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On March 16, 2021, a gunman killed eight people, including six Asian American women, in shootings at two spas and a massage business in Atlanta, Georgia. This tragedy became a national turning point, sparking across the country and bringing long-overdue attention��to the surge in anti-Asian violence that began during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Angie Chuang

This March marks the fifth anniversary of the shootings. Since then, violence against Asian Americans has continued across the country, but their stories have disappeared from mainstream media in the United States, said Angie Chuang, associate professor of journalism in the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information.��

According to a report by the University of California, Los Angeles, the number of Asian Americans arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has tripled since President Donald Trump took office. In recent ICE operations in Minnesota, Hmong immigrants and refugees from Southeast Asia have been .

“Anti-Asian hate crimes haven’t disappeared,”��Chuang said. “But we are in this position where so many in Asian American communities decided to remain silent because they are struggling to survive.”

A veteran journalist, Chuang has spent years studying how the U.S. media portrays Americans of Asian descent. Her recently published book, “,” explores the news media’s struggles reporting on race and immigrant identity.

Ahead of the anniversary, 91��ý Today sat down with Chuang to discuss what has changed since the 2021 shootings, who is considered American, and how the media covered Asian American Winter Olympians.��

Five years after the Atlanta spa shootings, how has the conversation around race and Asian American identity changed in the United States?

When we look back to March 2021, it really feels like a different moment in American culture. There was much broader awareness about race and systemic racism following anti-Asian hate crimes that surged during the pandemic and after the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.��

There was also a moment of solidarity among communities of color. Asian Americans were supporting Black Lives Matter, and other communities stood up against anti-Asian hate.

At this point, we are confronted with the cancellation of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, the end of affirmative action, and not feeling OK talking about race and racial equity. Many of the issues that were raised by the shootings have been muted. That's generally not a good change.

Why do we hear less about Asian Americans affected by immigration enforcement compared with other groups?

The model minority stereotype has contributed to a long history of Asian American invisibility. The stereotype creates a perception that Asian Americans are good citizens, financially better off and don't make a lot of trouble. As a result, Asian Americans are often not the focus of many stories, including those about ICE raids.��

In your research, you talk about “conditional Americanness.” What does that mean, and how did it appear in coverage of the Atlanta shootings?

Asian Americans are considered American, but with an asterisk. Like Indigenous Americans, Latino/a Americans and Black Americans, their belonging can feel conditional, accepted until push comes to shove and that identity is questioned, or revoked.

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"American Otherness in Journalism: News Media Representations of Identity and Belonging." (Courtesy of Angie Chuang)

After the 2021 Atlanta shootings, the white perpetrator told the police that he had a sex addiction and that he was trying to “eliminate temptation.” Despite no evidence that the victims were involved in illicit sex work, the media picked up on that narrative and portrayed the victims as foreign, because that's not something that we like to associate our definition of Americanness with.��

The narrative became that because they were foreign, and allegedly sex workers, we didn't have to mourn them. These women were community members, mothers and wives with hopes and dreams. The mainstream media didn't carry these stories.

How do moments like the Olympics reveal conditional Americanness?

American figure skater��Alysa Liu, who won a gold medal,��was widely celebrated in the mainstream news media. But Eileen Gu, who also won gold and is the most decorated female freeskier, was widely scrutinized because she chose to compete for China, despite growing up in the United States.

Many athletes, including multiple National Hockey League players, competed for countries other than the United States, even though they live here and are paid millions of dollars by the United States. Nobody is upset that a professional hockey player has chosen to play for their home country. But the amount of hatred and skepticism Gu faces speaks to this conditional Americanness. Asian Americans are constantly being asked to prove their loyalty to the United States to be considered American.��

Given today’s political climate and shifting conversations about race, what gives you hope?

We will enter the coming years bearing the scars of what's happened in the last couple of years, from ICE raids and the cancellation of DEI programs to the silencing of conversations about race.��

But I find hope in our students here at 91��ý.��Even though many of them don’t come from the same background, young people genuinely want to live in an accepting, pluralistic society where people learn from one another’s cultures and experiences.��

I’m also hopeful because no matter what policies try to define Americanness narrowly, our society is becoming more multicultural.��People are forming diverse friendships, families and communities, and you can’t stop that.��