US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in Atlanta expressed their condolences for the victims of the attack on the city health center in which eight people, including six women of Asian descent, lost their lives. With the coronavirus emergency, long described by former President Donald Trump as a “Chinese virus”, there have been growing episodes of intolerance and hatred towards Asians in the United States.
Usa, fear among Orientals after the massacre of Asians in wellness centers
by our correspondent Anna Lombardi
Biden meeting with leaders of the Asian community in Atlanta said: “It was a year of living in fear for many people of Asian descent.” “Americans must take responsibility for not showing enough indignation at the attacks and hatred of Asians over the past year.” “Our silence is complicity – the president said – and we cannot be accomplices. We must speak. And act”.
Beside Biden was Vice President Harris, the first person of Asian descent to hold the high office (her mother was born in India). “Racism is real in America,” said Harris, “xenophobia is real, it always has been. And sexism too.” Harris rejected the hypothesis – expressed among others by the director of the FBI Christopher A. Wray – that the Atlanta massacre could have reasons other than those of racism towards Asians.
The New York Times reported on numerous hypotheses being examined by the new Administration to dispute violena episodes such as the one in Atlanta. The US newspaper also underlined Biden’s ability to show empathy towards the families of victims, more than his predecessor, who was not at ease in these situations, could.
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