Why Is the Media and the U.S. Government Making the Atlanta Shootings About Asian American Hate Crime?

It’s like pulling teeth to get so many agencies to get on board that a crime against African Americans is a hate crime. But, when violence occurs against Asian Americans, immediately “hate crime” is attached to their tragedies to make their tragedies more significant.

I have a few theories for sure. One, when a crime is labeled a “hate crime” versus just a crime committed by a “lone wolf” with mental issues, the case immediately takes on a whole new meaning.

First, there is suddenly more federal resources available to expedite the investigation and a resolution to the case. Everything becomes heightened. The media attention, the stiffer punishments for the perpetrator and the money given to the victims.

As an African American woman who has lived in America my entire life with generations of family members going back to when America was founded, it is difficult for me to watch the stark contrast in how violence against Asian Americans is approached compared to how African American tragedies are handled here in America.

It’s beyond angering.

My ancestors built the country that everyone, but African Americans, profit off of. Yet, the lack of respect and concern for African Americans is palpable and clearly evident in showing who America doesn’t value.

Since the 1600s, my ancestors were brought to America’s shores on ships in chains. My ancestors were packed like sardines in these ships where many of them died, some plunging to their deaths to escape a life of the unknown that surely wouldn’t end well for them.

My ancestors were forced to build a country for everyone to benefit off of, except them.

They were raped repeatedly, sometimes to “breed" more “slaves” for the farm to cut costs for the slaves owners. Shouldn’t we all be so proud of how economical these slaves masters were being when treating my family members as property and not human beings?

Sometimes, they were raped just because the slave owners or their family members felt like it.

Yet, to this day, Black women and girls are told we are least desirable and more…