Protesters took to the streets of cities across the United States over the weekend to condemn racism and hate crimes against Asian Americans, following last week’s deadly shooting in Atlanta which killed eight people, six of them women of Asian descent. The names of all the victims have been released: Xiaojie Tan, Yong Ae Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Suncha Kim, Hyun Jung Grant, Soon Chung Park, Daoyou Feng and Paul Andre Michels. Elcias Hernandez Ortiz, who survived the shooting, is in hospital in critical condition.

In New York, community leaders and elected officials gathered for a vigil Friday evening. This is Jeehae Fischer of the Korean American Family Service Center.

Jeehae Fischer: “These women are our mothers, our aunties, our sisters, our daughters, our loved ones. So, stop beating us! Stop cursing at us! Stop stabbing us! Stop killing us! Stop Asian hate!”

Protesters: “Stop Asian hate! Stop Asian hate! Stop Asian hate! Stop Asian hate! Stop Asian hate! Stop Asian hate!”

Jeehae Fischer: “And stop telling us 'Go back to China.' We belong here.”

President Biden and Vice President Harris met with Asian American leaders in Atlanta and addressed the mass shooting. This is Kamala Harris, who is the first Asian American and first woman vice president.

Vice President Kamala Harris: “Everyone has the right to go to work, to go to school, to walk down the street and be safe, and also the right to be recognized as an American, not as the other, not as them, but as us. A harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us.”

President Biden has urged Congress to quickly pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. Meanwhile, lawmakers and others have questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray’s statement last week that the shooting was apparently “not racially motivated.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on a proposal to reduce gun violence Tuesday. The Atlanta mass murderer purchased a 9 mm handgun just hours before Tuesday’s massacre at three area spas. The purchase was fully legal.