In memory of:
Daoyou Feng, 44
Hyun Jung Grant, 51
Suncha Kim, 69
Paul Andre Michels, 54
Soon Chung Park, 74
Xiaojie Tan, 49
Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33
Yong Ae Yue, 63 

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n March 16, 2021, a man opened fire in three massage parlors in the Atlanta area, killing eight people, six of whom were Asian women. These killings join a surge of attacks on Asians and Asian Americans, which have increased by more than 150% over the last year, and of which women make up nearly 70% of reported instances  [i]. In the aftermath of the mass killings, news outlets and the Atlanta Sheriff’s office sought to deny that the shootings had anything to do with racism: A Cherokee Country Sheriff spokesman conveyed in the gunman’s words that his actions were “not racially motivated,” but caused by “sexual addiction;” indeed, the spokesman claimed, the shooter’s actions boiled down to his having had “a really bad day.”

By now, the minimization of gendered racialized violence by law enforcement officials comes as little surprise to those who have followed the long history of the links between policing and white supremacy. In response, Asian American organizers, activists, and scholars have pointed to the inseparability of racism and sexism in Asian American women’s experience in the US, and to the deep roots of anti-Asian violence in US military imperialism in the Asia-Pacific. In fact, few mainstream press outlets have pointed to the chilling coincidence that the shootings in Atlanta occurred on the 53rd anniversary of the My Lai massacre, making it difficult for wider audiences to connect seemingly individualized episodes of violence in the US to the racialized state violence of US empire, and its continuities in the state’s hawkish rhetoric around China’s ‘rising power’. [ii]

In this Society and Space forum on Anti-Asian violence, we gather the perspectives of Asian-American scholars and organizers who contextualize the Atlanta mass shootings within histories of US immigration policy, US empire, the policing of sex work, and more. We do so in the hopes of deepening our understanding of the social, political, and cultural production of anti-Asian misogyny and racism, and to interrogate the arrangements of state-sanctioned violence and power from which such apparently-isolated and apparently individual acts emerge. Recognizing the need for better intersectional analyses, over the next few weeks, we will publish brief interventions covering the links between anti-Blackness and anti-Asian racism, rejecting the calls for increased surveillance and policing in the aftermath of such violence, and reflecting on the implications of this moment for future struggles for racial justice.

Included in this forum are two re-publications of university department statements on anti-Asian racism. Although publishing in such form is typically unconventional for this venue, we do so in this instance because department statements carry particular valence as a form of collective political speech in a time where students of color feel targeted and fearful  for themselves and their communities. Such statements serve not only to signal institutional support for students within a system of neoliberal higher education that can often feel hostile to the lived worlds of trauma that minoritized students bear, but can also mobilize students and give them ways of putting pressure on other parties. Departmental statements are therefore, however initial, important efforts to build collective forms of knowledge production that can bridge the often individualizing work of the academy to the collective force of popular mobilizations for racial justice. [iii] 

Finally, with credit to the UCRFTP Cops Off Campus Collective, we link with their permission a curated list of statements, events, reporting and resources. Please consider supporting the various organizations linked below and in the accompanying forum essays: 

Community Resources on Anti-Asian Violence
Curated by the UCRFTP Cops Off Campus Collective

This is a curated list of non-carceral statements, events, reporting, and resources speaking to the longstanding and ongoing racialized misogyny, xenophobia, and fear of sex workers that have contributed to the countless acts of individual and state violence targeting Asian femmes, sex workers, elders, and others, and which contextualize the murders of spa workers in Atlanta on March 16, 2021. As we continue to have these important conversations, we hope the following resources provide guidance, analysis, support, and paths toward community-oriented action and collective healing.
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Public Events

• (upcoming) U Michigan online forum Friday, March 26, “Contextualizing Violence Against Asians Within the History of US Relational Racism.” It’s early (7:30-9 am pacific), FREE, NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED: https://umich.zoom.us/j/94866591981 
• Red Canary Song (Asian Migrant Sex Workers) Vigil recording: https://www.pscp.tv/w/1gqxvoYBEYeKB‍
• Asian American Writers Workshop “Anti-Asian Violence and Black-Asian Solidarity Today” Lecture with Tamara K. Nopper, March 23, 3pm pacific: https://aaww.org/curation/anti-asian-violence-and-black-asian-solidarity-today/ 
• Hollaback! “Bystander intervention to stop anti-Asian/American harassment and xenophobia” training session, March 29, 12-1pm pacific: https://www.ihollaback.org/event/bystander-intervention-stop-anti-asian-american-harassment-xenophobia/ 

Statements/Sign-ons

• Red Canary Song statement: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_Q0mFJnivTZL5fcCS7eUZn9EhOJ1XHtFBGOGqVaUY_8/edit 
• Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter and Butterfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network) Sign-on statement: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScaF9sNT8o13HB9AtmKZMzaSfl3MWabasMcE3VqJy8-HhJnyw/viewform?fbzx=6522665096167094573
• Butterfly sign-on: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSftvwRE2LEsfL24fvtygAHdqN8qHSjcImOhu_AINt6cmtstQw/viewform 
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta:
  Community response: https://www.advancingjustice-atlanta.org/news/communityresponse‍
• Korean: https://www.advancingjustice-atlanta.org/news/communityresponse-kr 
• Sign-on Statement: https://www.advancingjustice-atlanta.org/aaajcommunitystatement 
• Donations for community support https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/support-georgias-asian-american-community/ 
• Community Resources Offering Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfYfnPRfl0twPE4TtCODbpdZ50UnY97ZMz-aYHA5HJcR-vlyQ/viewform 
• Barnard BCRW statement and resources:: http://bcrw.barnard.edu/defending-asian-women-defending-sex-workers/‍
• UIUC AAS/GWS Statement: https://gws.illinois.edu/news/2021-03-18/aasgws-statement-anti-asian-violence 

Reportage and Perspectives

• Connie Wun, Ignoring the History of Anti-Asian Racism Is Another Form of Violence https://www.elle.com/author/227672/Connie-Wun/‍
• Jennifer Ho’s CNN Op-Ed: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/17/opinions/to-be-an-asian-woman-in-america-ho/index.html?fbclid=IwAR2ab54o_RUG-sPEO8hsKLCbLQV84azhv_EVkUKcQyccRPFcCEAP4qJ-42U‍
• NBC Asian America popular press framing: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/racism-sexism-must-be-considered-atlanta-case-involving-killing-six-n1261347?fbclid=IwAR0-UvCioJy-tL3pN7EGzL79yg2UNa2sMSbGb4Mgf98c0CRayPtCsTRLWqo‍
• How Red Canary Song is advocating for migrant sex workers: https://www.papermag.com/red-canary-song-interview-2641163041.html 
• Deeper than Hate: https://roarmag.org/essays/atlanta-spa-shootings-racial-violence/‍
• The Answer to Anti-Asian Racism is Not More Policing, Kayla Hui, Truthout, March 17, 2021 https://truthout.org/articles/the-answer-to-anti-asian-racism-is-not-more-policing/‍
• Stop Asian Hate: Connie Wun on Atlanta Spa Killings, Gender Violence & Spike in Anti-Asian Attacks, Democracy Now, March 18, 2021 https://www.democracynow.org/2021/3/18/atlanta_shooting_rampage_anti_asian_violence‍
• A Letter to My Fellow Asian Women Whose Hearts Are Still Breaking, R.O. Kwon, Vanity Fair, March 19, 2021 https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/03/ro-kwon-letter-to-asian-women‍
• Asian Women Are Facing a Terrifying Rise in Hate Incidents, The Cut, March 17, 2021
  https://www.thecut.com/2021/03/asian-women-are-facing-a-terrifying-rise-in-hate-incidents.html‍
• Eddie Conway and Dylan Rodriguez, Real News Network, “COVID-19 Pandemic Illuminates Anti-Chinese Racism And Xenophobia” https://youtu.be/GT4ud5xXI2U‍
• Ju Yon Kim, “The Story Does Not Begin in Georgia: A Letter to Students About the Recent Shootings”: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2021/3/20/kim-letter-to-students/ 

Additional Resources/Reading

• Butterfly Report on Protecting the Safety of Workers in Holistic Centres and Body Rub Parlours by AllowingThem to Lock Their Doors: https://t.co/NrVFrqyLVu?amp=1 
• Carceral Feminism: The failure of sex work prohibition: https://robynmaynard.com/writing/carceral-feminism-the-failure-of-sex-work-prohibition/
• From Carceral Feminism to Transformative Justice by Mimi Kim: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xtF_9x3G1d4JsMgaRFGU4KVgMi1Lzww1/view?usp=drivesdk
• Anti-Carceral Feminism by Mimi Kim: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0886109919878276
• Revolting Prostitutes by Molly Smith and Juno Mac: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4114-cops-borders-and-carceral-feminists
• TransformHarm.org: https://transformharm.org
• SDSU reading list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IQUPe7e52Kus-8AE33xuSOuo7j1uXw6VgfP4yfMUcQ0/edit
• Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities reading list: https://www.blackwomenradicals.com/blog-feed/black-and-asian-feminist-solidarities-a-reading-list 
• “Don’t be a bystander” video by BCRW and Project NIA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krgcbiRu0ys  

Notes

[i]   This statistic is based on the number of reported hate crimes, and does not fully capture the number of actual incidents of anti-Asian violence. In addition, as Dylan Rodriguez and others have noted and problematized, the categorization of instances of racialized violence as "hate crimes" isolates acts of violence to the level of individual while obscuring the role of state agencies in producing such violence.

[ii]  I am grateful to Samir Sonti for pointing out the incidence of these dates.

[iii] Thanks to Nick Mitchell for talking through the political purpose of departmental statements with me.
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Charmaine Chua is an Assistant Professor of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Review and Magazine Editor of Society and Space.