On a visit to Atlanta on Friday, US President Joe Biden spoke out against racism and hatred.
"There are simply some core values and beliefs that should bring us together as Americans," Biden said in a speech at Emory University.
"One of them is standing together against hate, against racism - the ugly poison that has long haunted and plagued our nation."
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were in Atlanta in the wake of a wave of shootings that left eight people in three massage parlors in and around Atlanta on Tuesday. Six of the eight fatalities were of Asian origin and seven were women. One man survived seriously injured.
Biden and Harris met with leaders of Atlanta's Asian-American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community Friday.
"The conversation we had today with the AAPI leaders, and that we’re hearing all across the country, is that hate and violence often hide in plain sight. And it’s often met with silence," Biden said.
"That’s been true throughout our history, but that has to change -- because our silence is complicity. We cannot be complicit. We have to speak out. We have to act," Biden asserted.
A 21-year-old white man has confessed to the shootings. According to police, he claims not to have had a racist motive. He instead named sex addiction and wanting to eradicate "temptation" via massage parlours.
Police have stressed however, that it is too early to make clear statements about the motive and whether the shootings constituted a hate crime. The public prosecutor's office accuses the 21-year-old of murder and grievous bodily harm.
Source: DPA
