Violence against Asians decried on anniversary of spa shootings

A year after the fatal shootings at three Georgia massage businesses, crowds gathered at rallies across the country Wednesday to remember the victims and denounce anti-Asian violence that has risen sharply in recent years.

Six women of Asian descent were among the eight people killed in and near Atlanta on March 16, 2021. The slayings contributed to fear and anger among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and motivated many to join the fight against the rising hostility. At the Atlanta Asian Justice rally, which drew some 100 people to a former railroad depot near the state Capitol, speakers railed against the stereotypes of Asian women as either docile or exotic and said those harmful perceptions contribute to the violence.

“Being an Asian woman, you are hypersensitive to the fetishization that occurs. It just reminds me that there's so much work to be done,” said Jennifer Fero, a school administrator of Korean descent who attended the rally.

Fero lamented that “it is up to us to educate the general public on the AAPI experience and what microaggressions and hate crimes look like.”

Georgia Rep. Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American to serve in the state House, told the crowd the killings hit home for people like her, the child of Asian immigrants. Those who died, she said, were victims of “racism, xenophobia, gender-based violence.”

“It should not take a tragedy such as this one for us to wake up,” she said. “This has been ongoing in the history of our country.”

Stop AAPI Hate has been tracking incidents nationwide based on victims selfreporting. From March 19, 2020, through the end of last year, it recorded a total of 10,905, with 4,632 occurring in 2020 and 6,273 in 2021. Women reported 61.8% of the incidents.

In the rampage a year ago, Robert Aaron Long killed four people — Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; and Paul Michels, 54 — and seriously injured a fifth person at Youngs Asian Massage in Cherokee County. Authorities say he then drove about 30 miles to Atlanta, where he killed three women — Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; and Hyun Jung Grant, 51 — at Gold Spa, crossed the street and killed Yong Ae Yue, 63, at Aromatherapy Spa.