Georgia shootings: Lulu Wang and Mindy Kaling lead support for Asian American community

‘Enough is enough,’ said Kaling

Lulu Wang, Olivia Munn, Mindy Kaling and Daniel Dae Kim are among the celebrities who have spoken out in support of the Asian American community following shootings in Atlanta.

Eight people were killed in shootings at a number of Georgia massage parlours on Tuesday (16 March), a majority of them women of Asian descent. A 21-year-old man has been arrested.

Wang, who directed The Farewell and Posthumous, responded to a tweet by former NPR reporter Kat Chow that said: “I want to know their names, who and what they loved, the people they had waiting for them at home, everything they hoped for. I want to know the fabric of their days and the contexts of their lives.”

Wang wrote: “I know these women. The ones working themselves to the bone to send their kids to school, to send money back home. In too much pain to know what else to say so I’ll just leave this here.”

Read more - Man arrested after eight killed in shootings across Atlanta massage parlours

“The violent attacks and murders against Asians are still happening. Please help us. We need help to be safe in our country. #StopAsianHate. Please,” X-Men: Apocalypse star Munn tweeted.

The Mindy Project’s Mindy Kaling said “enough is enough” regarding the rise in anti-Asian hate speech and violence. She posted: “The targeting of our Asian brothers and sisters is sickening, but not surprising given the normalising of anti-Asian hate speech in the past year.”

The latest shootings follow a recent wave of attacks against Asian-Americans that have coincided with the spread of Covid-19 across the United States.

Around the country, Asian-American leaders say their communities are facing an increase in hate crimes, as coronavirus fuels xenophobia against Asian people.

Former president Donald Trump frequently branded the pandemic the “China virus” and “Kung Flu”, despite warnings from the World Health Organisation not to use geographic locations when naming illnesses.