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Protesters gather outside the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta Saturday to show their support for the Asian American community. (EPA/Yonhap News)

Following a series of shootings by a young white man that caused the deaths of six Asian women, four of them Korean, people across the US gathered to protest violence against Asian Americans.

While the local police think the shootings were probably not a hate crime, the protesters countered that they obviously were a hate crime against Asians and called for the end of such hatred.

CNN and Reuters reported that hundreds of protesters gathered to decry the shootings in various cities across the US, including Atlanta (where the shootings occurred), Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle.

The protesters were attended not only by the Asian and Pacific Islanders who are vulnerable to such hate crimes, but also by whites and blacks opposed to hate crimes.

On Saturday, hundreds of activists and other people, including Americans of Korean descent, attended a protest in the park next to the Georgia State Capitol, in downtown Atlanta.

While marching from Woodruff Park to the Georgia State Capitol, the protesters chanted slogans such as “stop Asian hate” and “Asians are not a virus.”

“I want to make sure the world and the people know that I am here,” Sunghee Han, one of the protesters, told Reuters.

Korean American actress Sandra Oh speaks at a “Stop Asian Hate” rally Saturday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (CBS screenshot)

CBS reported that Korean American actress Sandra Oh attended a rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.

“This is the first time we are even able to voice our fear and our anger, and I really am so grateful to everyone willing to listen,” Oh said in a two-minute speech to the crowd. “One way to get through our fear is to reach out to our communities.”

She also led the protesters in the chant, “I am proud to be Asian.”

In Chinatown, San Francisco, hundreds of Americans of Chinese descent and others gathered together to demand that hatred of Asians be stopped. The neighborhood has been a site of frequent violence against people of Asian descent.

Asian Americans who trace their descent to countries such as Japan and Cambodia also gathered to call for a halt to hate crimes.

On Friday, US President Joe Biden visited Atlanta and condemned violence against Asians.

“Too many Asian Americans have been walking up and down the streets and worrying. […] They’ve been attacked, blamed, scapegoated, and harassed. They’ve been verbally assaulted, physically assaulted, killed,” Biden said in a speech at Emory University.

“We have to speak out. We have to act,” Biden added.

Kamala Harris, the US’s first Asian vice president, said in a speech that she and Biden would not be silent and would always speak out against violence, hate crimes, and discrimination.

During a meeting with Biden on Saturday, 180 groups representing Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the US asked for US$300 million to be appropriated to deal with the issue of violence against people of Asian descent. They also asked the White House to set up a joint task force representing the relevant government departments.

By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter

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