Protests call for end to Asian hate

Thousands of people rally across US calling for crackdown on racial crimes

Mourning and anger were on display across the United States on Saturday as people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds denounced anti-Asian racism and publicly grieved for Asian women shot dead in Georgia by a white gunman.

From Atlanta and New York to San Francisco and other cities and towns, thousands gathered with signs, candles and flowers grieving for the eight victims－six of them were women of Asian descent－of Tuesday's shootings in Atlanta. They demanded authorities crack down on hate crimes against Asians.

In New York, hundreds of protesters gathered in Times Square and marched to Manhattan's Chinatown. In a separate event in Manhattan's Washington Square Park, hundreds more held a vigil for the Atlanta victims.

In Atlanta, about 200 people marched through the streets to join a much larger rally in a park across from the Georgia State Capitol, chanting "Stop Asian hate" and "We are what America looks like".

At that rally, billed as a #StopAsianHate event that would allow people to "come together to grieve, heal and support", they cheered speakers, including newly elected Democratic Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff and Georgia State Representative Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American to serve in the Georgia House.

"No matter how you want to spin it, the facts remain the same. This was an attack on the Asian community," said Nguyen, an advocate for women and communities of color. She noted the shooter targeted businesses operated by women of Asian descent.

"Let's join hands with our ally community and demand justice for not only these victims but for all victims of white supremacy."

The tragedy has prompted an outpouring of support nationwide.

A GoFundMe campaign to help the family of one of the victims, a single mother of two, had raised nearly $2.3 million as of Saturday.

Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old white male, is accused of killing four people inside two Atlanta spas and four others at a massage business about 50 kilometers away in suburban Cherokee County on Tuesday. Another person was also shot but survived