Dear Queer|Art Network,
First a content warning: the following message contains references to violence against Asian people, against migrants, and against sex workers. We encourage everyone, but especially our loves who are Asian, who are sex workers, who are migrants, or otherwise particularly vulnerable to white supremacist violence to take good care of yourself at this time. Engage with this message (or don’t) as is healthy for you <3
[ID: 3 Asian people, two older women and one non-binary person, standing together with glowing yellow lines, and painted with red watercolor. Surrounding them is a red banner (marker) that has chrysanthemums on each end. text at top and bottom is same as caption.]
"against empire, patriarchy, and capitalism / towards love and care", Mon Mohapatra, 2021
This past Tuesday a white man targeted three different massage parlors in the greater Atlanta area in a vicious anti-Asian attack that left eight people dead and at least one other injured. Despite hesitance by traditional media outlets to name this as an act of white supremacist violence driven by anti-Asian hatred, which is particularly affecting Asian women, who as massage workers were likely subjected to sexualized violence, we feel it is critical to name it as such.
Since March 19, 2020, with the emergence of Covid as a pandemic impacting the United States, incidents of anti-Asian and Pacific Islander violence and sentiment have more than doubled in this country, with at least 3,795 incidents reported to Stop AAPI Hate as of February 28. Emboldened by the sinophobic rhetoric of our former President, white supremacist culture has targeted Asian Pacific Islander communities living in the U.S. at every level, causing profound harm that has now led to these recent horrifying events.
[ID: A collage shows streaks of white paint over splotches of yellow and dark blues. Applied on top is a textured piece of white paper, with black text in a typewriter font which reads: “a history of colonialism neocolonialism dictatorship and resistance”]
”a history of colonialism neocolonialism dictatorship and resistance”, Aldrin Valdez, 2021
It is critical to locate these tragedies within the long history of U.S. violence throughout the Asia Pacific, founded on the base of American colonization: from Hawai’i, where Queen Lili’uokalani of the formerly sovereign Republic of Hawai’i was overthrown and the land annexed, to territories still under U.S. rule such as Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. This is followed by the murderous actions of the United States military, such as in the imperialist occupations of the Philippines, Korea, and Vietnam, or in the displacement of inhabitants of Bikini Atoll following the island’s use as a nuclear testing site.
The logics of disposability and anti-Asian American violence are then inflicted on Asian immigrants and migrants on this land such as in the Chinese Massacre of 1871, attacks on Filipino farmworkers in the 1930s, and the internment of Japanese Americans during the second World War. The Page Act of 1875, the first US law enacted to restrict immigration, unfairly targeted all Asian woman as sex workers, requiring them to prove they were not engaged in that work.
The similarities between these tragedies and the rise of attacks on Asian and Pacific Islander American communities during the past year are striking and not at all coincidental. All are informed by a centuries-old sinophobia and stereotypical notions of who we think of when referring to Asian people. Incidents of violence consistently feature white people acting as vigilantes to harass, intimidate, and often kill Asian people who were purported to be in some way a threat to whiteness. These are not isolated instances of individuals driven by some personal hatred, but rather outgrowths of a systemic white supremacy, which depends on extrajudicial violence in order to maintain itself.
[ID: A collage shows an almost translucent piece of white paper, with black text in a typewriter font which reads: “tell me again where it is in my body. rage.” The paper is pasted atop images of green leaves and plants intersected by thick dark lines. All of this rests on top of a pale yellow wall with a turquoise frame on the left side of the image.]
“tell me again where it is in my body. rage.”, Aldrin Valdez, 2021
Given the specifically racially-motivated hatred which has clearly driven this attack and other attacks on Asian people in the past year, it is understandable why there is an impulse to have these attacks be labelled as Hate Crimes. However, we feel that to do so is to reinvest in a system that upholds white supremacy, as Hate Crimes Laws are ineffective at reducing the rates of attacks driven by hatred, and instead offer an expansion of resources available to the police and the prison industrial complex. Similarly, applying a label of “terrorism” to acts of white supremacy only serves to reify and expand the U.S. “war on terrorism” which disproportionately harms Black and brown people, and particularly Arab and South Asian communities.
We already see the impacts of calls for increased policing as a solution—including stepping up patrols of Asian communities here in NYC. We reject attempts to solve any white supremacist violence with more policing (which is inherently a violently white supremacist institution), and we uplift the words of Red Canary Song, an NYC-based organization founded in 2017 to support Asian and migrant sex workers, including massage therapists, through mutual aid and other initiatives:
Via Red Canary Song Statement:
“Policing has never kept sex workers or massage workers or immigrants safe. The criminalization and demonization of sex work has hurt and killed countless people—many at the hands of the police both directly and indirectly. Due to sexist racialized perceptions of Asian women, especially those engaged in vulnerable, low-wage work, Asian massage workers are harmed by the criminalization of sex work, regardless of whether they engage in it themselves.
Decriminalization of sex work is the only way that sex workers, massage workers, sex trafficking survivors, and anyone criminalized for their survival and/or livelihood will ever be safe.”
We echo Red Canary Song above in stating that regardless of how they self-identified, the victims of Tuesday’s attacks were nonetheless harmed by the criminalization of people in the sex trade, as it emboldens the state and the public to dehumanize anyone associated with sex work. It forces people in the sex trade to work under unsafe working conditions, with no recourse to report dangerous clients, and no access to worker rights protections. It also exposes sex workers to police harassment including arrests, incarceration, and abuse at the hands of police officers. This kind of harassment can have deadly consequences for sex workers, including those working in Asian massage parlors, such as in the case of Yang Song, who died during a police raid of her place of work in Flushing, Queens in 2017.
There is unprecedented momentum to decriminalize sex work in the United States, with several states and cities including Massachussetts, Oregon, Washington DC, and New York actively working towards it. With full decriminalization, sex workers would be able to work collectively, at accountable and safe work sites, where workers rights can be protected and ensured. It would allow sex workers autonomy to choose how and where they work, without the need to avoid detection which drives working in isolated areas that increase the exposure to violence. Decriminalization has been shown to increase access to health services, to reduce the rate of STD transmission, and enable sex workers to live fuller lives without being limited by a criminal record.
Learn about and support the organizations and initiatives behind the movement to decriminalize sex work, as well as candidates running for office in your area with full decriminalization (not partial decriminalization, not the Nordic model, not legalization) listed as a part of their platforms.
We send love and care to those impacted by this horrific act of white supremacist and misogynist violence, and we honor the lives of Yong Ae Yue, Suncha Kim, Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant (maiden name Kim), Daoyou Feng, Xiaojie Tan, Delaina Ashley Yaun, and Paul Andre Michels. You all should still be here.
- Queer|Art
Since our Call to Action in June of 2020, Queer|Art has been actively engaged in accountability work focusing on uplifting Black LGBTQ+ artists and challenging white supremacy in our organization and in the arts and queer community. This statement comes out of that ongoing work, and is a reaffirmation of our commitment to doing our part to dismantle white supremacy in all forms.
[ID: A collage shows a piece of faded red paper, dotted with various sized circles in primary red, yellow, and blue. On top sits black, white, and brown strips of paper. In the lower right is a black piece of paper with white sans serif type that reads “MOURNING ISN’T LINEAR OR WITHOUT PLEASURE”]
“MOURNING ISN’T LINEAR OR WITHOUT PLEASURE”, Aldrin Valdez, 2021
We have included below a list of resources, events, and organizations that are doing the on the ground work to keep Asian communities safe, we will continue to seek out and signal boost resources that contribute to the safety and wellbeing of the Asian members of our community and beyond. We highlight the petition drafted by National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) urging that the response from elected officials to anti-Asian violence be intersectional and responsive to the needs of Asian American women and elders, and we recommend our supporters sign on immediately.
UPCOMING EVENTS
In-Person
Saturday 3/20
Candlelight Vigil (Chicago) 4-6pm @ Mandrake Park
A candlelit vigil for women who have lost their lives to violence
Sunday 3/21
Black & Asian Solidarity 5K (NYC) 10am @ Union Square
5K run for Black & Asian solidarity. Show up in a white or black top. Wear a mask!
Rally Against Hate (NYC) 1pm @ Columbus Park
Empowering the community with live music, guest speakers, and conscious conversations while supporting local businesses
Rally, March & Ride: Black & Asian Solidarity organized by @ridersforblacklives (NYC) 2pm @ Barclays Center
Digital
Friday 3/19
Sound Healing For Trauma Release with Miya Dunets, HealHaus, 7pm EST
**Open to AAPI identifying folks only**
Saturday 3/20
KAMobilizing Zoom Gathering 8pm EST
Korean Americans Mobilizing, space for healing and community discussion
Click here for Zoom link
Tuesday 3/23
Anti-Asian Violence and Black-Asian Solidarity Today, a lecture by Tamara K. Nopper, presented by Asian American Writers Workshop, 6pm EST
Monday 3/29
Bystander Intervention to Stop Anti-Asian/American Harassment and Xenophobia 3pm EST
PETITIONS
Call on President Biden for Emergency Safety and Relief for Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities by 9 to 5, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (organizational signatures only)
Red Canary Song Response To Shootings At Gold Massge Spa, Young’s Asian Massage, & Aroma Therapy Spa by Red Canary Song (organizational signatures only)
Condemn Hate and Violence Against Asian American Women by National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (all signatures welcome)
RESOURCES
Call On Me, Not the Cops: A Community Resource by 18 Million Rising in Bengali/Bangla, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Sinhala, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Urdu, and Vietnamese
Don’t Be A Bystander: Six Tips for Responding to Racist Attacks, a video production by BCRW and Project NIA
Sex Workers Project, an organization and resource hub with reports on the effects of criminalization for migrant sex workers in New York City
FURTHER READING
Anti-Asian Violence
The long, ugly history of anti-Asian racism and violence in the U.S., Washington Post, 2021
Stop AAPI Hate National Report, Stop AAPI Hate, 2021
“Critical Race Theory is Not Anti-Asian” by Mari Matsuda, Reappropriate, March 12, 2021
“Ignoring the History of Anti-Asian Racism is Another Form of Violence” by Connie Wun, Elle, March 1, 2021
Policing & Hate Crime Legislation
“The Answer to Anti-Asian Racism is Not More Policing” by Kayla Hui, Truthout, March 17, 2021
Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans Are on the Rise. Many Say More Policing Isn’t the Answer by Cady Lang, Time, February 18, 2021
A Compilation of Critiques on Hate Crimes Legislation, Black & Pink, 2009
Counterpoint: Loving Hate: Why Hate Crimes Legislation is a Bad Idea, Bilerico Report, 2009
Hate-Crime Follies, CounterPunch, 2001
Sex Work Decriminalization
This Is How Sex Workers Win, The New Republic, 2021
In Manhattan D.A. Race, Momentum Builds To Decriminalize Sex Work, The Appeal, 2021
It’s Time To Decriminalize Sex Work, ACLU, 2021
The Laws The Sex Workers Really Want by Juno Mac, Ted, 2016
Q&A: Policy To Protect The Human Rights of Sex Workers, Amnesty International, 2016
Ten Reasons To Decriminalize Sex Work, Open Society Foundations, 2015
ORGANIZATIONS TO SUPPORT
Organizing Asian and Migrant Sex Workers
Red Canary Song: A Grassroots Collective of Asian and Migrant Sex Workers (NYC and transnational)
Butterfly: Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Network (Toronto)
SWAN: Culturally-Specialized Supports & Advocacy for Im/Migrant Women Engaged in Indoor Sex Work (Vancouver)
Atlanta
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta
Center for Pan-Asian Community Services
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum–Georgia Chapter
New York
CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum–NYC Chapter
National
Asian American Feminist Collective
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance
Read NQAPIA’s statement condemning the Atlanta attacks
Stop AAPI Hate
SUPPORT TO THOSE DIRECTLY IMPACTED
Atlanta's Shooting Victims' Family Fund
Organized by Asian American Resource Center. 100% of all donations will go directly towards the victims' families for funeral and arrangement costs.
Support Georgia's Asian American Community
This donation page was created to help the victims and their families impacted by the violent acts that took place on Tuesday, March 16, 2021. All donations will go directly to support the victims and their families.
These resources were assembled by Queer|Art staff members from various sources including Barnard Center For Research on Women’s recent statement and this community resource list in-progress.