Columbia Mayor Benjamin condemns hate crimes against Asian Americans
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin issued a statement late Thursday afternoon decrying hate crimes against Asian American citizens that have happened across the nation.
The Columbia leader’s message came just two days after a white gunman allegedly killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women, at massage parlors in the Atlanta area. Robert Aaron Long, 21, has been arrested in connection with those killings.
In an email newsletter titled “Violence Against Any of Our Fellow Citizens Is Unacceptable” late Thursday, the third-term Columbia mayor expressed alarm at the rise of crimes against Asian Americans in recent months.
“Over the last year there has been a frightening increase in crimes of hatred and intolerance against Asian Americans,” Benjamin wrote. “Across the country, there have been alarming physical attacks against Asian Americans, some who are elderly and more than 90 years old.
“Attacks have been made on public transportation, on American streets, in restaurants and other businesses, and against people’s homes in their own neighborhoods. In Orange County, California, hate crimes against Asian Americans have increased by 1,200%, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.”
The New York Times, citing the organization Stop AAPI Hate, reported there have been more than 3,800 reports of hate incidents targeting Asian Americans since the COVID-19 pandemic began last year. AAPI is an acronym for Asian American and Pacific Islander.
Authorities are still investigating the incident in Atlanta, but Benjamin said it left him disturbed.
“The Atlanta shooting suspect appears to have acted based on his personal and individual issues, yet his hostility unfortunately mirrors the continuing acts of violence against Asian American citizens that have occurred in America over the last year,” the mayor said. “In many of the incidents, the assailants blame Asian Americans for the COVID-19 pandemic. Make no mistake: blaming Asian Americans, or any ethnicity, for the pandemic is just a pretext — a weak, poorly informed excuse — that emboldens racist individuals to show acts of hostility and battery against others they already felt hatred and enmity towards.”
Also Thursday, the group Empower SC, which advocates for racial justice in Columbia and across the Palmetto State, issued a statement condemning violence against the Asian American community.
“It is not lost on us that there is a deep seeded history of racism against the AAPI community in America, and that stereotypes run rampant perpetuating the hate that we have recently witnessed, and the privilege afforded to” assailants, the Empower statement reads, in part. “Empower SC condemns, in totality, the harmful stereotypes, prejudiced behavior, discrimination and racist actions against AAPI people.”
Steve Benjamin’s full statement
“…a crime against any community is a crime against us all.” — Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms
Over the last year there has been a frightening increase in crimes of hatred and intolerance against Asian Americans. Across the country, there have been alarming physical attacks against Asian Americans, some who are elderly and more than 90 years old. Attacks have been made on public transportation, on American streets, in restaurants and other businesses, and against people’s homes in their own neighborhoods.
In Orange County, California, hate crimes against Asian-Americans have increased by 1,200 %, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
And beginning at 5:00 pm on Tuesday, eight victims in Atlanta were murdered in three different Asian American businesses. Most of them worked in the businesses where they were shot. Six of the victims were Asian-American women.
A suspect has been arrested. Based on his statements, we can be assured his motivations were borne of hatred and intolerance.
The Atlanta shooting suspect appears to have acted based on his personal and individual issues, yet his hostility unfortunately mirrors the continuing acts of violence against Asian American citizens that have occurred in America over the last year. In many of the incidents, the assailants blame Asian Americans for the COVID-19 pandemic. Make no mistake: blaming Asian Americans, or any ethnicity, for the pandemic is just a pretext - a weak, poorly informed excuse – that emboldens racist individuals to show acts of hostility and battery against others they already felt hatred and enmity towards.
Whether these crimes of hatred are enacted by a group of people, or one lone individual, as in Atlanta, each act can only take place because individuals choose to bring grievous harm to another. An individual’s own bias, an individual’s own prejudices, an individual’s own misconceptions, and mostly an individual’s own expressions of hatred give them a sense of false justification to hurt others.
These acts of hatred and prejudice begin in the hearts and wills of single individuals. Each time someone acts in anger and hostility toward others, others they see as different form themselves, they reveal and act out of their own hatred and willful blindness.
There is no justification for anyone to willfully bring harm to others.
I will finish with another statement form Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms: “We…know that this is an issue that is happening across the country. It is unacceptable, it is hateful and it has to stop.”
Let us bring an end to hatred in our communities.
Steve Benjamin
Mayor, City of Columbia
This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 5:01 PM.
