#stopAAPIHate
March 18, 2021 9:56 PM Subscribe
There were 3800 anti-Asian racist incidents, mostly against women, in the past year. On Tuesday, 8 people were shot dead by a murderer who targeted Asian spa businesses and Asian women in Atlanta.
On Wednesday, two elderly Asian people were attacked unprovoked in San Francisco; one of them went viral for turning the tables on her assailant.
Anti-Asian Violence Resources
Asian American groups have reached out to the Biden administration for help. While Biden has condemned anti-Asian violence and brutality, they say it is not enough. A House Judiciary subcommittee hearing was held and the Covid-19 Hate Crimes bill was re-introduced. Asian American diplomats claim they face ongoing security clearance issues based on discrimination.
Gustavo Arellano discusses that time Americans burned down a Chinatown in Santa Ana, CA. Cady Lang discusses the legacy of anti-Asian violence in America.
Previously.
Anti-Asian Violence Resources
Asian American groups have reached out to the Biden administration for help. While Biden has condemned anti-Asian violence and brutality, they say it is not enough. A House Judiciary subcommittee hearing was held and the Covid-19 Hate Crimes bill was re-introduced. Asian American diplomats claim they face ongoing security clearance issues based on discrimination.
Gustavo Arellano discusses that time Americans burned down a Chinatown in Santa Ana, CA. Cady Lang discusses the legacy of anti-Asian violence in America.
Previously.
It's fucking frightening that something like this can become so widespread so quickly. It makes me worry for my teenage siblings in Denmark, and about my Asian friends here in the UK, as well as obviously the many AAPI mefites.
Every few weeks, there's a brew terrifying parallel to the 1930s. A campaign of racist violence starting up doesn't help.
posted by Dysk at 12:09 AM on March 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
Every few weeks, there's a brew terrifying parallel to the 1930s. A campaign of racist violence starting up doesn't help.
posted by Dysk at 12:09 AM on March 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
It was only a matter of time.
........
This, in addition to the discrimination against LGBTQ & trans kids, all feel like a huge backlash to progress that is only starting to be made. We are fighting a huge battle here.
posted by ichomp at 1:18 AM on March 19, 2021 [23 favorites]
........
This, in addition to the discrimination against LGBTQ & trans kids, all feel like a huge backlash to progress that is only starting to be made. We are fighting a huge battle here.
posted by ichomp at 1:18 AM on March 19, 2021 [23 favorites]
What's the racial breakdown of the attackers in these hate crimes? This is the kind of thing I'm always curious about when reading these stories but it's very difficult to find by Googling.
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 1:39 AM on March 19, 2021
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 1:39 AM on March 19, 2021
I believe that it would be easy to hazard a guess as to the racial breakdown of the attackers, at least in the United States...
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:03 AM on March 19, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:03 AM on March 19, 2021 [9 favorites]
What's the racial breakdown of the attackers in these hate crimes
The guy who confessed to the Atlanta area murders is white. (The sheriff spokesman in that case thinks he was having a bad day.)
The guy in the San Francisco case appears to be white.
The Justice Department says that about half of hate crime perps are white. This seems low to me, especially given that white people make up about 75% of the US population. In fact, I struggle to recall a single hate crime in the last twenty years, at least among racially motivated hate crimes, where the perpetrator wasn't white.
posted by basalganglia at 4:20 AM on March 19, 2021 [14 favorites]
The guy who confessed to the Atlanta area murders is white. (The sheriff spokesman in that case thinks he was having a bad day.)
The guy in the San Francisco case appears to be white.
The Justice Department says that about half of hate crime perps are white. This seems low to me, especially given that white people make up about 75% of the US population. In fact, I struggle to recall a single hate crime in the last twenty years, at least among racially motivated hate crimes, where the perpetrator wasn't white.
posted by basalganglia at 4:20 AM on March 19, 2021 [14 favorites]
In fact, I struggle to recall a single hate crime in the last twenty years, at least among racially motivated hate crimes, where the perpetrator wasn't white.
They exist, but I won’t name perpetrators who deserve to be forgotten (memail me if you want my examples), but they seem to be overwhelming outliers. I mean, just say “right-wing white man” and you are probably right 95% of the time.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:26 AM on March 19, 2021 [21 favorites]
They exist, but I won’t name perpetrators who deserve to be forgotten (memail me if you want my examples), but they seem to be overwhelming outliers. I mean, just say “right-wing white man” and you are probably right 95% of the time.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:26 AM on March 19, 2021 [21 favorites]
As a middle-class white guy, I am going to STFU and let an Asian American woman talk. Karen Chee is a writer for Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Hi. As Seth just mentioned, eight people were shot and killed at Asian-owned massage parlors in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday night. Six of those eight killed were Asian women. While the news media has been reporting on the incident, most outlets have failed to call it what it is - a hate crime. Because it is a hate crime.posted by adept256 at 4:28 AM on March 19, 2021 [60 favorites]
The shooter, a racist, a misogynist, and a coward - specifically targeted working-class Asian women. He went after people in one of the most vulnerable intersections of our community. And, of course, just like every time a white man commits an act of domestic terrorism, news outlets then sprang to try and humanize him. Almost immediately after the killings, articles began to quote the police officer in charge, who described the murderer as "fed up" and "having a bad day." What? Like, seriously, I'm not surprised, but I'm still stunned. 'Cause I had a bad day earlier this week. And you know what I did? I ate an entire Domino's Pizza while lying in bed and re-watching "Ted Lasso." That's what you do when you have a bad day. This killing spree was not the result of a bad day. This was the result of a misogynist, racist hatred that stems from white supremacy. This was a textbook hate crime. The police haven't called the shooting a hate crime because they're apparently "looking for more information." But what are they looking for, exactly? Because all the evidence is right there. People who refuse to call it a hate crime are just continuing to erase Asian people as they're being killed.
And being erased isn't a new problem for Asian-Americans. We have been talking and protesting about the attacks against people in our community. And according to the forum Stop AAPI Hate, anti-Asian hate crimes increased by almost 150% last year. 3,800 anti-Asian racist incidents were reported in the last year alone, and 68% of those were by Asian women. It's true - Donald Trump made things worse by constantly referring to COVID as the "China virus," but you have to know, this is the ongoing result of centuries-old racism.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can read up on things like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Asiatic Barred Zone Act of 1917, the Japanese internment camps that were less than 80 years ago, and the murder of Vincent Chin in 1982. You can learn about the model-minority myth that tries to lump all Asians together into a silent monolith and then pits us against other minorities, as well as representation in Hollywood that shows Asian women as either cold and unfeeling or as sexualized objects.
The events of this week were not random. They were the direct outgrowth of all those things. This week's murders are gutting. I know. And I hope you're taking time for yourself as needed, but if you're able to function, there's actually a lot of ways you can help, especially if you're not Asian. Like I mentioned before, you can read up on Asian-American history. You can read people like Erika Lee, Kimmy Yam, and Cathy Park Hong. You can also donate to places like the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance and the Asian American Journalists Association. And you can sign up for free
bystander-intervention trainings that are available online. And, at the very least, you can call this week's murders what they are -- a hate crime.
And, listen, I know we're trying to take care of each other, but, also, please remember to take care of yourself.
And if you want a little smile, here is a picture of me and my grandpa. He's like the Domino's Pizza of people.
Thank you for watching. I love you very much.
I support sex workers’ rights but I think omitting that characterization or speculation about it in the news stories I’ve read so far is largely a good thing. The victims were mostly Asian and mostly women and they were murdered. Their actions are not at issue here; their murderer’s actions are.
posted by Songdog at 6:57 AM on March 19, 2021 [14 favorites]
posted by Songdog at 6:57 AM on March 19, 2021 [14 favorites]
My apologies...I'm a bit of a mess about the current state of things, so I inadvertently left a bunch of things out.
1. StopAAPIHate is an initiative led by several Asian American groups for people to report hate crimes against Asian/Asian Americans in the US, and is also the preferred hashtag to talk about these issues. (There have been some people trying to discuss the issue with #asianlivesmatter but this is considered disrespectful to the BlackLivesMatter movement.)
2. There has been no confirmation that the workers killed were sex workers. However, whether they were or not is probably irrelevant, as a lot of people conflate the two. Red Canary Song, one of the organizations that helps migrant sex workers, has issued a statement: We see the effort to invisibilize these women's gender, labor, class, and immigration status as a refusal to reckon with the legacy of United States imperialism, and as a desire to collapse the identities of migrant Asian women, sex workers, massage workers, and trafficking survivors. The women who were killed faced specific racialized gendered violence for being Asian women and massage workers. Whether or not they were actually sex workers or self-identified under that label, we know that as massage workers, they were subjected to sexualized violence stemming from the hatred of sex workers, Asian women, working class people, and immigrants.
3. Please read more about the exploitation of Asian women in the US - it's a long history.
posted by toastyk at 7:16 AM on March 19, 2021 [16 favorites]
1. StopAAPIHate is an initiative led by several Asian American groups for people to report hate crimes against Asian/Asian Americans in the US, and is also the preferred hashtag to talk about these issues. (There have been some people trying to discuss the issue with #asianlivesmatter but this is considered disrespectful to the BlackLivesMatter movement.)
2. There has been no confirmation that the workers killed were sex workers. However, whether they were or not is probably irrelevant, as a lot of people conflate the two. Red Canary Song, one of the organizations that helps migrant sex workers, has issued a statement: We see the effort to invisibilize these women's gender, labor, class, and immigration status as a refusal to reckon with the legacy of United States imperialism, and as a desire to collapse the identities of migrant Asian women, sex workers, massage workers, and trafficking survivors. The women who were killed faced specific racialized gendered violence for being Asian women and massage workers. Whether or not they were actually sex workers or self-identified under that label, we know that as massage workers, they were subjected to sexualized violence stemming from the hatred of sex workers, Asian women, working class people, and immigrants.
3. Please read more about the exploitation of Asian women in the US - it's a long history.
posted by toastyk at 7:16 AM on March 19, 2021 [16 favorites]
For some historical context, the United States Congress codified America's hate for AAPI people first starting with the obviously unconstitutional Page Act of 1875, banning Chinese women on the ostensible grounds that they were all prostitutes being brought here against their will. This was the first "immigration law" on the books.
At the time, no-one called foul, although the Framers -- enjoying open borders themselves -- never even thought about delegating to the USG the authority to regulate the freedom and liberty of free people to choose where to travel and establish residency in the Constitution or any Amendment.
It appears to me that all immigration law is unconstitutional, and all immigrants are "legal" immigrants. Every Democrat should stand up in Congress and speechify this.
posted by mikelieman at 7:35 AM on March 19, 2021 [11 favorites]
At the time, no-one called foul, although the Framers -- enjoying open borders themselves -- never even thought about delegating to the USG the authority to regulate the freedom and liberty of free people to choose where to travel and establish residency in the Constitution or any Amendment.
It appears to me that all immigration law is unconstitutional, and all immigrants are "legal" immigrants. Every Democrat should stand up in Congress and speechify this.
posted by mikelieman at 7:35 AM on March 19, 2021 [11 favorites]
How Hollywood is complicit in violence against Asians in America.
How Racism and Sexism intertwine to torment Asian-American women.
GOP lawmaker Chip Roy (R-Texas) uses House Judiciary Committee meeting on Anti-Asian violence to talk about "Chinese Communists" and "cancel culture".
posted by Comrade_robot at 7:40 AM on March 19, 2021 [4 favorites]
How Racism and Sexism intertwine to torment Asian-American women.
GOP lawmaker Chip Roy (R-Texas) uses House Judiciary Committee meeting on Anti-Asian violence to talk about "Chinese Communists" and "cancel culture".
posted by Comrade_robot at 7:40 AM on March 19, 2021 [4 favorites]
Mod note: Several deleted. This thread was intended to specifically address Anti-Asian violence and hate. Now is the time to take a moment and consider your stake in this conversation, and consider how much space you're taking up. The derail about sexwork is a valid one, but not one that needs to dominate this thread currently. Please be aware of the space that you take up and please spare the graphic details of violence and understand the impact of your participation in this thread. See toastyk's most recent link with info regarding sex workers and the history of Asian women living in the US.
posted by travelingthyme (staff) at 7:59 AM on March 19, 2021 [21 favorites]
posted by travelingthyme (staff) at 7:59 AM on March 19, 2021 [21 favorites]
Heater Cox Richardson, March 18, 2021:
That seemingly cavalier dismissal of the dead while accepting the words of the white murderer seemed to personify an American history that has discriminated against Asians since the California legislature slapped a Foreign Miners’ Tax on Chinese miners in 1850, just a year after they began to arrive in California. Discriminatory laws and violence from their white neighbors plagued Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, Koreans, Vietnamese, and all Asian immigrants as they moved to the U.S.
Discrimination and hatred have continued to plague their descendants.
The rise in anti-Asian violence has been so bad this year that a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee had planned a hearing today on hate crimes against Asian Americans even before the murders. Representative Doris Matsui (D-CA) today condemned the recent uptick in violence, but pointed out that discrimination is hardly new. “There is a systemic problem here,” she said. Of Japanese descent, she noted that she was born during WWII in an internment camp in Arizona.
Asian American women have borne a dual burden of both racism and sexism, as certain men fetishize Asian and Asian American women, seeing them as submissive, exotic, and sexually available. Attackers aimed nearly 70% of the reported 3,800 hate incidents reported last year at women.
That Long blamed Asian or Asian American women for his own sexual impulses ties into a long history that links racism to sexism—and to violence— in a peculiarly American fashion.
posted by Comrade_robot at 8:01 AM on March 19, 2021 [13 favorites]
That seemingly cavalier dismissal of the dead while accepting the words of the white murderer seemed to personify an American history that has discriminated against Asians since the California legislature slapped a Foreign Miners’ Tax on Chinese miners in 1850, just a year after they began to arrive in California. Discriminatory laws and violence from their white neighbors plagued Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, Koreans, Vietnamese, and all Asian immigrants as they moved to the U.S.
Discrimination and hatred have continued to plague their descendants.
The rise in anti-Asian violence has been so bad this year that a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee had planned a hearing today on hate crimes against Asian Americans even before the murders. Representative Doris Matsui (D-CA) today condemned the recent uptick in violence, but pointed out that discrimination is hardly new. “There is a systemic problem here,” she said. Of Japanese descent, she noted that she was born during WWII in an internment camp in Arizona.
Asian American women have borne a dual burden of both racism and sexism, as certain men fetishize Asian and Asian American women, seeing them as submissive, exotic, and sexually available. Attackers aimed nearly 70% of the reported 3,800 hate incidents reported last year at women.
That Long blamed Asian or Asian American women for his own sexual impulses ties into a long history that links racism to sexism—and to violence— in a peculiarly American fashion.
posted by Comrade_robot at 8:01 AM on March 19, 2021 [13 favorites]
there have been 3800 attacks against AAPI people in the past year.
this is the only one we're talking about because it's a mass murder.
does the race of the attackers matter? maybe, but not in this context.
does the plight of sex workers matter? yes, but not in this discussion.
does what a white mass murder claim as his reasons for mass murder matter? maybe, but you're spending an awful lot of time listening to the white murderer instead of victims and survivors and the general community of people who have experienced at least 3800 attacks in the past year.
there have been 3800 attacks against AAPI people in the past year.
i am so.
so.
tired. of people missing the forest for the trees to want to talk about anything but the actual point of the thread and playing the "just asking questions" derail game.
posted by Karaage at 8:05 AM on March 19, 2021 [40 favorites]
this is the only one we're talking about because it's a mass murder.
does the race of the attackers matter? maybe, but not in this context.
does the plight of sex workers matter? yes, but not in this discussion.
does what a white mass murder claim as his reasons for mass murder matter? maybe, but you're spending an awful lot of time listening to the white murderer instead of victims and survivors and the general community of people who have experienced at least 3800 attacks in the past year.
there have been 3800 attacks against AAPI people in the past year.
i am so.
so.
tired. of people missing the forest for the trees to want to talk about anything but the actual point of the thread and playing the "just asking questions" derail game.
posted by Karaage at 8:05 AM on March 19, 2021 [40 favorites]
What's the racial breakdown of the attackers in these hate crimes? This is the kind of thing I'm always curious about when reading these stories but it's very difficult to find by Googling.
i'd like to point out that the vast majority of people asking this question on social media tend to have an agenda that explicitly tries to sow discord and division between minority communities.
i'm sure this is not what you were intending, however. because we assume good faith here.
---
The shooter claims he has a sex addiction and wanted to remove "temptations" by murdering these women.
i'd like to point out that atlanta has quite a few strip clubs and other areas where sex work is common, and yet the murderer drove thirty minutes and focused entirely on asian-owned businesses staffed primarily by asians.
yes, there is a gendered aspect, but it is intrinsically entwined with race.
as far as whether or not it has anything to do with hentai or ahegao ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ when the jokes that white americans, that men have posted in the wake had nothing to do with those but rather a scene from full metal jacket or "happy endings", like...
one could point to so many things leading up to this moment, but it's not until something there's a richter 11 scale event does anyone stop to listen and gawk at the trauma performance from the brutalized community.
posted by i used to be someone else at 8:06 AM on March 19, 2021 [20 favorites]
i'd like to point out that the vast majority of people asking this question on social media tend to have an agenda that explicitly tries to sow discord and division between minority communities.
i'm sure this is not what you were intending, however. because we assume good faith here.
---
The shooter claims he has a sex addiction and wanted to remove "temptations" by murdering these women.
i'd like to point out that atlanta has quite a few strip clubs and other areas where sex work is common, and yet the murderer drove thirty minutes and focused entirely on asian-owned businesses staffed primarily by asians.
yes, there is a gendered aspect, but it is intrinsically entwined with race.
as far as whether or not it has anything to do with hentai or ahegao ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ when the jokes that white americans, that men have posted in the wake had nothing to do with those but rather a scene from full metal jacket or "happy endings", like...
one could point to so many things leading up to this moment, but it's not until something there's a richter 11 scale event does anyone stop to listen and gawk at the trauma performance from the brutalized community.
posted by i used to be someone else at 8:06 AM on March 19, 2021 [20 favorites]
Please also see: How white supremacy tried to divide Black and Asian Americans — and how communities worked to find common ground.
posted by toastyk at 8:23 AM on March 19, 2021 [22 favorites]
posted by toastyk at 8:23 AM on March 19, 2021 [22 favorites]
Dropping this here, particularly for teachers. Some resources, courtesy of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. Early in the pandemic, they released a set of online resources, from oral histories to video curricula for teachers, called Standing Against Xenophobia. The material explores contemporary and historic discrimination against the AAPI community and other groups that has risen during times of national crisis. An example, We Are Not A Stereotype video series.
posted by gudrun at 8:27 AM on March 19, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by gudrun at 8:27 AM on March 19, 2021 [4 favorites]
The sheriff spokesman that claimed the shootings weren't racially motivated is racist himself.
posted by LindsayIrene at 8:29 AM on March 19, 2021 [21 favorites]
posted by LindsayIrene at 8:29 AM on March 19, 2021 [21 favorites]
There's a big slice of the culture where young men are taught that temptation has an external origin. It's an attack or a test, and they have to defend their purity. They learn this in sunday school. If you believe you're going to be damned for eternity if you don't resist the corruption and preserve your purity, you might start blaming somebody else when you get horny.
I wonder about this sex addiction thing and how real it is. Maybe some people mistake normal human desires for mortal sins. Not something that can be enjoyed in a healthy way, but a problem to deal with.
posted by adept256 at 10:06 AM on March 19, 2021 [8 favorites]
I wonder about this sex addiction thing and how real it is. Maybe some people mistake normal human desires for mortal sins. Not something that can be enjoyed in a healthy way, but a problem to deal with.
posted by adept256 at 10:06 AM on March 19, 2021 [8 favorites]
One key piece of this may be the continuing US-China geopolitical struggle, beyond COVID. If national leaders keep calling China America's leading adversary, requiring a "whole of government" or "whole of society" response, it's not surprising to see some attending abuse and violence.
posted by doctornemo at 10:29 AM on March 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by doctornemo at 10:29 AM on March 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
Sex addiction is real like diabetes is real. That doesn't mean asshole racists won't use it as cover for their behavior.
posted by cmfletcher at 10:31 AM on March 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by cmfletcher at 10:31 AM on March 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
The Atlanta Shooting and the Dehumanizing of Asian Women
Misogyny and racism have never lived neatly in their separate categories; they ravage by mutually reinforcing a narrative of a dehumanized “other.” The bodies of Asian women, in particular, have long been objectified and abhorred, fetishized and exoticized. From the Page Act of 1875, which effectively prohibited Chinese women from immigrating to the U.S. (under the pretense that they could only be prostitutes), to the depictions onscreen and in pop culture of the deviant dragon lady, Asian women have been hypersexualized and then demonized for their projected hypersexuality. It is one of the perversities of powerlessness that those in power will pin their failings on you because you lack the power even to object.
“We’re both the comfortable and the afflicted”: What gets overlooked when we talk about anti-Asian racism
I do think there are more Asian Americans speaking up. I don’t know if I necessarily believe that there’s been a huge spike in violence. I think that it’s been going on for a long time. I don’t know how much I trust the statistics. Is it because there are more people reporting it, whereas people weren’t reporting it before? Those are the kind of questions that I have.
There’s always been anti-Asian American racism, but its forms are dependent on the tax bracket you’re in. If you’re old, living in Chinatown, and working class, you’re going to be spat on or pushed. It’s more in your face. Whereas if you’re more corporate, then it’s probably more insidious and unspoken.
posted by Comrade_robot at 10:32 AM on March 19, 2021 [3 favorites]
Misogyny and racism have never lived neatly in their separate categories; they ravage by mutually reinforcing a narrative of a dehumanized “other.” The bodies of Asian women, in particular, have long been objectified and abhorred, fetishized and exoticized. From the Page Act of 1875, which effectively prohibited Chinese women from immigrating to the U.S. (under the pretense that they could only be prostitutes), to the depictions onscreen and in pop culture of the deviant dragon lady, Asian women have been hypersexualized and then demonized for their projected hypersexuality. It is one of the perversities of powerlessness that those in power will pin their failings on you because you lack the power even to object.
“We’re both the comfortable and the afflicted”: What gets overlooked when we talk about anti-Asian racism
I do think there are more Asian Americans speaking up. I don’t know if I necessarily believe that there’s been a huge spike in violence. I think that it’s been going on for a long time. I don’t know how much I trust the statistics. Is it because there are more people reporting it, whereas people weren’t reporting it before? Those are the kind of questions that I have.
There’s always been anti-Asian American racism, but its forms are dependent on the tax bracket you’re in. If you’re old, living in Chinatown, and working class, you’re going to be spat on or pushed. It’s more in your face. Whereas if you’re more corporate, then it’s probably more insidious and unspoken.
posted by Comrade_robot at 10:32 AM on March 19, 2021 [3 favorites]
Sex addiction is real like diabetes is real.
Diabetes' existence as a diagnosable condition is not a matter of ongoing dispute among experts.
Diabetes also isn't something coddled white men self-diagnose with as a result of being told all their lives that their sexual/violent urges are not their own problem to solve. It's what they blame when they mistreat, abuse, and kill women.
And then our cultural response is to focus all our empathy on them.
posted by armeowda at 10:58 AM on March 19, 2021 [16 favorites]
Diabetes' existence as a diagnosable condition is not a matter of ongoing dispute among experts.
Diabetes also isn't something coddled white men self-diagnose with as a result of being told all their lives that their sexual/violent urges are not their own problem to solve. It's what they blame when they mistreat, abuse, and kill women.
And then our cultural response is to focus all our empathy on them.
posted by armeowda at 10:58 AM on March 19, 2021 [16 favorites]
At least one of the women killed was a new mother who arranged for somebody to take care of their 8 month old while she and her husband went for a massage.
Yaun and her husband arranged for someone to care for their 8-month daughter while they headed to Youngs Asian Massage Parlor. Family members said the couple were first-time customers, eager for a chance to unwind.
They were in separate rooms inside the spa when the gunman opened fire. Yaun was killed. Her husband escaped unharmed.
“They’re innocent. They did nothing wrong,” Yaun’s weeping mother, Margaret Rushing, told WAGA-TV. “I just don’t understand why he took my daughter.”
Yaun’s husband could hear the gunfire inside the spa but was helpless to save his wife, said Dana Toole, Yaun’s sister.
“He’s taking it hard,” Toole said. “When you’re in a room and gunshots are flying, what do you do?”
posted by Comrade_robot at 11:12 AM on March 19, 2021 [11 favorites]
Yaun and her husband arranged for someone to care for their 8-month daughter while they headed to Youngs Asian Massage Parlor. Family members said the couple were first-time customers, eager for a chance to unwind.
They were in separate rooms inside the spa when the gunman opened fire. Yaun was killed. Her husband escaped unharmed.
“They’re innocent. They did nothing wrong,” Yaun’s weeping mother, Margaret Rushing, told WAGA-TV. “I just don’t understand why he took my daughter.”
Yaun’s husband could hear the gunfire inside the spa but was helpless to save his wife, said Dana Toole, Yaun’s sister.
“He’s taking it hard,” Toole said. “When you’re in a room and gunshots are flying, what do you do?”
posted by Comrade_robot at 11:12 AM on March 19, 2021 [11 favorites]
There's a big slice of the culture where young men are taught that temptation has an external origin. It's an attack or a test, and they have to defend their purity. They learn this in sunday school. If you believe you're going to be damned for eternity if you don't resist the corruption and preserve your purity, you might start blaming somebody else when you get horny.
Chrissy Stroop, who was raised in an Evangelical community and wrote Empty the Pews, comments on that and purity pledges, which explains how much further the concept of purity goes outside of just sex but also outright racist fetishization; meanwhile, there's a lot of appropriative imagery of Asia in modern Evangelical media.
Jeff Sharlet ties it to Anti-Asian tendencies in Evangelical communities (anyone mildly familiar with Evangelical thought will also be aware of their fixation with Revelation and the End Times, where Gog and Magog are linked with "godless" "Communist" China)
posted by i used to be someone else at 12:06 PM on March 19, 2021 [13 favorites]
Chrissy Stroop, who was raised in an Evangelical community and wrote Empty the Pews, comments on that and purity pledges, which explains how much further the concept of purity goes outside of just sex but also outright racist fetishization; meanwhile, there's a lot of appropriative imagery of Asia in modern Evangelical media.
Jeff Sharlet ties it to Anti-Asian tendencies in Evangelical communities (anyone mildly familiar with Evangelical thought will also be aware of their fixation with Revelation and the End Times, where Gog and Magog are linked with "godless" "Communist" China)
posted by i used to be someone else at 12:06 PM on March 19, 2021 [13 favorites]
no matter what angle one tries to come at these murders from, it's intrinsically a racist and misogynistic hate crime; the two strains are inherently bound to each other.
posted by i used to be someone else at 12:09 PM on March 19, 2021 [11 favorites]
posted by i used to be someone else at 12:09 PM on March 19, 2021 [11 favorites]
Some form of religious faith seems to have played a key role in shaping the man's mindset. Several accounts, like this New York Times one, note the importance of faith in the alleged shooter's life, and how he viewed his alleged sex addiction through a religious lens.
posted by doctornemo at 12:19 PM on March 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by doctornemo at 12:19 PM on March 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
Evangelical misuse of the term "sex addiction" conveniently casts the women targeted by the "addicted" man in the same light as an illicit substance. If you are addicted to alcohol or drugs, you have to remove the temptation. Destroy them. Discard them. They are the bad influence making you want to do the bad thing. You, a man, apparently have no agency, but you're somehow the only real human being in the equation?
Your pastor should not be diagnosing you with an addiction, and should not be conflating other human beings with disposable chemicals. And if you're dim enough to think your pastor can so diagnose you, your country should not be giving you access to guns. But this country values white men's power, feelings, convenience, comfort, pleasure, and access to guns more than any other demographic's right to a heartbeat.
posted by armeowda at 12:29 PM on March 19, 2021 [34 favorites]
Your pastor should not be diagnosing you with an addiction, and should not be conflating other human beings with disposable chemicals. And if you're dim enough to think your pastor can so diagnose you, your country should not be giving you access to guns. But this country values white men's power, feelings, convenience, comfort, pleasure, and access to guns more than any other demographic's right to a heartbeat.
posted by armeowda at 12:29 PM on March 19, 2021 [34 favorites]
i'd like to point out that atlanta has quite a few strip clubs and other areas where sex work is common, and yet the murderer drove thirty minutes and focused entirely on asian-owned businesses staffed primarily by asians.
I believe police have claimed he was a known patron of these businesses. Regardless of exactly how he views his motivations I think there’s an unavoidable structural racism to the existence of the “asian message parlor” as a category of establishment that provides sexual services. Well, it’s an intersection of a lot of things, but one of them is right there in the name.
posted by atoxyl at 1:06 PM on March 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
I believe police have claimed he was a known patron of these businesses. Regardless of exactly how he views his motivations I think there’s an unavoidable structural racism to the existence of the “asian message parlor” as a category of establishment that provides sexual services. Well, it’s an intersection of a lot of things, but one of them is right there in the name.
posted by atoxyl at 1:06 PM on March 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
I used to be someone else's link lead me to this article:
How pleading ‘sexual addiction’ protects evangelical men
Given Long's exposure to Christian porn addiction recovery rhetoric, it likely contributed to his claim that his out-of-control sex addiction fueled his atrocious violence.
We know Long was a member of a Southern Baptist church and had previously visited a Christian addiction treatment center that specialized in sex and porn addictions.
Oh this is messy. It looks a lot like one of those homophobic conversion programs. It looks like they take kids with a normal sexual appetite and teach them to suppress it. What could go wrong? How culpable are these fundamentalists?
I know it's a different thing, but it's the same people. In my part of the world, we've banned 'gay conversion therapy'. There's no illness there that needs therapy, so it's not allowed.
None of this is to redirect any guilt from this murderer, but I'd hate to see these 'therapists' walk away from this whistling.
posted by adept256 at 1:18 PM on March 19, 2021 [3 favorites]
How pleading ‘sexual addiction’ protects evangelical men
Given Long's exposure to Christian porn addiction recovery rhetoric, it likely contributed to his claim that his out-of-control sex addiction fueled his atrocious violence.
We know Long was a member of a Southern Baptist church and had previously visited a Christian addiction treatment center that specialized in sex and porn addictions.
Oh this is messy. It looks a lot like one of those homophobic conversion programs. It looks like they take kids with a normal sexual appetite and teach them to suppress it. What could go wrong? How culpable are these fundamentalists?
I know it's a different thing, but it's the same people. In my part of the world, we've banned 'gay conversion therapy'. There's no illness there that needs therapy, so it's not allowed.
None of this is to redirect any guilt from this murderer, but I'd hate to see these 'therapists' walk away from this whistling.
posted by adept256 at 1:18 PM on March 19, 2021 [3 favorites]
Feels weird to be talking so much about the murderer in a thread about the current spike in anti-Asian sentiment.
Regarding the three spas, from Min Jin Lee: In case anyone tries to claim that this is *not* a racially motivated hate crime by a grandiose, mass shooter who equates Asians and Asian women giving massages as objects of sexual temptation, which he felt empowered to destroy, I wonder this: Can you read the sign?
posted by i used to be someone else at 1:24 PM on March 19, 2021 [11 favorites]
Regarding the three spas, from Min Jin Lee: In case anyone tries to claim that this is *not* a racially motivated hate crime by a grandiose, mass shooter who equates Asians and Asian women giving massages as objects of sexual temptation, which he felt empowered to destroy, I wonder this: Can you read the sign?
posted by i used to be someone else at 1:24 PM on March 19, 2021 [11 favorites]
Debating his faith and motivations as opposed the results of these racial hate crimes is wading into the intent vs impact quagmire.
The fact remains, racism against Asians is leading to more violence and brutality, including gendered violence against women and opportunistic brutality against the elderly.
posted by i used to be someone else at 1:27 PM on March 19, 2021
The fact remains, racism against Asians is leading to more violence and brutality, including gendered violence against women and opportunistic brutality against the elderly.
posted by i used to be someone else at 1:27 PM on March 19, 2021
I have lived most of my 57 years in Georgia, and although I don’t spend a lot of time in Atlanta, it is pretty common knowledge that it has a thriving sex industry. (Motley Crüe name checked one of the strip clubs there in the song Girls, Girls, Girls, for example) I mention this because the media spin on this act of domestic terror seems to be trending towards it being a crime motivated by sex rather than racism. There are any number of strip clubs catering to various demographics, “adult book/novelty/video/toy stores” (sex toys are illegal here and can only be sold through various subterfuges), swingers clubs, and who knows what else that may be deeper underground. But with this smorgasbord of options for sex available, he chose to target only one segment; Asian massage parlors. If anyone has a non-racist explanation for that I would be interested in hearing it.
posted by TedW at 1:31 PM on March 19, 2021 [11 favorites]
posted by TedW at 1:31 PM on March 19, 2021 [11 favorites]
Sending solidarity across the border to all the Asian Americans dealing with anti-Asian and Pacific Islander racism and hate crimes. This latest incident is horrific.
I worry about my elderly mother, who is Chinese and lives in a Canadian city that has experienced a more than 700% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes since 2019. (Anti-Asian hate crimes have increased by 600 and 700% in most major Canadian cities this past year.) My brother and his kids live in the same city and I worry about them as well.
I am going to lose it the next time I hear about any hate crime and someone is like, "Well do we know for sure that was racially motivated?" If you are saying things like that, you're part of the problem.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:57 PM on March 19, 2021 [17 favorites]
I worry about my elderly mother, who is Chinese and lives in a Canadian city that has experienced a more than 700% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes since 2019. (Anti-Asian hate crimes have increased by 600 and 700% in most major Canadian cities this past year.) My brother and his kids live in the same city and I worry about them as well.
I am going to lose it the next time I hear about any hate crime and someone is like, "Well do we know for sure that was racially motivated?" If you are saying things like that, you're part of the problem.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:57 PM on March 19, 2021 [17 favorites]
PBS newshour ran this 7 minute piece two weeks ago, a discussion with two Asian American academics on this topic.
Asian Americans face a wave of discrimination during the pandemic
That was on the 5th. Well done PBS, I suppose. This was not a reactive thing seizing upon the sensational story, they thought this trend was newsworthy before that.
Good job but, it's still a 'water is still wet' piece of journalism. I think the PBS audience is already aware of much of this appalling shit. Trump's comments - we all knew how this would go. That first rally he held when he said 'kung-flu', find a video of it and note the massive cheer that aroused. Fucking presidentialy approved racism - they loved it.
That's the fox news mob and they've never seen any reporting on this.
posted by adept256 at 2:27 PM on March 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
Asian Americans face a wave of discrimination during the pandemic
That was on the 5th. Well done PBS, I suppose. This was not a reactive thing seizing upon the sensational story, they thought this trend was newsworthy before that.
Good job but, it's still a 'water is still wet' piece of journalism. I think the PBS audience is already aware of much of this appalling shit. Trump's comments - we all knew how this would go. That first rally he held when he said 'kung-flu', find a video of it and note the massive cheer that aroused. Fucking presidentialy approved racism - they loved it.
That's the fox news mob and they've never seen any reporting on this.
posted by adept256 at 2:27 PM on March 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
Well this has prompted me to reach out to my sister-in-law in a Canadian city to see how she is making out, how my nieces are doing.. I'm not hearing bad news, but man.. In my bubble, my friends are not bringing me bad news. I will see my (young male) Korean friend Monday and also ask him.
I am working on something in my community to push against this, it's a call-to-arms for like-minded people.
posted by elkevelvet at 2:29 PM on March 19, 2021
I am working on something in my community to push against this, it's a call-to-arms for like-minded people.
posted by elkevelvet at 2:29 PM on March 19, 2021
the media spin on this act of domestic terror seems to be trending towards it being a crime motivated by sex rather than racism.
Again, why are people talking like a “rather” belongs in this sentence at all? What do we have the concept of intersectionality for? I’m pushing back a little on the importance of not ignoring the misogyny/whorephobia angle because I feel like I see people being weirdly evasive (or more charitably, perhaps, naive) on that end, too. Posts like this one, I mean:
I wonder this: Can you read the sign?
Yes, and I can also read the Google reviews of the “Gold Spa” that are quite open about paying for sex there. A man scapegoated and targeted a particularly marginalized group of people. It’s an awful, not especially mysterious story.
posted by atoxyl at 5:12 PM on March 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
Again, why are people talking like a “rather” belongs in this sentence at all? What do we have the concept of intersectionality for? I’m pushing back a little on the importance of not ignoring the misogyny/whorephobia angle because I feel like I see people being weirdly evasive (or more charitably, perhaps, naive) on that end, too. Posts like this one, I mean:
I wonder this: Can you read the sign?
Yes, and I can also read the Google reviews of the “Gold Spa” that are quite open about paying for sex there. A man scapegoated and targeted a particularly marginalized group of people. It’s an awful, not especially mysterious story.
posted by atoxyl at 5:12 PM on March 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
I am...very tired. There are a lot of issues being conflated here, and I don't think it's useful to argue back and forth on them. I don't want to have to go into my history, but that elderly woman, who fought back against her assailant and went viral? She broke my heart because she was crying out in my dialect and I could hear her just saying "You! You taunted/harassed me!" over and over again, and just hearing the hurt in her voice was devastating.
I used to believe that there was a sense of safety in numbers, at least being in California, in being in the Bay Area, or SoCal, where there were Chinatowns and my people were all around. And now I'm dredging up all these memories, that I realized I've been in a sort of fog and denial about the amount of violence I've lived with all these years, and I can't escape it. I don't know what to do with it, and I don't know what real solutions are; I don't know that I believe that help is coming, or that I or my people will be supported with any sense of true safety or justice.
posted by toastyk at 9:52 PM on March 19, 2021 [32 favorites]
I used to believe that there was a sense of safety in numbers, at least being in California, in being in the Bay Area, or SoCal, where there were Chinatowns and my people were all around. And now I'm dredging up all these memories, that I realized I've been in a sort of fog and denial about the amount of violence I've lived with all these years, and I can't escape it. I don't know what to do with it, and I don't know what real solutions are; I don't know that I believe that help is coming, or that I or my people will be supported with any sense of true safety or justice.
posted by toastyk at 9:52 PM on March 19, 2021 [32 favorites]
“If anyone has a non-racist explanation for that I would be interested in hearing it.”
I’m not being flip when I say I am not interested, and I sincerely hope that anyone who feels compelled to jump in here keeps their non-racist explanation to themselves. I’m sure you all mean well in here, but there are a lot of us who have been hearing non-racist explanations for the racist shit that happens to us and our loved ones for as long as we can remember.
posted by mustard seeds at 1:02 AM on March 20, 2021 [25 favorites]
I’m not being flip when I say I am not interested, and I sincerely hope that anyone who feels compelled to jump in here keeps their non-racist explanation to themselves. I’m sure you all mean well in here, but there are a lot of us who have been hearing non-racist explanations for the racist shit that happens to us and our loved ones for as long as we can remember.
posted by mustard seeds at 1:02 AM on March 20, 2021 [25 favorites]
The use of the phrase "massage parlor" in the media needs to be questioned. It sounds like at least one of the spas targeted was just a spa that offered massage, not a brothel. I mean, couples wanting a night out after the baby is born generally don't go to brothels together. By using the term " massage parlor," which is understood to be a euphemism for brothel, the media is giving legitimacy to the shooter's claim that it was about sex, not race. And referring to Asian owned and staffed spas as massage parlors seems pretty fucking racist.
posted by LindsayIrene at 8:53 AM on March 20, 2021 [14 favorites]
posted by LindsayIrene at 8:53 AM on March 20, 2021 [14 favorites]
A profile of the 8 victims.
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posted by Karaage at 9:23 AM on March 20, 2021 [12 favorites]
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posted by Karaage at 9:23 AM on March 20, 2021 [12 favorites]
South China Morning Post: Atlanta shooting: Asian-Americans rally as investigators say hate crimes charge ‘not off the table’:
The Atlanta Hankook Ilbo daily quoted an employee at Gold Massage Spa, one of the three stores hit in the attack, as saying that the attacker shouted he was going to “kill all Asians” as he went on a shooting spree.
posted by FJT at 1:10 PM on March 20, 2021 [1 favorite]
The Atlanta Hankook Ilbo daily quoted an employee at Gold Massage Spa, one of the three stores hit in the attack, as saying that the attacker shouted he was going to “kill all Asians” as he went on a shooting spree.
posted by FJT at 1:10 PM on March 20, 2021 [1 favorite]
As an Asian-American, I've been so tired these past few years that it's taking time for the anger to seep in. It was good yesterday to hear on All Things Considered two Asian women spell out the long history of terrible stereotypes that our country has had toward Asian women in particular.
What recent history has driven home to me is, while parts of the country are willing to take others' feelings to heart and change, there are some that are not. And even in our most diverse and accepting communities, there are those who for various reasons (privilege and mental illness, from what I see in the news) don't want to change.
Violence against the elderly in our urban centers has always been there, which I see as crimes born of economic hardship, leavened by racial pitting of one group against another. We cannot address these sorts of crimes in the long term without economic justice for all, and the changing of racist views on all sides.
I can only hope the shooting was an isolated incident, brought about by a stew of religious fundamentalism, poisonous rhetoric, toxic masculinity, and structural racism. But as long as society carries these viral pools within it, there will be danger of outbreaks. We must inoculate against these harmful ideas early and often.
posted by Standard Orange at 4:43 PM on March 20, 2021 [6 favorites]
What recent history has driven home to me is, while parts of the country are willing to take others' feelings to heart and change, there are some that are not. And even in our most diverse and accepting communities, there are those who for various reasons (privilege and mental illness, from what I see in the news) don't want to change.
Violence against the elderly in our urban centers has always been there, which I see as crimes born of economic hardship, leavened by racial pitting of one group against another. We cannot address these sorts of crimes in the long term without economic justice for all, and the changing of racist views on all sides.
I can only hope the shooting was an isolated incident, brought about by a stew of religious fundamentalism, poisonous rhetoric, toxic masculinity, and structural racism. But as long as society carries these viral pools within it, there will be danger of outbreaks. We must inoculate against these harmful ideas early and often.
posted by Standard Orange at 4:43 PM on March 20, 2021 [6 favorites]
Reddit’s AskHistorians:
The shooter claimed that he is a sex addict and that he targeted his victims because they tempted him and enabled his addiction. Yet, at least six of the victims were not even massage therapists. Four of these six victims were Asian women and the other two appear to have been patrons who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. If the four Asian women who were murdered never actually serviced patrons, then what temptation did they offer the shooter? Only the imaginary temptation provided by their existence as Asian women in a society that has labeled them as sex objects based solely on their race and the legacy of Yellow Peril and Model Minority ideology. It is possible that the shooter himself is not even self-aware enough to realize his actions were motivated, even in part, by racial stereotypes about Asian women. His ignorance, however, does not erase the fact that racism played a role in his decision to murder eight people.
While much more can be said about the Myth of the Model Minority and the way that it places unreasonable expectations upon Asian Americans and Asian Canadians to perform, perhaps the most important thing to state in conclusion is that the Myth of the Model Minority is, in many respects, a silencing ideology. Asians have been characterized as polite and submissive and many have internalized this characterization. In so doing, Asians in North America are less likely to fight back against racially motivated violence. And perhaps this is why the Atlanta area massacres were so shocking. The thousands of individualized attacks in the last year were perpetrated against people socialized to be polite, submissive, and self-sufficient. People, moreover, who have been socialized to just accept what gets thrown at them because they’re the “good” minority…but only so long as they know their place.
posted by Comrade_robot at 5:37 AM on March 21, 2021 [8 favorites]
The shooter claimed that he is a sex addict and that he targeted his victims because they tempted him and enabled his addiction. Yet, at least six of the victims were not even massage therapists. Four of these six victims were Asian women and the other two appear to have been patrons who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. If the four Asian women who were murdered never actually serviced patrons, then what temptation did they offer the shooter? Only the imaginary temptation provided by their existence as Asian women in a society that has labeled them as sex objects based solely on their race and the legacy of Yellow Peril and Model Minority ideology. It is possible that the shooter himself is not even self-aware enough to realize his actions were motivated, even in part, by racial stereotypes about Asian women. His ignorance, however, does not erase the fact that racism played a role in his decision to murder eight people.
While much more can be said about the Myth of the Model Minority and the way that it places unreasonable expectations upon Asian Americans and Asian Canadians to perform, perhaps the most important thing to state in conclusion is that the Myth of the Model Minority is, in many respects, a silencing ideology. Asians have been characterized as polite and submissive and many have internalized this characterization. In so doing, Asians in North America are less likely to fight back against racially motivated violence. And perhaps this is why the Atlanta area massacres were so shocking. The thousands of individualized attacks in the last year were perpetrated against people socialized to be polite, submissive, and self-sufficient. People, moreover, who have been socialized to just accept what gets thrown at them because they’re the “good” minority…but only so long as they know their place.
posted by Comrade_robot at 5:37 AM on March 21, 2021 [8 favorites]
From the profile of the victims (thank you for sharing that, Karaage):
Gonzalez [husband of Delaina Yuan, one of the slain, with whom he'd booked a couple's massage] told the news website Mundo Hispanico that moments after the horrific shooting, when he was anguished by the uncertainty of what had happened to his wife, he was briefly arrested and handcuffed by police officers who had arrived there. The Cherokee County Sheriff’s office, who responded to the event, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Goddamn America.
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posted by lord_wolf at 9:06 AM on March 21, 2021 [7 favorites]
Gonzalez [husband of Delaina Yuan, one of the slain, with whom he'd booked a couple's massage] told the news website Mundo Hispanico that moments after the horrific shooting, when he was anguished by the uncertainty of what had happened to his wife, he was briefly arrested and handcuffed by police officers who had arrived there. The Cherokee County Sheriff’s office, who responded to the event, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Goddamn America.
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posted by lord_wolf at 9:06 AM on March 21, 2021 [7 favorites]
from the words of Asian American women:
Hate turned my Asian American mom into a shut-in. This isn't the country she left her homeland for. - Kristie Lu Stout
The "talk" and Asian American children - Heidi Shin
The Atlanta Shooting and the Dehumanization of Asian Women - Jiayang Fan
This is Where Ignoring 150 Years of Ignoring Anti-Asian Racism Got Us - Venessa Wong
posted by toastyk at 9:27 PM on March 21, 2021 [8 favorites]
Hate turned my Asian American mom into a shut-in. This isn't the country she left her homeland for. - Kristie Lu Stout
The "talk" and Asian American children - Heidi Shin
The Atlanta Shooting and the Dehumanization of Asian Women - Jiayang Fan
This is Where Ignoring 150 Years of Ignoring Anti-Asian Racism Got Us - Venessa Wong
posted by toastyk at 9:27 PM on March 21, 2021 [8 favorites]
These people are trying to kill us and I don't think we should let them. I get the desire to appeal to people's better nature, and on the margins that can work.
Unfortunately, we just can't reach some people, they're totally committed to enforcing white supremacy and racial hierarchy through violence. When those people are on our doorstep then violence is the correct response in my opnion -- this is not only moral, but legal. In California, it is in fact, legal for a person to use lethal force to stop someone from killing them or another, or to resist "forcible and atrocious crimes...generally those crimes whose character and manner reasonably create a fear of death or serious bodily harm."
toastyk, I read over the article about the "talk" and Asian children with some curiousity. In my family, we got that talk when I was growing up in the 80s and I think most of my cousins got it too. We've lived in the United States for generations, long enough that some of my relatives remember when you basically couldn't get a white collar job outside of Chinatown, and almost all unions were closed to Chinese people.
I grew up knowing someone who had a Ph.d. in Mechanical Engineering and when he finished up with the Army after WWII he became a professor, which was great, because there just WEREN'T jobs in the private industry for Chinese MechE PhDs . A lot of Asian people who came in the last 30 years finished grad school, got great jobs and managed to convince themselves that America wasn't a white nationalist colonial enterprise but this beautiful shiny meritocratic paradise where hard work guarantees success, and anyone who isn't successful is probably lazy or (maybe) genetically inferior. And a lot of their kids, with whom I went to school, really believed it too and typically sneered (or politely scoffed) when I mentioned that this was all very contingent. To their credit, many of them worked hard and made high test scores, and are, as far as I can tell from LinkedIn, in high earning professions today. But that advanced degree, job at Google, and BMW aren't going to stop a racist from attacking them or their elderly parents. And what about people who work in nail salons and deliver food on bicycles? They don't have college degrees and shiny cars but I think they too deserve to be able to work and live in peace, which is difficult when they face not only bigots, but our own people exploiting them.
When Chinese people were public enemy number 1 in California we were lucky to be alive at all after white settlers burned down Chinatowns all over northern california. A lot of Chinese people worked hard and saved money but it didn't matter when law enforcement colluded with local business owners to seize their property and murder them. Have you read Jean Pfalzer's book, Driven Out? She covers all of this in excruciating detail, how even socialist heroes like Eugene V. Debs and Jack London supported the Chinese Exclusion Act. As far as I know, in the early 20th century the IWW was literally the only leftist organization to stick up for Asian people in America. Literally the most radical labor union, the one most hated by capitalists and the one singled out for persecution -- that was the only one where some of the members even tried to stand with us.
I'm so sorry that you're wrestling with this, it's an awful thing to recognize about American society. Growing up and going to schools that were selling this multicultural, 'meritocratic' vision of America, while always being viscerally aware of the threat of racist violence was really disorienting. It's shaped my life so much, I don't even know who I would be if it was something I only came to know in the last few weeks.
You wrote " I don't know that I believe that help is coming, or that I or my people will be supported with any sense of true safety or justice." I was thinking about this too today when i was running some errands. I guess from my perspective, no one is coming to save us. I first heard that in a labor organizing context and, man, it was so hard to hear. But the longer I sat with it, the more true it seems to be. Tang Long isn't going to ride into town to kick ass. The cops aren't going to magically dispel the bigots attacking sex workers when they themselves are attacking sex workers. And I have a hard time believing that politicians passing more laws to give more money to cops and prosecutors are going to do much either. No, in the end, we have to save ourselves. I'm glad for anyone else that wants to stand with us at this time -- but I think that we have to lead this fight for ourselves.
posted by wuwei at 12:17 AM on March 22, 2021 [12 favorites]
Unfortunately, we just can't reach some people, they're totally committed to enforcing white supremacy and racial hierarchy through violence. When those people are on our doorstep then violence is the correct response in my opnion -- this is not only moral, but legal. In California, it is in fact, legal for a person to use lethal force to stop someone from killing them or another, or to resist "forcible and atrocious crimes...generally those crimes whose character and manner reasonably create a fear of death or serious bodily harm."
toastyk, I read over the article about the "talk" and Asian children with some curiousity. In my family, we got that talk when I was growing up in the 80s and I think most of my cousins got it too. We've lived in the United States for generations, long enough that some of my relatives remember when you basically couldn't get a white collar job outside of Chinatown, and almost all unions were closed to Chinese people.
I grew up knowing someone who had a Ph.d. in Mechanical Engineering and when he finished up with the Army after WWII he became a professor, which was great, because there just WEREN'T jobs in the private industry for Chinese MechE PhDs . A lot of Asian people who came in the last 30 years finished grad school, got great jobs and managed to convince themselves that America wasn't a white nationalist colonial enterprise but this beautiful shiny meritocratic paradise where hard work guarantees success, and anyone who isn't successful is probably lazy or (maybe) genetically inferior. And a lot of their kids, with whom I went to school, really believed it too and typically sneered (or politely scoffed) when I mentioned that this was all very contingent. To their credit, many of them worked hard and made high test scores, and are, as far as I can tell from LinkedIn, in high earning professions today. But that advanced degree, job at Google, and BMW aren't going to stop a racist from attacking them or their elderly parents. And what about people who work in nail salons and deliver food on bicycles? They don't have college degrees and shiny cars but I think they too deserve to be able to work and live in peace, which is difficult when they face not only bigots, but our own people exploiting them.
When Chinese people were public enemy number 1 in California we were lucky to be alive at all after white settlers burned down Chinatowns all over northern california. A lot of Chinese people worked hard and saved money but it didn't matter when law enforcement colluded with local business owners to seize their property and murder them. Have you read Jean Pfalzer's book, Driven Out? She covers all of this in excruciating detail, how even socialist heroes like Eugene V. Debs and Jack London supported the Chinese Exclusion Act. As far as I know, in the early 20th century the IWW was literally the only leftist organization to stick up for Asian people in America. Literally the most radical labor union, the one most hated by capitalists and the one singled out for persecution -- that was the only one where some of the members even tried to stand with us.
I'm so sorry that you're wrestling with this, it's an awful thing to recognize about American society. Growing up and going to schools that were selling this multicultural, 'meritocratic' vision of America, while always being viscerally aware of the threat of racist violence was really disorienting. It's shaped my life so much, I don't even know who I would be if it was something I only came to know in the last few weeks.
You wrote " I don't know that I believe that help is coming, or that I or my people will be supported with any sense of true safety or justice." I was thinking about this too today when i was running some errands. I guess from my perspective, no one is coming to save us. I first heard that in a labor organizing context and, man, it was so hard to hear. But the longer I sat with it, the more true it seems to be. Tang Long isn't going to ride into town to kick ass. The cops aren't going to magically dispel the bigots attacking sex workers when they themselves are attacking sex workers. And I have a hard time believing that politicians passing more laws to give more money to cops and prosecutors are going to do much either. No, in the end, we have to save ourselves. I'm glad for anyone else that wants to stand with us at this time -- but I think that we have to lead this fight for ourselves.
posted by wuwei at 12:17 AM on March 22, 2021 [12 favorites]
Invoking the Triads and Bruce Lee is a charged way of bringing up activisim, but yes, at least in San Francisco, volunteer patrols have come into play (and prior to last week, too) and I can't imagine that hasn't happened elsewhere.
posted by fragmede at 1:25 AM on March 22, 2021
posted by fragmede at 1:25 AM on March 22, 2021
The violence also isn't new.
It was widely reported a YEAR AGO that in response to heightened anti-Asian sentiment that Asian Americans were buying guns in heightened numbers, (Newsweek, NYtimes, LATimes).
And it's not going away any time soon, either. A woman was attacked on the way to a support rally TODAY.
posted by fragmede at 12:52 PM on March 22, 2021 [2 favorites]
It was widely reported a YEAR AGO that in response to heightened anti-Asian sentiment that Asian Americans were buying guns in heightened numbers, (Newsweek, NYtimes, LATimes).
And it's not going away any time soon, either. A woman was attacked on the way to a support rally TODAY.
posted by fragmede at 12:52 PM on March 22, 2021 [2 favorites]
> A Letter to My Fellow Asian Women Whose Hearts Are Still Breaking
posted by fragmede at 4:54 PM on March 22, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by fragmede at 4:54 PM on March 22, 2021 [4 favorites]
I posted the wrong California Jury Instructions on self defense, apologies. Here's the correct one:
CALCRIM No. 505, Justifiable Homicide: Self Defense or Defense of Another.
posted by wuwei at 9:09 PM on March 22, 2021
CALCRIM No. 505, Justifiable Homicide: Self Defense or Defense of Another.
posted by wuwei at 9:09 PM on March 22, 2021
Update on the elderly woman who fought her attacker - $900k raised on gofundme:
When we visited our grandma yesterday and today her overall mental and physical health has improved. Her eye is no longer swelled to the point of not being able to open it. She is now starting to feel optimistic again and is in better spirits. She said we must not summit to racism and we must fight to the death if necessary. She also stated multiple times to donate all the funds generated in this GoFundMe back to the Asian American community to combat racism. She insists on making this decision saying this issue is bigger than Her.
posted by toastyk at 12:32 PM on March 23, 2021 [5 favorites]
When we visited our grandma yesterday and today her overall mental and physical health has improved. Her eye is no longer swelled to the point of not being able to open it. She is now starting to feel optimistic again and is in better spirits. She said we must not summit to racism and we must fight to the death if necessary. She also stated multiple times to donate all the funds generated in this GoFundMe back to the Asian American community to combat racism. She insists on making this decision saying this issue is bigger than Her.
posted by toastyk at 12:32 PM on March 23, 2021 [5 favorites]
Nicole Chung: My White Adoptive Parents Struggled to See Me as Korean. Would They Have Understood My Anger at the Rise in Anti-Asian Violence?
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:02 PM on March 27, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:02 PM on March 27, 2021 [4 favorites]
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posted by Dysk at 12:03 AM on March 19, 2021 [5 favorites]