Six of eight killed in shootings were Asian American women.
ATLANTA (March 16, 2021) — This evening eight people in three Atlanta area spas were killed and another was injured. A suspect has been taken into custody. While details are still unfolding, it appears that at least six of those killed were Asian women.
Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, said the organization is “appalled and devastated” at the violence that has taken eight lives, six of whom were Asian American women.
“We mourn with the families of these victims,” she said. We are horrified and continue to be concerned for the safety of our community members across the country as violence toward Asian Americans has escalated. Elected officials in Georgia must support these families and speak up immediately against hate and violence directed at the Asian American community.”
Anti-Asian hate and violence disproportionately impacts women, according to NAPAWF. More than 68% of reported incidents of anti-Asian harassment and violence have been from women.
New polling commissioned by NAPAWF has revealed that nearly half of Asian American and Pacific Islander women have been affected by anti-Asian racism in the past two years.
“This comes as no surprise,” Choimorrow said. “Even before the pandemic and the racist scapegoating that came in its wake, AAPI women routinely experienced racialized misogyny. Now, our community, and particularly women, elders, and workers with low-wage jobs, are bearing the brunt of continued vilification.”
Ms. N.*, a hair salon worker in Atlanta, mother of National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum Georgia Chapter member Tiffany N.* issued the following statement using pseudonyms for their safety.
“You go to work and you’re trying to earn money, and you have your family to feed and you’re just trying to survive and be like everyone else. And then stuff like this happens and it’s so scary. I am a part of the Vietnamese immigrant community, and I fear for our safety.”
The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) is the only multi-issue, progressive, community organizing and policy advocacy organization for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women and girls in the U.S. NAPAWF’s mission is to build collective power so that all AAPI women and girls can have full agency over our lives, our families, and our communities.
