Our hearts are extremely heavy today as we are thinking of the victims, survivors, and families impacted by the horrific anti-Asian violence yesterday at massage parlors in Georgia. We will remember Delaina Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Sun Cha Kim, and Yong Ae Yue. Six out of the eight victims were Asian women and four were of Korean descent, leaving no doubt that this was a racially motivated attack.
Reports of hate incidents against Asian Americans are growing rapidly in the United States. The brunt of this violence is dealt onto some of the most vulnerable members of our community, including the elderly, youth, and children. In particular, Stop AAPI Hate found that Asian women disproportionately make up the number of reports made to their center, accounting for nearly 68 percent of the 3,795 incident reports received.
In our decades of work on gender-based violence, we have witnessed day in and day out the multiple layers of oppression that Asian American, immigrant, and undocumented survivors face. Two of these oppressions–racism and sexism–work in tandem against survivors. Racialized misogyny results in multiple barriers, including whether law enforcement takes their reports seriously, whether they are able to secure living wage jobs, whether they are even able to go to the grocery store without fear of harassment. Even our interpersonal relationships at home or work are not free from this specific form of misogyny.
In the wake of the shootings then, we must reckon with the sobering facts that make this news so devastating, angering, and heartbreaking for many of us--it was Asian women and specifically massage parlors that were targeted. So many Asian women work in industries that underpay and dehumanize, placing them in positions of extreme vulnerability for harassment and assault--two forms of sexual violence that are already so common to our communities. When Asian women stand up for ourselves, we are often met with aggression for not conforming to the “submissive” stereotypes that American media pushes forward. We continue to be hypersexualized and objectified to the point of violence. Our commitment to survivor agency means that we cannot accept the belief that if an Asian woman does not provide sexual gratification, then they can be discarded.
Moving forward, we must work to combat racism and sexism to fully understand that these systems work together to perpetuate gender-based violence. We must question how these dynamics show up in our daily lives; they remain present in our interpersonal relationships, making both home and society not safe for women. As our hearts remain heavy, we remember the healing and growth we may find in community care and safety. Respect and protect each other by learning bystander intervention skills so you can de-escalate conflict while keeping everyone safe. The past 48 hours have been indescribably difficult for so many of us--our hotline is open for those experiencing violence or who need support at this time. As always, we stand with all victims and survivors of violence. We see you, we hear you, and we love you. We will never stop fighting for you.