Illustration by mailinhstudio
Last Tuesday, a white gunman in Atlanta, Georgia targeted Asian-owned businesses and killed 8 victims, 6 of whom were Asian women. The sadness of this tragedy has been sitting heavy in my body throughout the week, especially after months of reporting (mostly in Asian-centred media and resources, rarely in mainstream media) about anti-Asian racism during the pandemic. I've been retweeting and sharing information in between bouts of crying on the couch since the shooting. At the same time, I've been reluctant to speak about my own experiences until now. The instinct to always be the model minority, to brush things off and keep my head down and quietly succeed, runs strong.
