Is the mere act of only targeting Asian-descent women at massage parlors not evidence of racism? Yeah he didn’t write a manifesto (that we know of) before doing these murders, but damn I feel like this is an awfully high level epistemological standards.
I’ve read (and I am taking with a grain of salt) that he was seen at those places before/has visited as a patron and it’s frankly just as likely this is more specific to targeting sex workers/women than a straight up racism thing. Of course, it can also be a combination of these factors, or we can step back and discuss the myriad of factors why asian women were the majority of workers there, etc. I’m not trying to discount the element race plays into this, at all, but it has also been odd seeing people online parading around a single, likely faked, screenshot as proof not only of this asshole’s intent, but also as like the “poster child” for how the media’s rhetoric is inspiring violence. I think it’s reasonably fair to assume that race was a factor, but was this necessarily motivated by covid-19 coverage, as people claim? I don’t know, personally
Edit, just dropping some links as for why doubt the screenshot’s authenticity
Fair point, I still don’t think DivineChaos was right in dismissing the racial aspect of these murders as baseless suspicions.
