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Understanding the Context of Mass Murder Within Our Own Ethnic or Racial Communities: Monterey Park Shooting After Lunar New Year 2023
As hurt as I am, I will say this regarding violence committed in our communities by our own.
With a heavy heart, I wish you each 새해 복 많이 받으세요. Happy Lunar New Year. I hold my heart out as I pen this article in honor of the lives lost in the Monterey Park Shooting. My heart and soul hurt as we continue to feel the impact of the intersection of gun violence, racism, and the trauma of chronic racialized self hatred in our own communities.
We ring in the most celebrated Korean/AAPI holiday today touched once again, with grief, sadness, and hurt.
Early in the morning hours, we all slept soundly at my home. We had a night of hosting good friends and family with delicious food, soju cocktails, and traditions abound made to fill us with new life and renewed spirits for the coming year ahead. Meanwhile, our brothers and sisters in Monterey Park in LA fell victim to mass gun violence.
I awoke to post our photos accompanying cute GIFs of rabbits and lanterns and well wishes online, and was instead greeted with a barrage of headlines and messages by prominent AAPI women I follow in journalism and policy.
