By Teagan King
One month after two MU students organized a vigil at Speakers Circle to remember the victims of shootings in the Atlanta area, they and other Asian students hope to continue the conversation about racism against Asians in the United States.
The shootings took place on March 16 at three different spas in the Atlanta area. Eight people were killed, six of whom were women of Asian descent.
Amy Schaffer, a freshman journalism major, and Kevin Duong, a freshman business major, worked together to organize the vigil, which took place on March 19. They noticed a lack of response to the shootings from anyone in Columbia, so they felt something must be done to honor the victims.
On Thursday, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley was the lone vote against S.937, a bill that assigns a Justice Department official to analyze reports of hate crimes that are related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hawley’s vote against this bill signifies he feels indifferent toward Asian American lives and prioritizes political gain over the wellbeing of his constituents.
The bill was first proposed on March 11, 2021 by Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono to address the 150% surge in anti-Asian hate crimes from 2019 to 2020.
However, the bill’s significance increased as time progressed. On March 16, eight people were killed in Atlanta; six of them were Asian American. As of the same day, 3,795 hate crimes had been reported within the past year.