The Atlanta Massacre Is Yet Another Reminder We Desperately Need Race-Conscious Discipleship

Most people don’t understand how Asian Americans have been racialized and how racism actually impacts us.

My phone started lighting up with notifications. By now, when this happens, it’s usually because an incident involving race has occurred. As I picked up my phone, I saw the words, “8 shot dead in Atlanta.” My stomach dropped. All I could say to myself was: “Lord, have mercy. Not again. No more.”

At the start of the pandemic, anyone who had even a basic understanding of how race functions in society knew the rhetoric of former President Donald Trump would lead to discrimination, targeting and violence against Asian Americans. This is why we at the Asian American Christian Collaborative wrote the “Statement on Anti-Asian Racism in the Time of COVID-19.” As we watched the number of incidents reported to Stop AAPI Hate, we knew that we were about to see another spike of anti-Asian racism. What we hoped was for efforts like ours to get the church to speak up against anti-Asian racism.

With more than 12,000 signatures, and pastors from small congregations to nationally recognized ones preaching about the rise in violence against Asian Americans, I believed the church could potentially help prevent some of the incidents we would see. But as time passed, and as the news cycle moved on to the next thing, it was clear Asian American issues, despite the continued struggles and pains we faced, would fall off the radar — including within the church. Read More

Also See:
500 Years of Anti-Asian Violence. It Must End Now.
Silent No More: Political Activism in the Asian American Church