President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited  Atlanta, Georgia on Friday in an effort to address growing anger over their inaction on anti-Asian racism and hate crimes. The trip was originally planned as part of a multi-city tour to promote the benefits of the American Rescue Plan. During their visit Biden and Harris met with several state-level Asian American leaders. The visit came a day after a House Judiciary Subcommittee meeting to address anti-Asian hate. But Republican lawmakers, revealing clearly that they are part of the racist problems in America, fixated on their right to criticize the government of China. Across the nation, Asian Americans see the mass shootings in the Atlanta area this week that claimed the lives of 8 people including 6 Asian women, as the culmination of a year of hate. Their fears are well-founded as a new study shows racist anti-Asian social media posts spiked last year soon after then-President Donald Trump first began calling COVID-19, the “China virus” or “Chinese virus.”

As more details come to light about the Tuesday mass shooting eye witness accounts of the alleged shooter Robert Aaron Long rampaging with a gun he had just purchased paint a sordid picture of violence and blood. Police and media, after facing criticism for painting a sympathetic portrait of the suspect, are finally focusing on the victims of the attack. Police have just named all 8 victims comprising 6 Asian woman, 1 white woman and 1 white man: 74-year old Soon Park, 51-year old Hyun Grant, 69-year old Suncha Kim, 63-year old Yong Yue, 49-year old Xiaojie Tan, 44-year old Daoyou Feng, 33-year old Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, and 54-year old Paul Andre Michels. The incident could be a test case for a newly passed hate crimes law in Georgia. Two other incidents in different parts of the U.S. are now sparking speculation of copy-cat attacks including a shooting at a Seattle-area spa that left one Asian man wounded, and an attack on a 13-year old Asian American boy in New York where perpetrators allegedly hurled racist insults. 

In other news, the House on Thursday passed two major immigration reform bills that would help young immigrants who arrived to the U.S. as children and are registered in the DACA program to obtain legal status, as well as farm workers allowed into the U.S. The Dream and Promise Act passed 228-197 and if it became law would impact 2.5 million so-called “Dreamers” as well as those in the U.S.