Thursday on CNN’s “New Day,” network host Lisa Ling reacted to the Atlanta-area massage parlor shootings that left eight dead, six of which were Asian women. Law enforcement in Georgia is saying the attack was not racially-motivated.
Ling noted there is a “pattern of attacks on Asians” recently. She asked “how many people have to die” for hate crimes against Asians “to be taken seriously.”
“[A]fter this attack on the massage parlor, I saw people posting messages about solidarity and about standing up for Asian people, but how many people have to die for this to really be taken seriously, for there to be more than lip service?” Ling wondered. “I mean, there is real fear among Asian people about going outside of their own homes right now. Asian people are being scapegoated like they have for a century in this country. And this has to stop. This has to stop. We cannot be continued to be scapegoated, and this is frankly a pattern of scapegoating that happens in this country.”
“Yesterday, it was Muslim and Southeast Asian people after 9/11,” she continued. “When there’s an economic downturn, it’s the Latin population, you know? It’s always the black community being scapegoated for so many things. And during the Cold War, it was gay people. This scapegoating of entire populations has to stop in this country.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent