The wish that the change in national leadership will free us from the consequences of the former president’s energetic racism was again proved naive this week by the mass murder in Atlanta, the most deadly among an ongoing series of attacks against Asian Americans in the past year. Politicians’ healing words are no match for the enduring power of his vile scapegoating.

The problem must be accurately named — bigotry and violence have been licensed against fellow citizens — and combated by law enforcement. On Thursday, The New York Times reported 28 hate crimes against Asian Americans in 2020 in New York City, up from 3 in the previous year. There have already been several incidents in 2021; the only person to be prosecuted this year is Taiwanese. 

This week John Yau elucidates the role of Shintoism in the work of Japanese artist Izumi Kato, noting the “belief in the living nature of all things, from stones to toys, is one of the underlying forces running through Kato’s work.” Artists can and do remind us of such possibilities even amid this dispiriting reality, one in which the “living nature” of our neighbors is despised and assaulted.