March 19, 2021
On March 16, 2021, a White man with a gun killed eight people in three spas in Atlanta, Georgia and nearby Cherokee County.
NDEO stands with the Asian American community, the greater Atlanta area, the families and friends of the victims, and all those impacted by xenophobia and racialized, sexualized, and gender-based violence.
We mourn the eight victims - Soon Chung Park, Sun Cha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Hyun Jung Grant, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, and Paul Andre Michels. We hope for the recovery of Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, still in critical condition.
Six of the victims are of Asian descent; seven of them are women. While we do not fully know the motivations behind this dreadful attack, the murders fit a pattern of increasing violence and hate crimes against Asian Americans and Asian immigrants over the last year. Attacks against Asians in the United States have gone up 150% since the pandemic began. Although these violent and deadly attacks on Asian communities across the United States have received more media coverage in recent months, the actions perpetrated against these communities are certainly not new. The harmful rhetoric that contributes to these attacks can be found everywhere from jokes to hyper-sexualized portrayals of Asian women in movies, song lyrics, headlines, and even dances. To stop the violence, we must all work to stop the systems that uphold and embolden these acts - including in the language we use.
NDEO knows that we have a lot of work to do to combat white supremacy in our organization and in the field of dance education. We have launched a year-long organizational audit through the lens of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Nearly 100 members have already joined the initiative and there will be a survey going out to all members next month to provide reflections and input. We encourage all members to join us in this work by taking the time to study and apply resources to combat anti-Asian racism. We recommend this
list of resources from Americans for the Arts as a starting point.