May 17, 2024
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“This heinous crime was destined to happen”: League of Women Voters of DeKalb County denounces violence in Atlanta, calls out racism and hate crimes against women

“I will not allow such a tragedy to be my daughter’s fate or your daughter’s fate.”

By Daily Chronicle staff report

Law enforcement officials confer outside a massage parlor following a shooting on Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Atlanta. Shootings at two massage parlors in Atlanta and one in the suburbs have left multiple people dead, many of them women of Asian descent, authorities said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson) (Brynn Anderson)

In response to the shooting deaths of eight people in Atlanta, Georgia, including six women who were of Asian descent, the League of Women Voters has issued the following statement condemning the violence.

[ A series of shootings at three Atlanta area massage parlors left eight people dead and raised fears that the attack was yet another hate crime against people of Asian descent ]

“The League of Women Voters of DeKalb County, Illinois, grieves the killing of eight people in Atlanta on Tuesday, March 16.

Six of those eight lives lost were women of Asian descent. This heinous crime was destined to happen when we accept that being a proud misogynist and a proud racist is a requirement for some elected government officials to get the votes they need to stay in power.

Hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are neither new nor news in America. What’s new in the last year, amid the pandemic, is elected officials using with impunity terms such as “Chinese Virus,” “Wuhan Virus,” and “Kung Flu,” which maliciously insult the AAPI community and falsely associate the coronavirus disease COVID-19 with an American minority group.

The League of Women Voters of DeKalb County calls on all politicians and local leaders to stop using such hate-inciting terms. We call on all citizens of the United States of America to unite in educating ourselves and being better allies for one another.

Dehumanizing women to objects of temptations also must stop.

The female identity is not an invitation or a temptation.

Women are human. More than just having a body, women have hearts, souls, ideas, feelings and ambitions. And the profession a woman chooses as her family’s livelihood cannot be a condemnation to death. As a society, let’s acknowledge that we have a misogyny problem. And as a society, we must fix it.

I will not allow such a tragedy to be my daughter’s fate or your daughter’s fate. I call on all of you to denounce violence against women and vote accordingly when selecting your government representatives at all levels.”

Linh Nguyen, Ph.D.

President of the League of Women Voters of DeKalb County

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