Racist mass murder in Buffalo, USA

This 15 May 2022 video says about itself:

An 18-year-old white gunman opened fire at a supermarket in a Black neighbourhood in the US city of Buffalo, killing 10 people in what authorities called an act of “racially motivated violent extremism”.

From the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in the USA today:

Yesterday, an 18-year-old white supremacist shot and killed at least 10 individuals in a shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket that law enforcement is treating as a hate crime. In response, LDF President and Director-Counsel Janai S. Nelson issued the following statement:

“We send our deepest condolences to the victims of the racially-motivated shooting targeting Black people in Buffalo, New York. This horrific rampage is another in the long line of distinctly American mass shootings that combine racism and gun violence. This is a deepening crisis for which we must be prepared to make all the necessary sacrifices to peacefully bring to an end the scourge of hate.

“Black Americans are the leading targets for hate crimes in our country, but we also continue to witness increases in anti-Semitic attacks, as well as violence against the Latino, Asian, Muslim, and LGBTQ+ communities. The frequency and intensity of this violence has been super charged in part by social media, which provides a virtually unchecked platform for hate speech and the encouragement of violent actions. And, as we have seen by the number of attacks that have been live-streamed, a built-in audience for hate.

“Social media companies are not alone in having created this environment, however, as cable television has increasingly become a home for what were once seen as extremist views. Indeed, the Great Replacement Theory, which a shocking one in three Americans now believes to be true, has found a mainstream home on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program after being previously cited by four mass shooters – including those who committed the heinous crimes in Oslo, Norway; Christchurch, New Zealand; Dayton, Ohio; and El Paso, Texas.

…

“Unless we want to be a nation riven by increasing violence and terror, all of us – not just those of us who are the targets – must act now to end the propagation of hate speech and unchecked access to militaristic weapons that are trained on our communities.”

BUFFALO SUSPECT EMBRACED RACIST ‘REPLACEMENT’ CONSPIRACY PUSHED BY TUCKER CARLSON The teenager charged in the fatal shooting at a Buffalo supermarket was haunted in his writing by the “great replacement” conspiracy theory — a viciously racist view of the world that has been touted by Fox News host Tucker Carlson that white Americans are at risk of being replaced by people of color. The No. 3 House Republican, Elise Stefanik, also echoed the racist conspiracy. The accused shooter had threatened a shooting at his high school in June. [HuffPost]

BUFFALO SUSPECT PLANNED SECOND KILL SITE The white gunman accused of a racist rampage at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket planned to keep killing at a second location if he escaped the first scene, the police commissioner said. Authorities investigated the massacre of Black people as a hate crime and act of domestic terrorism. The troubled gunman’s legal purchase of an assault-style rifle raises new questions about so-called red flag laws. And the continuing rash of American mass killings shows “you can’t even go to the damn store in peace,” as a Buffalo resident put it. [AP]

Racist killer Rittenhouse acquitted in the USA

This 20 November 2021 MSNBC video from the USA says about itself:

Legal analyst Maya Wiley On Rittenhouse Verdict: ‘We’re In More Danger Today Than Yesterday’

From the Legal Defence Fund of the NAACP in the USA:

Today, Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted on three counts of first-degree reckless homicide, use of a dangerous weapon, and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, use of a dangerous weapon for the respective killings of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, as well as the shooting of Gaige Grosskreutz in August 2020.

In response, LDF President and Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill issued the following statement:

“Kyle Rittenhouse traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, [crossing state lines] in response to protests over the unjust police shooting of Jacob Blake and armed himself with a semi-automatic rifle he believed was unlawful for him to own. Rittenhouse lied about being a medical professional, then shot and killed two people while injuring a third. Despite numerous confrontations in the streets on Kenosha and the presence of other armed individuals, Rittenhouse was the only person who shot and killed someone that night. After Rittenhouse shot multiple people and called his friend stating, ‘I just killed someone,’ he then approached law enforcement officers and apparently disobeyed their commands; but was still able to walk away without being arrested.

“Fifteen days prior to that deadly evening, Rittenhouse was recorded saying that he wished he had his rifle in order to shoot some men he believed were shoplifters. Months after the shootings in Kenosha, Rittenhouse was seen at a bar flashing a white power sign as men reportedly sang the anthem of the white nationalist Proud Boys group to him. Wisconsin’s guns laws have been repeatedly loosened, strengthening the ability to carry openly in 2011, and loosening other protections in 2015, opening the door for people to brazenly transport and carry weapons, including semi-automatic rifles, with[out] substantial protections.

“Rittenhouse’s actions before, after, and during that night in Kenosha, and the impunity afforded to his actions do not exist in isolation from the larger context of racism, lax gun laws, and the deep flaws in our criminal justice system that so powerfully shape public life in this country.

“We should not forget that these killings took place amid protests in Kenosha. The history of protest is integral to the fight for racial justice in this country and there remains a concerted attack to encroach on this right. Rittenhouse’s conduct must be understood within an environment in which armed militias and vigilantes are acting to silence protesters, and where state legislatures have advanced anti-protest bills in the aftermath of demonstrations calling for racial justice.

“While the actions of all parties during the trial will be scrutinized over time, the acquittal of Rittenhouse on all charges, and the lauding of him as a hero, by right-wing elected leaders and others, will embolden would-be vigilantes who intimidate protestors demanding racial justice to believe that they can escape accountability for their violence.”

Anti-Asian American racism

This 8 August 1980 video from the USA says about itself:

Asian American History, Labor, Xenophobia & The Japanese American & Japanese Peruvian Internment

The history of racism against Asians and Asian Americans in the US goes back more than 150 years. This panel looks at part of this history including the internment of Japanese Americans and Japanese Peruvians in the US during the 2nd World War. It also looks at the denialism around the ‘Comfort Women’ and the history of China-bashing by the US.

As the pandemic drags on, Asian Americans are still being attacked.

Islamophobic massacre in Canada

This 8 June 2021 video from Canada says about itself:

Reaction from the Muslim community as 4 family members killed in London, Ont. vehicular attack

Members of the Muslim community react to the tragedy that occurred Sunday evening in London, Ont., which saw four members of the same family killed when they were struck by a vehicle in what police believe was a targeted act due to their faith.

Three adults and a teenager were killed when they were struck by the vehicle, said Chief Steve Williams on Monday. A child from the same family is in serious, but non-life-threatening condition.

Global News’ Catherine McDonald and Erica Vella report.

DRIVER IN CANADA KILLS 4 IN SUSPECTED ISLAMOPHOBIC ATTACK A Canadian man is accused of hitting five members of a Muslim family who were out for a walk with his car on Sunday night, killing four of them in what police suspect was a premeditated attack motivated by Islamophobia. Police in London, Ontario, have charged a 20-year-old Canadian with first-degree murder. [HuffPost]

Linda Lindas, teenage punk girls band

This 16 June 2019 video from the USA says about itself:

The Linda Lindas are Mila (8), Eloise (11), Lucia (12), and Bela (14).

This 11 August 2019 is called The Linda Lindas – Linda Linda [LIVE]

You can see a bit in these videos that this band of enthusiastic preteen/teenage girl musicians were still learning then … but look at how fantastically they have progressed now that they are two years older! No more need for a guest bass player like in the top video etc.

This 21 May 2021 video is called The Linda Lindas – “Racist, Sexist Boy” (Live at LA Public Library).

Now 10-year-old drummer Mila drums and sings at the same time. Far from easy.

The song is about anti-Asian racism in the USA.

This 21 May 2021 video says about itself:

Official video of punk band, The Linda Lindas, performing a mashup cover of Bikini Kill’s Rebel Girl and The Muffs’ Big Mouth in Moxie 🖤★

Look at that audience, like a sea on a stormy day. Many of them girls in their early teens. A bit reminiscent of this concert in 1980. Some writings depict that age group as stupid musically, incapable of anything but screaming and swooning as manufactured boring boy bands perform. That may be true for some individuals. But it was not true for the whole category in 1980, and it is not true now.

This 22 May 2021 video says about itself:

Teen punk rockers, The Linda Lindas, are going viral with their original song “Racist Sexist Boy.”

Anti-Semitism among Florida pro-Batista Cuban Americans

An interesting 27 April 2021 article by Jordan Levin in the USA. Though maybe it talks too much about people of Latin American ancestry in general, while in fact, anti-Semitism is especially a problem among the part of Cuban Americans who prefer the pre-1959 Batista dictatorship in Cuba, supported by the CIA, to the post-1959 situation.

Some quotes:

Antisemitism rises among Hispanic Miami’s right wing

The graffiti messages scrawled around Miami in March, on the eve of Passover and Holocaust Remembrance Day, were shocking: “The Jews are the Problem” “Zionism is Satanism.”

Most ominously in this city filled with Cubans … was this one: “Communism is Judaism.”

The phrase echoed a trend towards antisemitism in Miami’s right-wing Hispanic political circles that have come to dominate this bellwether city:

•In 2018 Miami-based Radio Television Marti, the federally funded broadcaster of anti-Communist messaging to Cuba, ran a report blaming Soros for orchestrating the 2008 financial collapse, and supporting narco-terrorism and Cuban schemes. … the report was exposed and denounced as antisemitic in 2019.

•Last year, Libre, a 40-page Spanish-language insert published by a longtime right-wing Cuban exile activist and filled with racist, extremist opinion pieces, was distributed in El Nuevo Herald, the Miami Herald’s sister paper, for 32 weeks. The op-eds said Black Lives Matter was worse than the Nazis, called out Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg as Jews, and compared American Jews to Cubans brainwashed by communism. Following public backlash, El Nuevo Herald’s managing editor resigned and the Miami Herald’s publisher and executive editor lost her position as publisher.

•Last October a group of over 150 parents, including Vince Lago, the recently-elected mayor of the prosperous municipality of Coral Gables, the former speaker of the Florida House, and other prominent figures, sent a letter to an elite private Catholic girls school, castigating it for launching an anti-racism program in response to numerous reports of racism among students and faculty. The letter cited the malign influence of “Cultural Marxism” and the Frankfurt School, parroting a conspiracy theory that blames progressive U.S. social and racial justice movements on German Jewish scholars who fled the Nazis. …

But Rivero says he frequently encountered “Jews are communists” and other antisemitic posts in conservative Cuban social media groups during 2020, as well as death threats from Trump supporters. …

Antisemitism rose across the U.S. during the Trump administration.

But the insular nature of Miami’s Hispanic community, particularly among a conservative Cuban faction that has reversed a years-long moderating trend to become politically dominant again, appears to be magnifying that tilt here, while making it more acceptable for leaders to ignore or even encourage the slide towards prejudice.

No politician condemned the antisemitic graffiti. The signatories on the Catholic school letter, which was covered by the Miami Herald and the Miami New Times, defended their calls to abandon teaching about racism.

“The idea that equality and racial equity are rooted in a socialist Jewish group – that’s ridiculous,” said Billy Corben, the Jewish filmmaker lambasted by the Miami commissioner, who first exposed the letter on Twitter. “You cannot minimize the impact of these very powerful and influential policymakers who have signed this letter.”

Jessica Landsberg, a young political operative who has worked on several local campaigns, and whose father is Jewish and mother is Cuban, was disturbed by the “communism is Judaism” and other anti-Semitic graffiti – and frustrated no one denounced it.

“That there’s no conversation that long after the Holocaust antisemitism is alive in a city with one of the largest Jewish populations is disappointing,” said Landsberg, 23. “The graffiti is just the latest thing. I’ve been repeating for the last few years that antisemitism is not just alive but on the rise.” …

Perez and Soibel emphasize that they do not believe most of Miami’s Hispanics are antisemitic. But because Hispanics, and Cubans in particular, dominate politics in Miami-Dade and are so influential in Florida, and in U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, a shift in attitude towards Jews here has the potential for much wider influence.

Racist vandalism and killing in the USA

This 2015 video from the USA is called Islamic Society of Fargo/Moorhead Hosts Open House.

FBI INVESTIGATES MOSQUE VANDALISM The FBI is investigating hate messages found vandalized on a mosque that sits on the border of North Dakota and Minnesota. The Moorhead Fargo Islamic Center was spray-painted with anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic and racist messages during Ramadan. [HuffPost]

FAMILY: POLICE ‘EXECUTED’ N.C. MAN Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man killed by deputies in North Carolina, was shot in the back of the head and had his hands on his car steering wheel when they opened fire, attorneys for his family said. His death on Wednesday led to nightly protests and demands for justice in the town of Elizabeth City. Seven deputies are on leave pending investigation. [AP]

ANDREW BROWN JR. AUTOPSY REPORT RELEASED Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man killed by deputies in North Carolina, was shot five times, including in the back of the head, according to an independent autopsy report. A judge will consider today whether to make body camera footage public. [AP]

LINDSEY GRAHAM: ‘NO’ SYSTEMIC RACISM HERE Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on “Fox News Sunday” systemic racism doesn’t exist in the U.S., pointing to the elections of former President Barack Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris to back up his claim. The ensuing online criticism of that statement was swift and fierce. [HuffPost]

FEDS LAUNCH LOUISVILLE POLICE PROBE The Justice Department is opening a probe into policing in Louisville, Kentucky, over the March 2020 death of Breonna Taylor, who was shot to death by police during a raid at her home, Attorney General Merrick Garland said. Garland has said there is not yet equal justice under the law and promised to bring a critical eye to racism and legal issues when he took the job. [AP]

POLICE KNEELED ON MAN’S BACK BEFORE HE DIED Police released footage of the events leading to the death of Mario Gonzalez, a 26-year-old Latino man in Alameda, California, showing officers kneeling on the man’s back and shoulder until he became unresponsive. The video contradicts officials’ original account of the confrontation. Three officers involved have been placed on administrative leave. [HuffPost]

ASSAILANT SOUGHT IN VICIOUS NYC ATTACK OF ASIAN MAN A 61-year-old Asian man is in critical condition after police in New York City said he was knocked to the ground and kicked multiple times in his head in a disturbing attack that comes just weeks after a similar assault on an Asian American woman near Times Square. Surveillance video shows the suspect attacking Yao Pan Ma on Friday night then casually walking away. [HuffPost]

Black Minnesota man killed by police, again

This 12 April 2021 video from Minnesota, USA is called Brooklyn Center Police Fire Tear Gas On People Protesting Daunte Wright’s Death

FRESH UNREST NEAR MINNEAPOLIS Police fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop just outside Minneapolis on Sunday, inflaming tensions in the region again while former police officer Derek Chauvin is on trial over the death of George Floyd last year. The police shooting of Daunte Wright, 20, in the city of Brooklyn Center, sparked large protests. [HuffPost]

CONVICTION WAS AN ANOMALY Each year, police shoot and kill roughly 1,000 people. But from early 2005 to June 2019, only 104 non-federal law enforcement officers were arrested on murder or manslaughter charges related to an on-duty shooting, and only 35 were convicted of a crime. Chauvin’s conviction was an anomaly. [HuffPost]

TEEN GIRL IN OHIO KILLED BY POLICE A teenage girl was shot dead by a police officer in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday afternoon, about the same time that a jury in Minneapolis was returning guilty verdicts against Chauvin. Family members of the victim identified the girl as a “loving” and “sweet” teenager named Ma’Khia Bryant. [HuffPost]

COPS KEEP KILLING BLACK PEOPLE AFTER CHAUVIN VERDICT Police officers in Ohio, California and North Carolina have killed Black people since former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd, a grim list of deaths at police hands that keeps growing. [AP]

MINNESOTA POLICE HARASS JOURNALISTS AT PROTESTS Minnesota police aggressively arrested a CNN producer and assaulted multiple other members of the press covering protests over the police shooting of Daunte Wright last week, according to an attorney representing dozens of news outlets. Some journalists also reported being harassed and intimidated by police. [HuffPost]

Anticipating mass protests over the summary execution of 13-year-old Adam Toledo by Chicago police on March 29, prosecutors from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, city officials and local media are seeking to portray the boy as a hardened gang member, justifying the police murder. Despite these attempts to shift blame away from the Chicago Police Department (CPD), Toledo’s death has shed further light on the lawlessness and brutality that characterize police operations in working class neighborhoods: here.

‘ASSASSINATION’ IN CHICAGO Chicago’s police oversight group released footage of an officer fatally shooting a 13-year-old boy more than two weeks ago. Police said the shooting followed an “armed confrontation” with Adam Toledo, but video footage showed no gun in the boy’s hand and that he complied by putting his hands up. “If you’re shooting an unarmed child with his hands in the air, it is an assassination,” Adeena Weiss-Ortiz, the Toledo family’s attorney, said. [HuffPost]

Murderous anti-Asian racism in the USA

This 18 March 2020 video from United States TV says about itself:

Six of the eight victims in the Atlanta shooting spree were of Asian descent, and the attack came as Asian Americans face increased discrimination, hate and violence. NBC investigative and consumer correspondent Vicky Nguyen reports for In Depth TODAY.

Atlanta shootings expose growth of anti-Asian violence in the US. A subcommittee of the House of Representatives held a hearing on Thursday entitled “Discrimination and Violence Against Asian Americans,” the first time the US Congress has addressed the issue since the 1980s when Chinese American Vincent Chin was murdered: here.

LET’S CALL IT WHAT IT IS The words “racist misogyny” need to enter the conversation about the Atlanta spa shootings, writes HuffPost’s Brittany Wong. Police said it was “too early” to determine if racism was at play after a gunman fatally shot eight people, including six women of Asian descent. The fetishization of Asian women is, in itself, racist. [HuffPost]

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE VICTIMS Xiaojie “Emily” Tan was a business owner and “the sweetest person you’d ever meet,” said a friend and customer. Cherokee County officials have released the identities of the five people shot ― four of whom were killed ― at Young’s Asian Massage, the first spa where the gunman opened fire Tuesday. [HuffPost]

2 ASIAN WOMEN STABBED IN SAN FRANCISCO Two older Asian women were stabbed on the street while waiting for the bus in San Francisco this week as anti-Asian violence rises nationwide. They are recovering from their injuries. “San Francisco is my home and my Grandma’s home. We need to feel safe where we live and not in constant fear,” wrote the granddaughter of one of the victims. [HuffPost]

WHEN LAW ENFORCEMENT FAILS HATE CRIME VICTIMS  Police statements in Atlanta served as a reminder of the failures of the American criminal justice system, specifically when it comes to investigating crimes that stem from race-based bias and hatred, writes HuffPost’s Rowaida Abdelaziz. Police are often reluctant or refuse to liken crimes to racial animus, which only further traumatizes people in the targeted community. [HuffPost]

pic.twitter.com/rNQljM64c9

— Chris Brown (@chrisbrown2075) March 19, 2021

Racist, sexist massacres Asian women, Atlanta, USA

This 17 March 2020 video about the USA says about itself:

Robert Aaron Long, a White Supremacist with ‘passion for guns & God‘ arrested after 8 Asians killed

#AtlantaShootings​: Suspect, 21, with ‘passion for guns and God‘ arrested after eight killed.. 6 Asian women, 1 White man & 1 White woman at three separate massage parlors in a span of 1 hour

White supremacist propaganda nearly doubled in 2020 to most in a decade, ADL says: here.

A 17 March 2020 video about the USA used to say about itself:

At least eight people have been killed in a series of shootings at three Atlanta area massage parlors. Authorities described a number of victims as women of Asian descent. A 21-year-old man, Robert Aaron Long, has been taken into custody. The first shooting occurred at Young’s Asian Massage near Acworth in Cherokee county, just north-west of Atlanta. Police officers responded to a reported robbery at Gold Spa in the city’s north-east and were then alerted to another shooting across the street at the Aromatherapy Spa.

This 17 March 2020 video about the USA says about itself:

All but one of the people killed were women and six of them were Asians.

First, I wish strength and healing for the surviving relatives and friends of this heinous mass murder.

This massacre is a consequence of preceding anti-Asian racism and misogyny. Ever since then United States President Donald Trump started an anti-China witchhunt to deflect anger about his mismanagement of the coronavirus disaster, with a little help of the Rupert Murdoch media empire, there came a wave of racism and violence against people of (perceived) Chinese or other Asian ancestry. In the USA, also in other countries like Britain and the Netherlands. Similarly, the anti-women stance of the Trump administration also likely influenced this Georgia, USA mass killer Long.

CHINA PARANOIA FUELS ANTI-ASIAN RACISM Former President Trump spent years demonizing China and perpetuating anti-Asian sentiments. Joe Biden condemned anti-Asian racism in his first speech as president and signed an executive order, but his administration continues to mostly describe China as a threat — language that could be dangerous for Asian Americans. [HuffPost]

MASSAGE SPA MASSACRE NEAR ATLANTA At least eight people, including six of Asian descent, were killed during three shootings at massage spas in the Atlanta area. Police arrested 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, of Woodstock, Georgia. While there still aren’t concrete details about the killer’s motive, the country has seen a “documented pattern of recent attacks against our community,” said Stop AAPI Hate, a collective of advocacy organizations for Asian American and Pacific Islander people. [HuffPost]

‘BAD DAY’ COP PROMOTED RACISM Capt. Jay Baker, a spokesperson for the Cherokee County sheriff’s office, said the man charged with the Atlanta shootings wasn’t motivated by race. But HuffPost verified that Baker has used his Facebook account to promote merchandise that demonized the Asian community over the coronavirus. [HuffPost]

INCIDENTS OF ANTI-ASIAN RACISM SOAR For more than a year, Asian Americans have faced an alarming deluge of racist attacks and harassment, such as being shunned, spit on and denied services. While the current wave of racism is tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s one chapter of a long history of racism and discrimination against Asian Americans, writes HuffPost’s Marina Fang. [HuffPost]

I’m Asian. I’ve spent the last year in constant fear of attack.

TERROR TEARS THROUGH ASIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES A white gunman was charged Wednesday with killing eight people at three Atlanta-area massage spas in an attack that sent terror through the Asian American community, which has increasingly been targeted during the pandemic. The shootings appear to be at the “intersection of gender-based violence, misogyny and xenophobia,” said Georgia state Rep. Bee Nguyen. [AP]

HOW TO HELP Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Asian Americans have reported being targeted in nearly 4,000 hate incidents nationwide. If you want to help, first recognize that the community is under attack, and then take action. Activists and advocates share eight things you can do to help the community as an ally. [HuffPost]