Following the murders of eight people — six being Asian women — Tuesday night at three separate Atlanta-area spas, Hollywood is calling for action to #StopAsianHate.
This comes after several months of celebrities and activists calling for such action as attacks against Asian Americans rose amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “The racist, verbal and physical assaults have left my community fearful to step outside,” Olivia Munn wrote in an Instagram post on Feb. 9. “These hate crimes have spiked since Covid and continue to increase even though we ask for help.”
In a tweet from last night, Munn once again urged: “Please help us.”
The violent attacks and murders against Asians are still happening.
Please help us.
We need help to be safe in our country.#StopAsianHate. Please. pic.twitter.com/NJ3knm1hlo— o l i v i a (@oliviamunn) March 17, 2021
Munn made another statement on her Instagram on Wednesday, writing: “I am tired of people humanizing white terrorists and excusing their murderous acts. ‘He was a sex addict.’ ‘He was having a really bad day.’ It’s meaningless to help a community that’s being attacked and who feel helpless to stop it. This is a way to try to justify and rationalize what he did instead of just calling it what it is: a hate crime against Asian women. We have to hold him to account. We have to hold people who think that way to account. You have an entire population living under threat. Asian Americans are targeted. You wanna talk mental health? Let’s talk about how there’s a mental health crisis about living in a country that attacks you just for being you. We need help. Please.”
Advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate has received nearly 3,800 hate incident reports since last March, which the organization notes is only a fraction of hate incidents that actually occur. Such incidents rose by nearly 150% in 2020, a year marked by President Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric against Asians in regard to the coronavirus pandemic.
“That the Asian women murdered yesterday were working highly vulnerable and low-wage jobs during an ongoing pandemic speaks directly to the compounding impacts of misogyny, structural violence and white supremacy,” Phi Nguyen, the litigation director at Asian American Advancing Justice- Atlanta, said in a statement.
Despite racist overtones, law enforcement has yet to define the shooting as a hate crime.
On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on the discrimination and violence against Asian Americans at 10:00 a.m. ET. Actor Daniel Dae Kim is slated to speak. Wednesday morning, Kim retweeted a video he previously did with NowThis, noting his message still applies.
“There’s something in the American psyche, there’s something in the psyche of people that somehow makes it OK for us to attack and verbally abuse Asian American, and especially the most vulnerable of us,” he says in the video.
Thank you. This video from @nowthisnews first appeared a few weeks ago, but applies all too directly to yesterday’s events in #Atlanta #StopAsianHate https://t.co/ceFLPRVq65
— Daniel Dae Kim (@danieldaekim) March 17, 2021
In addition to Kim and Munn, actors like Lana Condor and Mindy Kaling took to social media to voice their thoughts. Read below for more.
Wake up… your Asian friends and family are deeply scared, horrified, sick to their stomachs and wildly angry. Please please please check in on us, please please please stand with us. Please. Your Asian friend needs you, even if they aren’t publicly grieving on social media. x
— Lana Condor (@lanacondor) March 17, 2021
The targeting of our Asian brothers and sisters is sickening, but not surprising given the normalizing of anti-Asian hate speech in the past year. We have to #StopAsianHate, enough is enough!
— Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) March 17, 2021
a scapegoat for a global pandemic. Historically Asian immigrants have been the scapegoat for others misfortunes. This ends now. It starts by calling it what it is. MEDIA YOU NEED TO DO BETTER, CALL IT WHAT IT IS, DOMESTIC TERRORISM HATE CRIMES AGAINST ASIANS. #stopasianhate
— Jamie Chung (@jamiechung1) March 17, 2021
Heartbroken after reading what happened tonight. We MUST stop this. Stop the hate. It’s happening right in front of our eyes and on OUR watch. #StopAsianHate
— Jon M. Chu (@jonmchu) March 17, 2021
Feeling overwhelming grief at the senseless murder of 8 people in Atlanta. Still much we don't know, but it's clear to me that the shooter specifically targeted Asian women.
Praying for the victims' families, and for my Asian sisters. Action to follow.https://t.co/DjMcG0sBbv
— Simu Liu (@SimuLiu) March 17, 2021
Whether the killer went in with intent to kill Asian women or he just happened to go to three different Asian establishments, miles apart, with intent to kill those inside doesn’t change the racial nature of these murders.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) March 17, 2021
The best thing you can do today is to speak out against violence toward Asians in this country, especially if you yourself are not Asian. Thank you to all who use their platform to spread support and love.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) March 17, 2021
I know these women. The ones working themselves to the bone to send their kids to school, to send money back home. In too much pain to know what else to say so I’ll just leave this here. https://t.co/Dz7wKkbADy
— Lulu Wang (@thumbelulu) March 17, 2021
