Opinion: “A really bad day”

Immigrants come from all over the world to the United States to seek a better life, but a majority of them face discrimination for their race. Recently, a group of people were targeted and killed because many of them came from Asian descent. 

On March 16, 2021, terror struck the Asian community. Robert Aaron Long went to three different spas in Atlanta, Georgia and killed eight people. The majority of the victims were of Asian descent. Although Long has yet to be charged with six charges of hate crime, it is blatantly obvious that Long had eyes on these spas because they were run and owned by Asians. 

Learning that Long was motivated by his “sex addiction” was infuriating. He received treatment for his addiction but to no avail as he still seeked sex workers to relieve his addiction. After Long’s parents kicked him out of their home, he was said to be “emotional.” Long provided a statement to police officers which claimed that he had a “really bad day” so he decided to take the lives of innocent people. Long’s actions displayed the truth of hate towards minorities. 

A historic event that led to the generalized hate towards a minority group was 9/11. This event led to the generalized hate towards Islamic individuals. Similarly, the Asian community has been used as a scapegoat during the pandemic because of its supposed origin in China. Although the original origin of COVID-19 has not been confirmed, the media portrayed it to originate from China as the “bat soup” stories were shared all over the world. 

I have immigrant parents and moving to the United States to start a better life was a struggle. My parents were the first generation of my family to move to America. They knew little to no English, had very little money and had no other family or friends to rely on. They only had themselves and the passion to find more. There is no reason for so much hatred for a minority. In my encounters with Caucasian people, each encounter comes with many remarks. 

“Go back to your country!” “You’re the reason for the Kung Flu virus.” 

After decades and decades of tolerating all the racial discrimination, there still has been no change in attitude towards the Asian community. With attacks against minorities increasing with every passing day, action must be taken. Although gofundme, news and other sources are good resources to spread awareness and raise money for victims; although, nothing will ever be enough justice. All the victims of the cruel attacks passed away too soon. They all had families and lives to live that were taken too soon because of the hatred towards their race. We have to bring justice to the Asian community. Minorities overall deserve better treatment than what they have been receiving since the inception of the United States.