TORONTO -- The mass shooting that left eight dead in Atlanta, the majority of them Asian women who worked in spas, has left communities reeling after a marked rise in anti-Asian racism and violent attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Delaina Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Soon C. Park, Hyun J. Grant, Suncha Kim and Yong A. Yue died in the shootings.
The gunman told police that his attacks , something repeated by local enforcement at a press conference about the shootings, which prompted massive backlash online and .
South Korean media outlet with a spa employee who said they heard the gunman allegedly say he was 鈥.鈥
Authorities say they are now investigating the shootings as possible hate crimes.
Advocacy groups like and in Canada have reported surges in hate crimes across North America.
As of Saturday afternoon, Fight COVID Racism was reporting 959 incidents of anti-Asian hate crimes across Canada during the pandemic.
Justin Kong, executive director of the Chinese-Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter, said the shootings were 鈥渆xtremely disturbing.鈥
鈥淚t is chilling for the entire community,鈥 Kong said in a telephone interview with CTVNews.ca Saturday. 鈥淭his type of violence isn鈥檛 new, but it is nonetheless much more chilling to see what can happen.鈥
Canada has a higher number of reported anti-Asian hate crime incidents per Asian capita compared to the U.S., according to , with Toronto showing the second-highest rate of cases involving anti-Asian hate crimes among major cities, following Vancouver.
Vancouver saw a 717 per cent increase in anti-Asian hate crimes from 2019 to 2020, released by the Vancouver Police Department.
鈥淲e have definitely seen a huge uptick in anti-Asian racism along with COVID-19,鈥 Kong said. 鈥淏ut this racism is in many ways foundational to the founding of Canada and in the United States 鈥 right from the early treatment of the Chinese railroad workers and the South Asian communities who came here.鈥
Kong said that Asian communities have been 鈥渟capegoated as being the ones responsible鈥 for the COVID-19 virus.
鈥淥bviously everyone is frustrated with the virus鈥ut it鈥檚 not the fault of Chinese people or Asian people and the shooting happening in this moment, there鈥檚 no way in which we can feel like this is separate,鈥 he said.
In the U.S., women have taken the brunt of the crimes and violence, with women reporting hate incidents at 2.3 times the rate of men, according to a .
On Wednesday, Xiao Zhen Xie, an elderly Asian-American woman in San Francisco, Cali. in yet another incidence of anti-Asian violence.
She fought back and put her attacker in the hospital.
鈥淭he white supremacist kind of misogynistic tendencies that prevail in the United States, but also here as well need to be recognized,鈥 Kong said of the recent spate of violent attacks.
Here are some ways you can help, including reporting incidents, becoming informed and donating to advocacy groups.
HOW TO HELP ASIAN COMMUNITIES RIGHT NOW
Kong said Asian communities are dealing with a 鈥渄ouble component鈥 of racism and trying to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.
鈥淚n addition to the challenges that we know everyone faces [with coronavirus] the added racism and the added stigmatization of our community has led to this sense of fear,鈥 Kong said.
鈥淧eople are scared that when they go out, they鈥檙e going to be shouted at, they鈥檙e going to get hit鈥nd that atmosphere continues to this day 鈥 it鈥檚 a sense that you don鈥檛 know if you鈥檙e going to get assaulted.鈥
Stop AAPI Hate detailing what people can do to assist someone experiencing a racist attack or hate crime.
Here are five ways to help if you witness hate, according to the organization:
- Take action: Approach the targeted person, introduce yourself and offer support.
- Actively listen: Ask before taking any actions and respect the other person鈥檚 wishes. Monitor the situation if needed.
- Ignore the attacker: Using your discretion, Stop AAPI Hate says to attempt to calm the situation by using your voice, body language or distractions.
- Accompany: If the situation escalates, invite the targeted person to join you in leaving the area.
- Offer emotional support: Help the other person by asking how they鈥檙e feeling and assist them in figuring out what they want to do next.
Social justice organization Hollaback! and Asian Americans Advancing Justice have partnered to create to provide skills for identifying and de-escalating anti-Asian and xenophobic harassment and racism.
Stop AAPI Hate supporting Asian-owned businesses, reaching out to your workplace, schools, faith-based institutions, unions and community groups to issue statements denouncing anti-Asian racism, and encouraging people to report any incidents they see or experience.
Kong said the number one thing that needs to be recognized is that the pandemic 鈥渋s not the fault of Chinese or Asian people.鈥
鈥淲e need to be so cognizant of that narrative 鈥 it鈥檚 not our fault,鈥 he said.
Kong also said his organization and many others will be looking to different levels of government to implement anti-racism policies to 鈥渁lleviate鈥 some of issues facing Asian communities.
For the average Canadian, Kong urges them to 鈥渞ecognize that we need to fight against racism in all forms.鈥
鈥淩each out to local organizations, support local organization and your local communities,鈥 he said.
Donations can be made directly to support the victims of the Atlanta shooting and their families through the Atlanta chapter of Asian Americans Advancing Justice鈥檚 .
Earlier this month GoFundMe launched a crowdfunding effort called # to highlight fundraisers centred around victims of anti-Asian racism, including the victims of the Atlanta shootings.
SEX WORKERS NEED BETTER PROTECTIONS
The Atlanta gunman is thought to have targeted Asian-owned massage parlours specifically, with local law enforcement saying the suspect 鈥溾 some of the targeted locations in the past.
The gunman also told Georgia law enforcement that the spas were a place of 鈥渢emptation,鈥 and made comments about an alleged sex addiction. A man who shared a room at a rehabilitation centre with the gunman confirmed he was being treated for a sex addiction and would go to massage parlours 鈥渆xplicitly to engage in sex acts,鈥 .
It is not known if the victims who worked in the spas were sex workers, but advocacy groups say racialized women working in spas and massage parlours are at high risk of violence due to the hypersexualization of their work.
In light of the shootings and increased anti-Asian racism and attacks, advocacy groups are demanding better protections and awareness surrounding the specific risks facing Asian spa employees and sex workers.
Alison Clancey, executive director of , a support and advocacy group for immigrant and migrant indoor sex workers, says that her organization was 鈥渉orrified鈥 by what unfolded on Tuesday.
鈥淲e were deeply heartbroken about the Atlanta massacre,鈥 Clancey said in a telephone interview with CTVNews.ca Thursday. 鈥淏ut violence and experiencing anti-Asian racism are not new to the women who access our services.鈥
鈥淲hile the pandemic has been a watershed moment for many labour sectors, unfortunately, informal unregulated work such as sex work has been largely left out of these conversations, with few to no increased calls for protections,鈥 she said. 鈥淲omen are experiencing greater economic precarity, but some of the systemic issues around what contributes to violence鈥hem not having legal or labour protections have always been there.鈥
Clancey says the two main things affecting sex workers, especially sex workers of colour, are 鈥渟tigma鈥 and 鈥渃riminalization.鈥
鈥淢isunderstanding and misinformation, particularly when it's conflated with human trafficking, [are] a major barrier to women accessing community support, social service supports, health-care providers and even law enforcement,鈥 Clancey said. 鈥淭he women who we support experience multilayered criminalisation, criminalization through Canada鈥檚 laws, through anti-trafficking laws, and also the immigration prohibition on sex work.鈥
It is a sentiment echoed by advocacy groups like the National Asian Pacific American Women鈥檚 Forum (NAPAWF), who say that Tuesday鈥檚 shootings highlight the compounding factors of race, gender and sex work when it comes to hate crimes.
鈥淟ast nights mass shooting in Atlanta is a continuation of the long history of the erasure, dehumanization and hypersexualization of Asian women in service professions, especially salon workers, massage parlour workers sex workers and hospitality workers. Working class and poor East Asians and Southeast Asian are disproportionately targeted because of their representation in these industries,鈥 a statement from the .
鈥淎sian women are often considered disposable 鈥 especially when our immigration status, our socioeconomic status, our cultures, ideologies and languages and what we do to survive is heavily policed,鈥 The statement continues. 鈥淭his pushes us outside of the circle of who is deemed valuable by white supremacy and racial capitalism and it subsequently leads to our hypersexualization and violent execution.鈥
Clancey said if people want to help sex workers who are experiencing racism and criminalization, the major step is to reach out to their local sex worker organization to .
鈥淧eople need to learn the difference between human trafficking and sex work鈥. The anti-trafficking narrative, oftentimes it's the only language that's accessible to people, it's the only framing of the sex industry that's available,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e have a lot of well-meaning people out there who want to do well, but they don't always understand that in their efforts to support systemically vulnerable women in the sex industry, that they're often exacerbating the criminalisation and stigma.鈥
Clancey said SWAN Vancouver and other sex worker organizations are concerned that recent violence will result in calls for a greater police presence.
Organizations like Red Canary Song, a grassroots coalition for Chinese massage parlour workers, that they reject calls for increased policing as 鈥減olicing has never been an effective response to violence鈥 because they see
Clancey said that sex workers in Canada 鈥渄o not trust police,鈥 and are 鈥渋mpeded鈥 from reporting violence to law enforcement through laws that criminalize their livelihood.
鈥淧olice do not offer any protection whatsoever,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t's the laws that need to be examined.鈥
鈥淚 think there's one key thing that despite anyone's moral perspective on the sex industry, I hope that we can all agree that when predators act with impunity, that no one in society is safe,鈥 Clancey said.
Sex worker advocacy organizations like , , and can be donated to through their websites.
