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Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr recently offered his thoughts and sympathy to the victims and family members of the deadly shooting in Atlanta on Tuesday evening in a powerful series of tweets.
My heart goes out to the victims and surviving family members of the shootings in Atlanta yesterday.Once again our country faces the trauma of hate inspired mass murders. We have endured similar race or religion based atrocities at mosques,nightclubs, temples,schools & churches.
— Steve Kerr (@SteveKerr) March 17, 2021
even kill them???? We are all ‘accidents of birth.’ We are all born into this world with no choice as to our skin color or physical characteristics. We must value all human life and denounce anyone who displays racial/ethnic hatred in any form. We have to be better than this. We
— Steve Kerr (@SteveKerr) March 17, 2021
Off hand, ignorant remarks connecting Asian Americans to COVID-19 are leading to widespread racism, which turns into violence and even murder in our communities. We all have to do our part to stop this from happening again.
— Steve Kerr (@SteveKerr) March 17, 2021
The shooting in question occurred in three separate massage parlors in the Atlanta area. Eight lives were claimed in the shooting, at least six of which were women of Asian descent. The crime is presumed to be racially motivated based on the victims, and the fact that at least one of the establishments is directly advertised as being Asian-owned or ran. The primary suspect, Robert Aaron Long, has apparently denied any racial motivation to the eight charges of murder and one charge of aggravated assault.
This incident is only the latest in what looks like a climbing rate of Asian-targeted crimes, presumably aggravated by the origins of the global COVID-19 pandemic. This has also reignited an ongoing outcry against racial injustice in general, a conversation which has recently surged over the past months and was a central issue tackled in this past presidential race.
One of the most powerful voices and minority allies has been the Warriors coach, as Steve Kerr has historically been one of the strongest voices in the NBA community speaking out about racial injustice and inequality, especially over the past year. The NBA community itself has taken the reins of combatting racial injustice using its sizeable platform, with the issue taking central stage during last year's season-ending run in the playoff bubble at Disney World.
Aside from the Warriors tactician, NBA players like LeBron James and Jeremy Lin have also reacted to the devastating shooting. James, for his part, sent his condolences to the families of all the victims and condemned the suspect of the shooting for what he called a cowardly act that is just senseless.
