• by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, March 18, 2021

This Wednesday morning, once again, we woke up to the news of a horrific act of racial violence. Eight people were murdered at three Asian-American owned businesses in Georgia, in what appears to have been a racially motivated series of acts.

This comes on top of all-too-regular reports of anti-Asian hatred or violence occurring week in and week out over much of the past year. It is understandable why millions of Asian-Americans are living in a daily, constant state of fear.

This news comes on top of the heightened awareness that so many Americans now have about the racial injustice that so many of our Black brethren face in this country. It seems hard to start any day, let alone any week, without some news of yet another act of racial hatred or violence someplace in the United States.

With the daily barrage of terrible news, it’s hard not to be in a regular state of outrage, and harder yet sometimes to find the necessary optimism and hope that we can create a future that is fair, just and equal for all.

But we cannot lose our optimism. We cannot let the outrage define us and dampen the human spirit in us needed to make a difference.

The burden is on all of those not being subjected to these horrible acts -- the majority of Americans -- to be the ones to help stop them. The outrage, pessimism and fatigue we feel on these issues can’t be but the tiniest fraction of outrage felt by Asian-Americans and Blacks who are enduring this every day -- and have for so much of their lives.

We cannot allow ourselves to feel overwhelmed. We will not have a just country and world if we can’t find ways to stop the violence, and stop it soon. Those of us working in media, advertising and technology can make a difference. We have visibility. We have voice. We have leverage.

This is the time to call out actions like these murders for what they are: acts of racial violence, not just acts of madness. We cannot let anyone ignore, let alone forget, what happened here, just as we cannot let anyone forget Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and all the other innocent victims of racial hatred and violence.

This is the time to redouble our efforts. We are only at the beginning.