Declaring ‘silence is complicity,’ Biden vows action to stop hate crimes

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris traveled on Friday to Atlanta to express grief for the victims of a mass shooting that left eight people dead, six of them women of Asian descent, describing the tragedy as part of an increase in racially motivated violence and pledging to take action against hate and discrimination.
The gruesome shootings on Tuesday in Atlanta thrust Biden and Harris into the middle of a national struggle to confront the harassment and violence against Asian Americans from people angry about the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than a half-million people.
“They’ve been attacked, blamed, scapegoated and harassed. They’ve been verbally assaulted, physically assaulted, killed,” Biden lamented after a meeting with leaders of Atlanta’s Asian American community that he described as heart-wrenching to be part of.
“It’s been a year of living in fear for their lives,” the president said.
Biden expressed empathy for the victims’ families, who he said were left with “broken hearts and unanswered questions.” And he said Americans should take responsibility for failing to express enough outrage about the targeting of people of Asian descent during the pandemic.
“Because our silence is complicity,” he said. “We cannot be complicit. We have to speak out. We have to act.”
Biden had by his side the nation’s first vice president of Asian descent, who was — just through her presence — a powerful symbol of efforts to reject racial animosity and bias.
“Racism is real in America, and it has always been,” Harris said, speaking before Biden. “Xenophobia is real in America, and always has been. Sexism, too.”
Harris, whose mother was born in India, confronted the doubts expressed by some about whether the killings in Atlanta were racially motivated. Investigators in Cherokee County, Georgia, have said that the gunman told them he had a “sexual addiction” and had carried out the attacks as a way to eliminate temptation.
Among those who met privately with Biden and Harris before the speeches was Marvin Lim, a Georgia state lawmaker who said that he felt gratified that the new administration had taken the time to come and listen.
He said he was touched by Harris, who he said ended their session by asking those present to tell their community members that “they are not alone.”