The cover story: Confronting America’s long legacy of anti-Asian violence

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The Cover Story The Atlanta Shootings Fit Into a Long Legacy of Anti-Asian Violence in America By Naina Bajekal Deputy International Editor, TIME On Wednesday morning, just hours after a white male shooter targeted Asian businesses in Atlanta, killing eight people, I called into our daily meeting to talk about covering the news. At one point, I turned off my camera to blink away my tears, before unmuting and continuing to talk about story assignments. One of the privileges of being an editor of color is the opportunity to use TIME's powerful platform to amplify perspectives and voices that are too often relegated to the sidelines. One of the challenges is working on stories while living them viscerally, reporting in real time on the issues that are most painful to us. In the cover package that came together in less than 12 hours, senior editor Lucy Feldman writes the essay she wanted to read: "A piece that tells me, as an Asian-American person who has deferred and cared and tried so hard to help, that I am worthy of the same. That we are worthy." The tragedy in Atlanta was the latest episode in America's centuries-long history of violence against Asians—a legacy that Cady Lang charts in her cover feature. "It was heartbreaking and horrifying—but to many, it wasn't a surprise," she writes. In the past year, fueled by former President Trump's xenophobic rhetoric during the pandemic, hate crimes against Asian Americans have surged, with women reporting incidents at 2.3 times the rate of men. A similar trend has played out in countries around the world. For Asian women in particular, racism and misogyny are impossible to disentangle. As many of us were working on covering this story, we shared our own anecdotes of racialized catcalls, of being stereotyped as quiet or submissive. This was our chance, we felt, to finally draw attention to the kind of routine violence against Asian women that we all know exists but too often escapes public notice. "Making the invisible visible" is how our cover artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya—whose work was suggested by photo editor Sangsuk Sylvia Kang—described her practice. The final image reflects what we all had hoped for in this cover: to center the beauty and strength of Asian women, rather than the violence committed against them. Read the Story » Share the cover story

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