Stigmas on race, gender and sex overlap in Atlanta slayings

Seven of the eight people killed were women; six were of Asian descent. The suspect, according to police, appeared to blame his actions on a “sex addiction.“

While the U.S. has seen mass killings in recent years where police said gunmen had racist or misogynist motivations, advocates and scholars say the shootings this week at three Atlantaarea massage parlors targeted a group of people marginalized in more ways than one, in a crime that stitches together stigmas about race, gender, migrant work and sex work.

“In some ways this is another manifestation of the targeting of marginalized people in the U.S.,“said Angela Jones, an associate professor of sociology at Farmingdale State College, State University of New York, whose research has focused on race, gender, sexuality and sex work.

The killings in Atlanta follow a wave of recent attacks against Asian Americans since the coronavirus first entered the United States, with the majority of reports coming from women. The 21-year-old suspect denied his attack was racially motivated and claimed to have a “sex addiction,“with authorities saying he apparently saw massage parlors as sources of temptation.

Police told a news conference Thursday that investigators believe the gunman previously visited two of the massage parlors, but it’s not yet clear if any the businesses offered sexual services. The Atlanta mayor said police hadn’t previously been there beyond a minor potential theft. Still, the suspect equated the parlors to sex, and that drove him to kill, police said.

“There’s this assumption that all these massage parlor workers are sex workers. That may or may not be the case,” said Esther Kao, an organizer with New York-based Red Canary Song, a group of Asian and Asian American sex workers and allies that does outreach to massage parlors. “The majority of massage parlors are licensed businesses that also provide professional, non-sexual massages.“

“There’s this assumption of sexuality and fetishization of Asian women’s bodies that is unique to this kind of crime,” she said.

At least one of the victims was a patron, not an employee. Thirty-threeyear-old Delaina Ashley Yaun and her husband had gone to the spa on a date, her mother, Margaret Rushing, told WAGATV. Yaun leaves behind a 13-year-old son and 8month-old daughter.

In the Atlanta shooting, the suspect’s claims of sex addiction, meanwhile, ring hollow for some. It is not a condition recognized by the American Psychiatric Association, said David Ley, a clinical psychologist and author of “The Myth of Sex Addiction.“