Dear President Wippman,
On March 17, 2021, you wrote a letter to the Hamilton community regarding the murders of eight individuals, six of whom were Asian women. In your letter of “solidarity,” you state: “While the motivation for this terrible crime is still being investigated, it comes in the wake of an appalling series of attacks on Asian Americans around the country.”
Mainstream media hesitate — refuse — to call the murders racially motivated. To disregard race in this instance would not only be an act of dismissing this country’s history of violence against Asian immigrants and Asian Americans since the 19th century, but it also plays into the minimization of such violence that has long been used to keep these narratives invisible. To ignore the sexualized racism against women of Asian descent is to ignore the history of U.S. wars and military occupation in Asia, which has continued to directly shape their fetishization and objectification today. The young, white, armed man specifically targeted three Asian-operated massage parlors and was apprehended on his way to target more. These were not random acts.
As the leader of Hamilton College, hesitating to recognize and acknowledge the killing spree as a blatant act of racism — under the cover of an ongoing investigation — is offensive, irresponsible, and cowardly. Your words lingered in our heads for days — we could not get the discomfort out of our bodies. We cannot separate this act of violence from imperialism, from misogyny, from white supremacy. We cannot wait for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, who described the gunman as having had “a really bad day,” to declare the killings as racially motivated. This was premeditated. This was a hate crime. And this was not an isolated, individual case. In the latest incident of anti-Asian violence, on March 30, a Filipino woman was attacked outside the lobby of an apartment building in Manhattan. Not only did the security guard fail to intervene, he closed the front door. There is a thin line between perpetrating a crime and being a bystander.
In light of your current DEI initiative, we are requesting to meet with you and possibly other leaders of the initiative so we have a chance to raise our voices and to provide input on this important work.
Sincerely,
Kavya Crasta ‘21
Julia Dupuis ‘21
Shavell Jones ‘21
Lynn Kim ‘21
Danny Kyung Harwood ‘21
Professor Jaime Kucinskas
Jin Lee ‘22
Rachel Lu ‘22
Chaplain Jeff McArn
Jonina Mignon ‘21
Professor Margo Okazawa-Rey
Professor Kyoko Omori
Lily Qiu ‘22
Saphire Ruiz ‘22
Eric Stenzel ‘24
Professor Pavitra Sundar
Professor Yen Vu
Professor Steve Yao
