I just read an article entitled “Outrage After Georgia Cop Suggests Atlanta Mass Shooter Acted Because He Had a ‘Bad Day’”, and it has thrown me into a recurring fit that is brought on when people in this country refuse to see violent white males for what they are.
No, I am not saying that all white males are violent. Far from it. But when one is violent in this country, such as this guy who killed 8 people, by virtue of being white he’s not called a domestic terrorist. No. He’s not even called a nut job. He’s called, at worst, misunderstood or frustrated or both.
If a black guy or a Muslim had killed those people, there would have been riots in the streets, calling for the guy’s head on a pike. There would have been racial backlash of epic proportions. Heads would roll.
Instead, this guy, who apparently has shown no remorse whatsoever, is given a free pass because he had a bad day. Poor guy. Give him a break. It was only 8 people, and 6 of them were Asian women, so they don’t really count. (Insert sound of my head exploding here.)
For all our sakes, I hope no one ever short sheets his bed, or he might blow up a freakin’ building. Because, you know, bad day…
End of rant.
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The View from a Drawbridge 
Asian women could get together and teach him what a bad day actually feels like, but no one fears the justified anger and wrath of AAPI women because they’ve been silenced and objectified for so long their humanity is nearly invisible. Everyone has a breaking point where they either lie down and let the abuse crush the life from them or they rise from their strangled screams to make their oppressors ears and eyes bleed in recognition of the pain they’ve inflicted. The latter might be considered a very bad day for some, but for Asian Americans, the privilege of being seen and heard would feel like freedom.
Not many reports, on anti-Asian hate and protest marches, humanized the victims by emphasizing their names until they were called out by the Asian community. I hope it’s not because they sound too foreign that they’re left out, though even here the focus is on the perpetrator and outrage that yet another privileged white male is being coddled, instead of on the victims and damage done. The article you sited only called them a bunch of Asian women. If they actually do count, say (or write) their names loudly. SOON CHUNG PARK, 74 ; HYUN JUNG GRANT, 51; SUNCHA KIM, 69; YONG AE YUE, 63, XIAOJIE TAN, 49; and DAOYOU FENG, 44. and don’t forget the other victims DELAINA ASHLEY YAUN, 33; PAUL ANDRE MICHELS, 54. and ELCIAS HERNANDEZ-ORTIZ who survived his wound.
Outrage against a social injustice doesn’t benefit you or the victims if it doesn’t motivate us all to grow beyond it and our own unconscious biases and guilt. Only then can we achieve a truly effective empathy.
Sorry if this sounds harsh, but having lived in this country, as an American female person of color, it is an everyday occurrence to be subjected to sexual, gender and racial injustice (violent or otherwise) due to a white man and/or woman’s privilege. Your outrage may be new to you, but if we had to sustain that outrage, along with the actual pain inflicted, we would have exploded ourselves and everything around us, as children. Instead we learned to be mute and invisible while biting our tongues and choking on our own blood. Sorry if our struggles with racism cause you distress, but we’re exhausted by the suppressed anger and constant fear and abuses we actually have to live with. And yet, here I am apologizing for my truth sounding harsh or offensive and I haven’t even described any actual events in detail. That’s how oppressed I am. When we speak out we increase the targets on our backs, so I hope you use your privileged outrage to focus on and humanize more victims of social injustice in your posts. May that effort bring enlightenment and a small measurement of peace.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/identities-women-killed-atlanta-have-begun-belie-suspect-s-stated-ncna1261575
Based on my first paragraph, my outrage clearly isn’t new to me. Privileged, yes, I’ll own that, and not proudly. But it is there. Struggles with racism should cause everyone distress. And I do my best already to use my “privileged outrage to focus on and humanize more victims of social injustince” in my posts. You know that, Dear Lyn. You have every right to be angry. I see you. But I’m not the enemy in any conscious way. I can say that much. And you have a voice, too. I’ve encouraged you on multiple occasions to blog. You’d be good at it. Until then I’m sorry if my post was written in a way that upset you. I can only write from my perspective.