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We, faculty and staff members of the Sociology Department at Syracuse University, are deeply saddened and outraged by the mass murders that took place in Atlanta on March 16th 2021. Among the eight persons who were tragically killed, six were Asian-American women - Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Xiaojie Tan, and Daoyou Feng. These murders are not isolated events. During the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 3,800 hate incidents have been reported in the U.S., and Asian women have been more than twice as likely to be targeted as men. Discriminatory rhetoric, including references to COVID-19 as the "China Virus," among other hatefully racialized phrases, stoke violence across the country. We strongly condemn these repeated expressions of hate speech and the horrific violence against persons of Asian descent sweeping across the U.S. and other parts of the world. Our thoughts are with all the victims and the communities impacted, including Asian and Asian American students and faculty in our department who have to personally process these painful events and still conduct their academic careers with professionalism. We recognize that these recent events are part of the historical and systematic exclusions targeting Asians in the U.S. We are committed to building an inclusive learning environment grounded in combating all kinds of racism. We pledge to keep educating ourselves about more and better ways to support our Asian and Asian American colleagues and students, as well as other communities negatively impacted by racism.
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