As we just told you, authorities in Georgia have not yet determined if race played any part in the murder of 8 people at three different massage parlors, 6 of whom were Asian-American:
Ted Lieu links Trump to Atlanta-area shootings of Asian-American women that police say may not be racially motivated https://t.co/TmARuquJEN
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) March 17, 2021
But that’s not stopping a bunch of blue-checks from telling us that even though authorities have yet to determine that the crime was racially motivated, the crime was racially motivated.
From Judd Legum who says we shouldn’t take the suspects “word for it” just because he, you know, admitted to the killings to police:
They guy who just murdered six Asian women says it wasn't racially motivated but maybe we should not just take his word for it
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 17, 2021
And Jennifer Rubin agrees:
just as we do not take racists' excuses that they are not saying racist things
— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) March 17, 2021
San Francisco District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney thinks “they” are “already working to frame this as being about ‘sex addiction’ or ‘lashing out'”:
They are already working to frame this as being about "sex addiction" or "lashing out," rather than about anti-Asian, misogynist hate and violence. #StopAAPIHate #StopAsianHate
— Matt Haney (@MattHaneySF) March 17, 2021
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Is this the “they” he means?
Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant on whether shootings at three separate spas that left multiple people dead was a hate crime: “We are still early in this investigation, so we cannot make that determination at this moment.” https://t.co/gcqyHPElJq pic.twitter.com/nlPCOGiuCq
— ABC News (@ABC) March 17, 2021
Journo Vivian Ho says this was a “fetishization of Asian women” and that’s “in itself racist”:
A “sex addiction,” not racism, with no acknowledgment that the fetishization of Asian women is in itself racist. That just by pure bad luck, the shooter happened to choose three Asian-owned businesses. https://t.co/tSb5YfAI3P
— Vivian Ho (@VivianHo) March 17, 2021
Chicago-based editor Dawn Rhodes is already criticizing her colleagues at other news orgs for their “trash” coverage of the crime:
So much reporting on this tragedy is going to be trash. It's a white male perpetrator so the powers that be are going to offer every excuse to minimize his accountability. And our industry is wholly unequipped to write about racism, white supremacy and how that breeds violence
— Dawn Rhodes ? (@rhodes_dawn) March 17, 2021
And The Daily Beasts cautions reporters not to close the book on race as a factor:
It's important for reporters to be cautious and report out the facts, but quickly closing the book on race as a factor just because the guy says he's not racist seems silly. When you deliberately murder 6 Asian women, it says something about the value you place on their lives.
— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) March 17, 2021
Finally, here’s MSNBC’s Hayes Brown saying, no matter what authorities determine, “it is still about race and power structures”:
Which, in fact, means it is stll about race and power structures, even as his direct motivation was overwhelming misogyny.
— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) March 17, 2021
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