Defend Asian women, defend sex workers
Xiaojie Tan
Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez
Daoyou Feng
Paul Andre Michels
Soon C. Park
Hyun-Jeong Park Grant
Yong A. Yue
Suncha Kim.
We honor your life. We mourn your death. We grieve for the families and friends who have lost you to white supremacist violence.
On Tuesday night, a white man killed eight people in a shooting spree across three massage parlors in Atlanta, Georgia. Six of those who were killed were Asian and all but one were women. This targeted attack against Asian women and sex workers belongs to the foundational history of this country where, for centuries, white supremacy, anti-Asian racism, imperialist war, and conquest, have been brutally exercised through misogyny and sexual violence. Tuesday night’s attack further marks a rising tide of violence against Asians and Asian Americans since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Stop AAPI Hate, there have been at least 3,800 reported incidents of anti-Asian violence since March 2020. This number reflects only what has been reported.
We defend the dignity, safety, and freedom of Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander communities, women, queer, trans, and nonbinary folks, sex workers, service workers, street vendors, people unhoused, people in prisons, immigrants, the undocumented, refugees, and all who are targeted by this racist violence. With heartbreak, rage, and committed solidarity, we share these resources for all of us to take action, support mutual aid projects, train in self-defense and bystander intervention, and build our political education.
“We urgently need to bring to our communities the limitless capacity to love, serve, and create for and with each other.” – Grace Lee Boggs
Upcoming Anti-Violence and Bystander Intervention Trainings
Friday 3/19, 4 p.m. ET: How to Stand Up Against Anti-Asian/American Harassment When It Happens to You with Hollaback!
Monday 3/29, 3 p.m. ET: Bystander Intervention to Stop Anti-Asian/American Harassment and Xenophobia with Hollaback!
Upcoming Events
Thursday 3/18, 8 p.m. ET: Red Canary Song Vigil for 8 lives lost in Atlanta shooting
Tuesday 3/23, 6 p.m. ET: Anti-Asian Violence and Black-Asian Solidarity Today, a lecture by Tamara K. Nopper, presented by Asian American Writers Workshop
Friday 3/26, 12 p.m. ET: Pandemic Panels #6: Hong Kong and Persistent Resistance, featuring cross-media artist, researcher, curator and writer, Wen Yau, organized by Shayoni Mitra (Professor of Theatre, Barnard College)
Attend via Google Meet
Saturday 3/27, 4–6 p.m. ET: #AntiAsianRacism Town Hall: Solidarity Is Our Survival, organized by People’s Collective for Justice and Liberation
Resources
Call On Me, Not the Cops: A Community Resource by 18 Million Rising in Bengali/Bangla, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Sinhala, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Urdu, and Vietnamese
Don’t Be A Bystander: Six Tips for Responding to Racist Attacks, a video production by BCRW and Project NIA
Reading
“How Foreign Women Have Been Tokenized Since Ancient Roman Times” by Nandini Pandey, Hyperallergic, April 6, 2021
“The Answer to Anti-Asian Racism is Not More Policing” by Kayla Hui, Truthout, March 17, 2021
“Critical Race Theory is Not Anti-Asian” by Mari Matsuda, Reappropriate, March 12, 2021
“Ignoring the History of Anti-Asian Racism is Another Form of Violence” by Connie Wun, Elle, March 1, 2021
Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans Are on the Rise. Many Say More Policing Isn’t the Answer by Cady Lang,Time, February 18, 2021
The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs with Scott Kurashige (University of California Press, 2012)
Stranger Intimacy: Contesting Race, Sexuality, and Law in the North American West by Nayan Shah (University of California Press, 2012)
Freedom With Violence: Race, Sexuality, and the U.S. State by Chandan Reddy (Duke University Press, 2011)
The Hypersexuality of Race: Performing Asian/American Women on Screen and Scene by Celine Parreñas Shimizu (Duke University Press, 2007)
Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America by Mae Ngai (Princeton University Press, 2005)
Passing It On: A Memoir by Yuri Kochiyama (UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 2004)
“John Zorn and the Postmodern Condition” by Ellie M. Hisama, in Locating East Asia in Western Art Music, eds. Yayoi Uno Everett, Frederick Lau (Wesleyan University Press, 2004)
Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics by Lisa Lowe (Duke University Press 1996)
“Postcolonialism on the Make: The Music of John Mellencamp, David Bowie, and John Zorn” by Ellie M. Hisama, Popular Music, May 1993
Organizations to Support
Organizing Asian and Migrant Sex Workers
Red Canary Song: A Grassroots Collective of Asian and Migrant Sex Workers (NYC and transnational)
Butterfly: Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Network (Toronto)
SWAN: Culturally-Specialized Supports & Advocacy for Im/Migrant Women Engaged in Indoor Sex Work (Vancouver)
Atlanta
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta
Center for Pan-Asian Community Services
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum–Georgia Chapter
New York
CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
Mekong NYC
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum–NYC Chapter
National
Asian American Feminist Collective
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
Send Chinatown Love
Stop AAPI Hate
Please note: This is a partial list. For more, visit this community resource list in-progress.
Image credit: Jess X Snow, End Anti-Asian Violence Series, Justseeds Artists’ Collective Collaboration