WASHINGTON (AP) — When a gunman opened fire at spas around Atlanta, killing eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, it awakened much of the rest of the country to incidents of racism and hate targeting Asian Americans that have spiked amid the coronavirus pandemic. The terror of the attack has many Asian American and Pacific Islander leaders hoping that pain and tragedy can help their community find a political voice with a level of power and influence befitting the nation’s fastest-growing ethnic minority. Many Asian Americans say feelings of being marginalized politically will take years to fully overcome, but there are already signs of change.
