This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated March 26, 2021
On the afternoon of Tuesday, March 16, I submitted my previous weekly column, which dealt with the surge in anti-Asian hate crimes over the past year, to be published in last week’s edition of this paper. About an hour later, news reports began surfacing about mass shootings in Atlanta at multiple spas operated by, and staffed predominantly with, AAPI people.
I talked in that column about how the magnitude of these attacks was increasing. I felt that the path we have been on, meant things were on track to get worse, but I did not anticipate just how much worse they would get that very day.
Despite the fact that six of the eight victims were of Asian descent and that definitive information about the killer’s history and motive have not been confirmed, many people were quick to dismiss the idea that this could have been a hate crime. Comments on local Facebook groups showed just how eager some have been to show racism could not have been a factor. In addition to brushing aside one potential motivation, there was a lot of victim-blaming.
In one such comment, someone responding to Councilman Justin Brannan’s post condemning the attacks, referred to the entire AAPI community, saying, “well maybe they should tell their community not to run sex parlors.” In a video posted on social media last week, a man recorded people of Asian descent, who were socially distancing as they waited on a line that stretched down the sidewalk on 18th Avenue, near 86th Street in Bensonhurst. The man filming harasses those queued up, saying at one point, “F**king animals! They’re the reason we have this virus.”
The initial sources that stated there was no racial component to this crime, were certainly not the most reliable. The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office spokesman who first briefed the public and rejected the idea this was a hate crime, did so by saying the killer was having “a bad day.” Later that day, it was discovered that he had shared a photo on Facebook of a racist, anti-Chinese t-shirt, commenting about how much he loved it.
“The six women of Asian descent who were murdered that day were all known to be hardworking. All but one has been confirmed to be survived by children and/or grandchildren. Their names are Daoyou Feng, Hyun Jung Grant, Soon Chung Park, Suncha Kim, Xiaojie Tan, Yong Ae Yue.”
The other source that claimed there was no racial motivation for the mass shootings was the killer, himself. The fact is, mass murderers with mental health issues can still be motivated by racism, they can have multiple motivations, and they may not know exactly what pushes them to target the people they target.
Even if the shooter was motivated by sex addiction, it cannot be uncoupled from what leads to hate crimes. The fact that these establishments were staffed predominantly by AAPI women speaks to a fetishization and hyper-sexualization of AAPI women by many non-AAPI men that is rooted in racism, misogyny, dominance, and violence.
The two white victims were not employees of the spas. Paul Andre Michaels was doing maintenance work at one of the spas and Delaina Ashley Yaun was a customer. In Ms. Yaun’s case, racism still became an issue in the aftermath of the shooting, as her husband who survived the ordeal was cuffed, detained for hours in a patrol car, and not provided any update on his wife’s condition. Yaun’s husband, Mario Gonzalez, was upset about how he was treated, saying it was “maybe because I am Mexican.”
The six women of Asian descent who were murdered that day were all known to be hardworking. All but one has been confirmed to be survived by children and/or grandchildren. Their names are Daoyou Feng, Hyun Jung Grant, Soon Chung Park, Suncha Kim, Xiaojie Tan, Yong Ae Yue.
On Sunday, March 21, the New York City Asian-American Democratic Club hosted an online vigil, titled, ‘Unity and Solidarity with AAPI Communities. The program featured Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Unitarian leaders who offered healing words and prayers, as well as remarks from several local New York elected leaders, including Congresswoman Grace Meng.
By far, the most moving part of the event was when AAPI community members shared their own firsthand accounts of the racism they have faced. And in the middle of that, a participant unmuted and hurled a series of vile, racist, anti-Asian comments, proving that no place is safe from this hatred.
