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 Atlanta-area massage businesses 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 the businesses as sources of temptation.
Police told a news conference Thursday that investigators believe the gunman previously visited two of the spas, 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 businesses 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 these businesses. “The majority of massage parlors are licensed businesses that also provide professional, nonsexual 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-three-year-old Delaina Ashley Yaun and her husband had gone to the spa on a date, her mother, Margaret Rushing, told WAGA-TV. Yaun leaves behind a 13-year-old son and 8-month-old daughter.
The fact the Georgia shooter targeted the businesses because he linked them to commercial sex is a nightmare scenario for those who work in erotic industries and are increasingly subjected to online harassment and attempts to report massage businesses to the IRS, said Kate D’Adamo, an organizer and advocate for sex worker rights. “At its core it’s about going out and targeting sex workers as fallen women, blaming them for social ills,” she said.
Meanwhile, the suspect, Robert Aaron Long has been arrested on charges of murder and assault. It wasn’t clear yet if he had a lawyer who would represent him.
Police said Long confessed to the crime and told officials about a “temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate.”