President Biden called his meeting with local Asian American leaders in Atlanta on Friday “heartbreaking”, saying that racism is “the horrible poison that has long haunted and infested our nation”.
Biden and Veep Kamala Harris – the country’s first Asian-American vice president – met with leaders to offer support after this week’s massacre at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area.
Six of the eight people killed were Asian women, and although officials say they do not believe that the killings were a hate crime at the moment, the investigation is ongoing.
“Racism is real in America, and it always has been,” Harris said at a news conference after the meeting.
“A harm against any of us is a harm against all of us. The president and I will not be silent.
“We are not going to stand still. We will always speak out against violence, hate crimes and discrimination, where and when it occurs. “
Introduced to the podium by Harris, Biden said the meeting was “heartbreaking to hear.
“I said from the beginning of my campaign for president that we needed to come together, that we needed to come together as a people, a nation, an America,” said Biden.
“I believe with every fiber of my being that there are simply some fundamental values and beliefs that must unite us as Americans,” he said. “One of them is fighting hate together,” he said.
Harris and Biden planned their trip to the capital of Georgia – home of the Centers for Disease Control – to celebrate the approval of the $ 1.9 trillion stimulus account and the delivery of 100 million COVID-19 injections to Americans in the United States. past 60 days, she said.
“And then, on Tuesday night, we learned that eight of our neighbors were killed in a heinous act of violence – violence that has no place in the state of Georgia or the United States of America,” said Harris.
“Whatever the motives of the murderer, these facts are clear. Six of the eight people killed on Tuesday night were of Asian descent, ”she said.
“Seven were women. The shootings took place at Asian-owned companies. The shootings occurred while violence, hate crimes and discrimination against AA have increased dramatically in the past year and more, ”she said.
“It’s all harmful and, unfortunately, it’s not new,” she said of the 3,800 hate crime incidents recorded against Asian Americans last year, two-thirds of which she said were committed against women.
“Everything from physical assaults to verbal accusations,” she said of the attacks.
Harris condemned the country’s history of xenophobia, including laws prohibiting newly Asian American immigrants from owning properties while helping to build the country’s transcontinental railway in the 1860s and the more than 120,000 Japanese Americans forced to live in camps. internment during World War II.
“Today, @POTUS and I met with Asian American leaders in Atlanta, Georgia to discuss increased attacks on the community,” Harris tweeted after the meeting.
“We want Asian Americans in Georgia and across our country to know: we are not going to be silent. We will not stand still. We will always speak out against violence ”.
Suspect Aaron Robert Long admitted to investigators that he was targeting massage parlors because he wanted to “eliminate” the “temptation” that led to his alleged sex addiction.