Press Release

Six Asian women and two others were killed at three separate spa locations in North Georgia on March 16. While the facts and motivations are still under investigation, the board and staff of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) express shock and sadness at what appears to be part of a larger national pattern of intentional violence directed against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs).

“Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all eight of the victims,” said AALDEF Executive Director Margaret Fung. “We join with others in the AAPI community and with our allies in other communities to condemn anti-Asian American violence, and especially violence against Asian women. We are in touch with our colleagues in Georgia and have offered our support in the difficult days ahead.”

AALDEF has joined in coalition with more than 100 AAPI groups across the country to respond to the rise in anti-Asian violence. Our focus is to find community-led solutions that address the root causes of racial violence, and to avoid treating violence as the problem of one racist killer or one person with mental health concerns. In more than 40 years of fighting against hate violence, AALDEF has assisted individual victims of anti-Asian violence, written pathbreaking reports, organized protests, testified at public hearings, advocated for legislative changes, and litigated cases calling for racial justice. AALDEF has found that disrupting and dismantling structural inequalities and racism does more to promote safety, healing, and inter-group cooperation than treating each incident as a case with no historical and societal context. We invite all groups and individuals to speak out against anti-Asian violence and to join us in the ongoing fight for racial justice.

For more information, contact:
Margaret Fung, Executive Director
mfung@aaldef.org
212.966.5932 ext. 201