Gov. J.B. Pritzker and leaders in Illinois’ Asian American community gathered Monday to address last week’s mass shooting of eight people, six of them Asian women, in Georgia.
“I want the community in Illinois to know that I see you … and I want you to know that Illinois is your home,” Pritzker said, addressing the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, at Ping Tom Memorial Park in Chicago. “I will do everything in my power as governor to protect you and to welcome you.”
The mass shooting, which was preceded by a year of growing violence against Asian Americans, sparked outrage and grief from the Asian American community.
A 21-year-old white man has been charged with murder in the killings, which have widely been seen as racially motivated although Georgia police officials said they are still investigating the motive.
Pritzker said the attack was not an isolated incident, a fact that “the state of Illinois recognizes.”
“It was a year where the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities experienced racist scapegoating for the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “It was a year in which the occupant of the highest office in the land fueled the fire with his own hateful rhetoric.”
Amid the anger among Asian Americans is an overwhelming sense of fear.
“My heart hurts for Asian women across the country, and especially for those working in service industries. My heart hurts for my elders, who can’t even go grocery shopping without fear of violence,” Julia Ting, a Chicago chapter leader with the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, said Monday. “I am scared for them all and I am scared for myself.”
“This could have been any of our mothers,” Eva Nip, a lead organizer at the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, said.
State Rep. Theresa Mah, whose district includes Chinatown, said businesses have felt the effects of heightened xenophobia and racism in the past year.
Priztker encouraged residents to report any hate-motivated incidents or discrimination to the Illinois attorney general’s civil rights hotline at 1-877-581-3692.
The governor, Nip and other speakers urged the public to learn more about the history of Asian American discrimination in the U.S.
“This is a moment when every American should take time to reflect on what they’ve done and what more they can do to stand up against bigotry and intolerance,” Pritzker said.
