WASHINGTON — More than 100 people gathered on the streets of Northwest D.C. to call for an end to white supremacy and Asian American and Pacific Islander hate crimes Wednesday evening.
An organization named Total Liberation Collective organized the event in the heart of D.C.’s Chinatown neighborhood. It came less than 24 hours after a 21-year-old man named Robert Long shot admitted to shooting and killing eight people, including six Asian women, in two northern Georgia communities.
Attendees said it was time to tackle hatred against Asians in a head-on manner. Some said it has been an issue that has gone on for years without resolution.
“This wave of recognized violence against our communities is not something new,” said Ina Padua, of the group Anakbayan.
The group marched from Chinatown to the convention center at 7th and New York Avenue, Northwest. One participant said he was particularly angry that some people are trying to frame Tuesday’s events in Georgia as something else besides a hate crime.
“I’m angry at the excuses made for white supremacists who murdered our siblings and the inability of our country to decide if that slaughter of six Asians was racially motivated,” said Nathan Park, of the group Asian Pacific Islander Resistance.
Total Liberation Collective made three demands during the protests of D.C. leaders. An organizer, who goes by the name River, said education officials should incorporate anti-Asian violence and Black history lessons into the year-round curriculum for K-12 students.
He also called for the disbanding of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Asian Liason Unit.
“Yesterday, when a White supremacist killed my siblings, eight lives lost, where were the police?” River said.