Early evening on March 28, around 40 protestors, organizers and speakers gathered in downtown Albuquerque near the Bernalillo County Courthouse. Standing beneath the “View From Gold Mountain,” a large sculpture commemorating a landmark case in Chinese-American civil rights history, they came together to decry the recent string of murders in the Atlanta area.
On March 16, six women of Asian descent were killed in multiple shooting sprees, carried out by a single white male at Atlanta spas and massage parlors. Though the suspect told police he was motivated by an addiction to sex, the shootings were nonetheless denounced as anti-Asian and misogynistic hate crimes.
Such was the topic of several speakers at the protest, who also condemned an uptick in anti-Asian language and violence occurring since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. In between chants, speakers rallied protestors in decrying forces of white supremacy, misogyny and capitalism.
The protest was one of many nationwide protests organized by the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition. Other organizers and sponsors included the UNM Chinese Students and Scholars Association, the UNM Asian American Students Association and Stop the War Machine, an Albuquerque-based anti-war group. Also in attendance, loaning signs bearing rallying cries such as “U.S. Gov’t & Media: Stop China-Bashing,” was Albuquerque’s local Party for Socialism and Liberation chapter.
Beginning around 5 p.m., the rally remained largely stationary at the corner of Lomas Boulevard and Fifth Street, garnering car horn blares and shouts of approval from nearby traffic, before slowly beginning to dissipate after a little over an hour.
Liberty Stalnaker is a beat reporter and staff photographer at the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
