United StatesMurder in AtlantaRed lightsA gruesome shooting in Atlanta leaves Asian-Americans frightenedThe stretch of Piedmont Road in northeast Atlanta is usually quiet and dreary.Cracked asphalt and faded street signs give the area a rundown look,and blacked-out windows suggest illicit activity.This is Atlanta’s redlight district.At night, multicoloured lights flash from shopfront windows in a futile effort to brighten the atmosphere.On the evening of March 16th the colourful signage and lights illuminated a crime scene.Police officers guarded the perimeter of two spas, on opposite sides of the street,as other officers investigated a pair of shootings that left four people dead.An hour earlier another shooting, at Young’s Asian Massage in a nearby suburb, also killed four.Six of the eight dead were women of East Asian descent;the alleged shooter is a white man.Across the country, Asians and Asian-Americans wondered the same thing:was this yet another racially motivated crime against them?Shameful episodes of anti-Asian discrimination litter American history.The Chinese Exclusion Act, signed into law in 1882, barred Chinese immigrants from citizenship until 1943.
