It has taken a long time to sit down and write this statement. Too long. But the Virginia Justice Democrats have continued the fight for Justice here in Virginia in the wake of the violence that has gripped national attention for the past week. Because if the multiple events of hate-filled violence over the past year have taught us anything, it is that we cannot stop until justice is realized.
The uptick in Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) targeted violence should not be a surprise to us. America has exhibited a culture of tokenizing, degrading, and taking advantage of AAPI people, especially AAPI women for decades. It is impossible to extricate this hate crime from America’s culture of hypersexualization of female bodies and the fetishization of Asian female bodies in particular. The dynamics of colonization and racial capitalism frame this type of violence as the United States (US) military occupation of AAPI communities subjected those women to sexual slavary. The violence of the sex trade is directly tied to the violence of US imperialism and global capitalism that sustains white supremacy. The American trope of AAPI as the “model minority” aims to pit minority groups against each other and furthers the “good immigrant versus bad immigrant” myth that is designed to distract us from white supremacy. These frameworks allow racist and xenophobic structures to thrive violently in American society.
President Donald Trump exacerbated this type of behavior and rhetoric last year during the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, blaming China as the origin of the virus and using sinophobic terminology to make his point. In fact, hate crimes against AAPI have risen exponentially (in New York City alone, they have risen by 1900%), and the targets of these crimes have primarily been the elderly and women, all of which have been overwhelmingly underreported in mainstream media. Conservative pundits continued this narrative and when those of us ‘on the Left’ called them out for it, they belittled the statements as being “too politically correct.” But the fact is that what you say and how you say it influences people and culminates in the violence and murders carried out in Atlanta, GA.
The murders of eight people in Atlanta, GA were targeted, premeditated and racially motivated and do not come as the result of a person “having a bad day.” This act was steeped in the fetishization of AAPI women, trans, and non-binary folks. For decades, AAPI people have been used for their labor with little to no respect from White folks, whether it be manual, corporate, sexual, or other types of labor. We are in solidarity with the AAPI community in protecting, uplifting, and celebrating their voices and their work for what it is worth, not as a means to an end.
But unfortunately the violence did not stop there this week. While the United States embarks on re-opening, we are faced with the reality that we will inevitably see more mass shootings. We should not have to say inevitably in that sentence but we do. This is the American norm. As we were mourning the loss of life in Atlanta, another young white male terrorist opened fire on a grocery store in Boulder, CO killing ten people.
Gun violence is a national health crisis and constitutes another pandemic that we must deal with. We cannot continue to excuse this behavior as normal or victimize the perpetrators of these atrocities. We have to expose it for what it is, domestic terrorism. We cannot become numb to these incidents and just accept mass shooting and mass murders as a way of life. We demand that weapons of war be banned for both civilian and law enforcement use. We call on our state and federal legislators to pass sweeping common sense gun safety laws. People should not feel in fear for their lives going to a grocery store, going to school, or going to work.
Virginia Justice Democrats will continue to do the work on the ground to help make these changes, both electoral and legislative. We encourage those seeking justice and our community allies to join this fight.
Until Justice,
Virginia Justice Democrats