‘It’s race, class and gender together’: Why the Atlanta murders aren’t just about one thing

Asian Americans see shooting as a culmination of a year of racism.

Here is what Christine Liwag Dixon, a Filipino American writer and musician, thought about after she heard that clip. She thought about how she was once offered money for a “happy ending massage,” even though she is not a massage therapist and never has been. She thought about all the men who have told her they’re “into Asian women,” and expected her to take it as a compliment. She thought about the time she went outside to call an Uber while her husband paid a restaurant bill, and a group of men cornered her, one of them chanting, “Me love you long time” while standing so close she could feel his breath on her neck.

She thought about how most Asian American women likely had a similar library of terrifying experiences. “To be hypersexualized,” she said in an interview. “To be treated as an object of sexual desire.”

Cherokee County sheriff’s office Capt. Jay Baker’s about the suspect having a ‘bad day’ comments and social media history fueled long-running concerns about racism in law enforcement. Then — as the violence stirred fears in an Asian-American community that already felt under attack — Internet sleuths and journalists found Baker’s Facebook posts promoting shirts that called the novel coronavirus an “IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA.”

One person’s reaction on Twitter: “I think Capt Jay Baker is going to have a really bad day.”

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