Survivors to Superheroes stands in solidarity with Asian Americans and Asian Canadians against the most recent wave of anti-Asian racism. This racism is not new and, indeed, has a very long history in North America. Nonetheless, it has gained more visibility in the past week due to the tragic deaths of eight people in Atlanta, Georgia, in a terrible act of racist and sexist violence. Our hearts and thoughts are with the loved ones of Yong Ae Yue, Suncha Kim, Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Daoyou Feng, Xiaojie Tan, Delaina Ashley Yaun, and Paul Andre Michels.
This tragedy is not isolated. Over the past year, hate crimes against East Asian and Southeast Asian individuals have greatly increased in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, with Chinese and Korean individuals being the most targeted. Elders, women, migrants, individuals living in poverty, and sex workers have been especially subject to violence, demonstrating the need to view the recent surge in violence through an intersectional lens.
Racism and sexism are inseparable when it comes to understanding the most recent surge in anti-Asian hate. Stop AAPI Hate’s latest annual report on COVID-19 in the United States found that women were reported being subject to hate incidents 2.3 more times than men. In Canada, Project 1907 found that 60% of the victims are women. In particular, the acts of violence in Atlanta, Georgia were motivated by a specific form of violence originating at the intersection of racism and sexism: the fetishization and dehumanization of East and Southeast Asian women. This phenomenon, often referred to as “yellow fever,” is a direct product of white supremacy and patriarchy.
The tragedy of last week shows how this fetishization can become fatal, especially when amplified through the stigma against massage parlour workers and sex workers. Not only were six of the victims Asian women, it is important to acknowledge that this act of violence was directed specifically at Asian massage workers. It is unknown whether these women working at massage parlours were also sex workers; yet as Esther K., a co-director of Red Canary Song, explains, “Even if they were providing non-sexual massages, this ends up being a sex work issue … The women are de facto being seen as sex workers and being scapegoated as such.” We want to emphasize that these acts of violence were the result of the weaponization of sex against Asian women and, particularly, against Asian sex workers.
Understanding how racism and sexism interact is also critical for our work at Survivors to Superheroes in fighting for all young people affected by sexual violence. We call for communities who are disproportionately subject to this violence—whether due to gender, race, or anti-sex work stigma—to be placed at the forefront of discussions about sexual violence. With these thoughts in mind, we denounce all forms of anti-Asian racism in the United States and Canada and commit to fighting for those especially at risk of violence, including all forms of sexual violence.
Photo by Fatoumata Ceesay for Madison 365
My name is Kate, and I’m a master’s student in the MSc Politics Research program at the University of Oxford. I recently graduated from the University of Toronto with a B.A. in Political Science. After seeing my friend Julia, the President and Founder, go through her own experiences of sexual violence, I joined Survivors to Superheroes in 2019 to help other survivors in their healing journey. As the Director of Research, I lead the Research Team in creating much-needed resources for our website, as well as supporting our organization’s other branches with any research tasks. Outside of Survivors to Superheroes, you can find me playing viola or obsessively following Canadian politics in the news.
