President Biden on Friday called his meeting with local Asian-American leaders in Atlanta “heartbreaking,” saying racism is “the ugly poison that has haunted and harassed our nation for a long time.”
Biden and Veep Kamala Harris, the country’s first Asian-American vice president, had 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 authorities say they do not currently believe the killings are a hate crime, the investigation continues.
“Racism is real in America and always has been,” Harris told a news conference after the meeting.
“An evil against any of us is an evil against all of us. The president and I will not be silent.
“It simply came to our notice then. We will always speak out against violence, hate crimes and discrimination where and when it occurs. “
Biden, introduced to the podium by Harris, said the meeting was “heartbreaking to hear.
“I said from the beginning of my campaign for the president that we had to come together, that we had to come together as one people, one nation, one America,” Biden said.
“I think with all the fibers of my being there are simply some basic values and beliefs that should bring us together as Americans,” he said. “One of them is together against hatred,” he said.
Harris and Biden had planned their trip to the Georgia Capitol, where the Centers for Disease Control was located, to celebrate the approval of the $ 1.9 trillion stimulus bill and the significant delivery of $ 100 billion. millions of shots of COVID-19 in Americans in the last 60 days. she said.
“And on Tuesday night, we learned that eight of our neighbors died in a heinous act of violence, violence that has no place in the state of Georgia or the United States of America,” Harris said.
“Whatever the motives of the killer, these facts are clear. Six of the eight people killed Tuesday night were of Asian descent, “he said.
“Seven were women. The shootings occurred in Asian-American-owned companies. The shootings came as violence, hate crimes and discrimination against AA have increased dramatically over the last year and more, ”he said.
“Everything is harmful and, unfortunately, not new,” she said of the 3,800 incidents of hate crimes recorded against Asian Americans last year, two-thirds of which she said were committed against women.
“Everything from physical assaults to verbal accusations,” he said of the attacks.
Harris condemned the country’s history of xenophobia, including laws banning the ownership of newly immigrant American Asian goods, as they helped build the country’s transcontinental railroad in the 1860s and more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans. forced to live in burial camps 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 our entire nation to know this: we will not keep quiet. We will not be next. We will always speak out against violence. “
Suspect Aaron Robert Long has admitted to investigators that he went to massages because he wanted to “eliminate” the “temptation” that led to his alleged sex addiction.