Chinese rhetoric during former President Donald Trump's term in office, including his labeling of COVID-19 as the "China virus." Au called the recent violence "a new chapter in a very old story."
Law enforcement officials have not specified a motive for the shooting spree, though the pattern of targeting Asian spas in Atlanta and Cherokee County has raised fears the attacks were racially motivated. Stop AAPI Hate, formed to prevent anti-Asian discrimination during the pandemic, called the shootings "an unspeakable tragedy" for the victims' families and an Asian-American community that has "been reeling from high levels of racist attacks."
In 2020, the Georgia House and Senate passed the state's first-ever hate crimes legislation.
