AACC Statement on the Dallas, Buffalo, and Laguna Woods Shootings
AACC is grieved by the shootings in Dallas, Buffalo, and Laguna Woods (in addition to many others). On May 11, a gunman open-fired at a salon in Koreatown, Dallas, Texas, injuring 3 Korean women. He is also under investigation for other shootings near Asian businesses in the Dallas area. On May 14, another gunman wrote a white supremacist anti-Black/anti-Semitic manifesto, drove several hours, and shot thirteen people in Tops Market in Buffalo, New York, killing ten people. Eleven of the people shot were Black. On May 15, another gunman walked into a Taiwanese church in Laguna Woods, shooting 5 and killing one man. We grieve these, and the many other shootings that have not garnered the attention required to curb gun violence.
Gun violence is a public health crisis. It is an issue that needs to be addressed comprehensively. Though there are many reasons people commit acts of gun violence, no longer can we sit idly by and watch precious lives be taken prematurely because of racialized and politicized hatred.
As Christians, we believe that the root cause of racism and political idolatry is sin. Racism and political idolatry, and the hate and violence that ensues from them, are but one way that we, in our sinful nature, disregard the image of God that is present in each human being. When we consider the shootings this month, there is evidence of anti-Black racism, anti-Asian racism, anti-Semitism, and politically charged hatred. The anti-Asian shootings in Dallas were deemed a hate crime. The shootings in Buffalo include strains of white supremacy, similar to the shootings in a Black church in Charleston, a synagogue in Pittsburg, a Walmart in El Paso, and a Sikh Gudwara in Wisconsin, among other tragedies. Racism is an abomination to God. It must be eradicated in our society if there is to be any hope for human flourishing.
We, at AACC, stand with our Black and Brown siblings. We condemn the Model Minority Myth, along with other prevalent damaging stereotypes that treat Asians as honorary white people when it is convenient to do so and make our racialized experiences invisible. We reject the belief that Asians are a monolith. We see and acknowledge both our Taiwanese and Chinese communities. We condemn all forms of political hatred. Furthermore, we fully reject Replacement Theory and any other white supremacist ideologies that see Black, Brown, Jewish, and Asian people as a threat to US American society.
The road to ending racial and politically idolatrous hate involves repenting of our sin and living out the full gospel. In the aftermath of these shootings, we must address racism with the pursuit of restoration in mind. We cannot allow the shootings in Dallas, Buffalo, or Laguna Woods to tear Black and Asian communities apart. Instead, we must move closer towards each other. May we work in solidarity to call out white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Semitic, and anti-Asian ideology as we seek to honor the imago Dei in all of us.