On March 16, a white gunman opened fire on three massage parlors in and around Atlanta, Georgia, killing eight people in total, seven of whom were women and six of whom were of Asian descent. 

In the weeks after, gatherings of people bearing flowers and signs lined the scenes of the shootings, national protests filled the streets, and a mix of feelings and experiences emerged within the La Salle community.

The motive of the murders is still under investigation, but the Atlanta spa shootings transpired against the backdrop of a recent surge in reports of violence against Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, and followed a long history of cultural and systemic racism toward people of Asian descent in the U.S.

“I feel like the racism that has happened was driven purely out of disrespect and ignorance toward the Asian community,” junior Amanda Rivera said. 

Attacks targeting Asian Americans have increased nearly 150 percent in the past year, with many victims being female or elderly. In addition, 58 percent of Asian Americans believe that racist views toward them have increased during the pandemic, according to the Pew Research Center.

Like others in the U.S., La Salle students have observed and been impacted by anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the aftermath of the Atlanta spa shootings, several students shared their thoughts and experiences surrounding racism toward Asian Americans, with some calling for more open discussion within the La Salle community.

“There’s definitely a lot of hurt going on right now,” senior Alex Fiedler said. “And I think there’s necessary conversations that need to happen about the root of this kind of prejudice… and what we can do to prevent it from taking place again in the future.”

For some Asian American or Pacific Islander students, the Atlanta spa shootings and other recent attacks have kindled feelings of concern for those in their community, especially the elderly.

“I feel worried,” senior Elvan Ngo said. “I know my grandparents, they usually have morning walks, but now we’re telling them not to go outside, [and that] we’ll go get groceries for you.” 

Similarly, Rivera said, “I make sure to check on my grandparents every day.”

As well as sparking fear for loved ones, the rise in anti-Asian racism has made some students nervous about being targeted themselves.

“I am definitely more cautious in the way I act when I am in public,” Rivera said. “Like many, I wear my mask and I make sure it’s thick enough too, but I do it so people can be safe and also so I don’t get called out for spreading anything just because I’m Asian.”

Sophomore Raphael De Leon said that “for the AAPI community, we need to be a lot more careful about where we go… because this could happen to us, just because we’re Asian.” 

Although recent attacks against Asian Americans have been troubling to many students, some said that these incidents of violence have not been entirely unexpected.

Given that “a lot of people still blame Asians for the coronavirus,” De Leon said, he’s “not surprised” by the Atlanta spa shootings and recent incidents of anti-Asian racism.

To some AAPI students who have experienced racism firsthand during the pandemic, the attacks are even more unsurprising. “Asian hate has been going on forever,” junior Vinhson Nguyen said.

During the pandemic, Nguyen was at Walmart when someone yelled a racist slur at him. 

“Then they blamed me for, you know, the usual stuff,” he said. “Like, ‘All of you guys caused this,’ ‘We’re all in this because of you.’”

Some students attribute the increase in violence toward Asian Americans during the pandemic in part to the anti-Asian rhetoric of former president Donald Trump. 

“I would say that our past president has definitely played a big role in what’s happening,” Ngo said.

As several students highlight racism and anti-Asian rhetoric as the leading causes of the rise in attacks against Asian Americans during the pandemic, some have also pointed out the role that misogyny may have played in the Atlanta spa shootings and other incidents of violence.

Although nationally, men are the most common victims of violent hate crimes, data from a group called Stop AAPI Hate reported that out of nearly 3,800 violent incidents against Asian Americans recorded in 2020 and 2021, more than two-thirds of the attacks were against women. This statistic is reflected in the Atlanta spa shootings, in which six of the eight victims were women of Asian descent.

“I think it sort of gets to the idea of intersectionality and how sort of different privileges and disadvantages that people have can kind of interact in that way,” Fiedler said. “There’s specific stereotypes not just associated with Asians, but Asian American women in particular. And so that sort of, again, feeds the cycle of violence, and very specific stereotypes can lead people to acts of violence.”

While the motive of the spa shootings remains unknown, scholars have concluded that the killings “cast a spotlight” on the intersection of racism and sexism.