On behalf of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, I wish to express our deepest condolences to families of the eight people killed in Atlanta, Georgia recently, six of whom were Asian American.

We'd also like to add our collective voice to those calling for an end to hateful rhetoric and violence directed at communities of color in the United States.

That includes the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, our friends and neighbors, who have suffered more than 3,800 acts of abuse or violence in the past year, including heinous attacks on women and the elderly.

We call on top leaders at the US Department of Justice to move aggressively to ensure that justice is done in the Atlanta case and all such cases, affirming that equal protection before the law—a bedrock principle of this nation—is upheld now and in the future.

And finally, we call on all elected officials to condemn such attacks unequivocally and to reject all forms of disinformation and commentary meant to scapegoat the innocent for political advantage. Such behavior tears at the social fabric of our nation, exposing unhealed wounds of race and class that we must all work together to mend.

Ultimately, this is about who we are as a nation.

Representing nearly 400 leaders of US corporations and law firms, the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity will fight discrimination in all its forms and continue to fulfill our mission: to make the US legal profession as diverse as the nation it serves.

We pray that our great nation emerges from this challenge as a stronger and more just society. Our commitment to that goal is unshakeable.