Monday, March 22, 2021: Name It: Anti-Asian Femicide with Margo Okazawa-Rey

Hyun-Jung Grant 51

Soon-Chung Park 74

Sun-cha Kim 69

Yong-Ae Yue 63

May they rest in peace and power

Today’s show is intended to help us understand better the complexity and nuances of what happened in Atlanta and the anti-Asian violence around the country.

All the victims above were murdered by a 21-year-old misogynist, racist white man.  “He is a devout Christian; he did not have a racial motive. He is a self-admitted sex addict.” 

We have heard similar expressions of sympathy, tolerance, and excuse too many times.  Long’s is consistent with the common storyline of the majority of mass shooters in the US: young, white men with access to guns, committing violence in the name of real or perceived grievances. Aside from racial differences among the shooters, all are MEN.

This  latest incident is part of the nearly 3800 reported incidents of hate violence against  Asians since March 2020. Buried in these aggregated statistics is the fact that women have been  victimized at  twice the rate of men. 

Last week’s murders are all part of the gendered, anti-Asian violence. But there’s more. Of the 6 Asian women, 4 were Korean immigrant women.

Make no mistake: Long’s violence is unequivocally racist and misogynist. Let’s call it what it is: Anti-Asian femicide. The deliberate killing of Asian women because they are women and Asian. 

And the bigger story of anti-Asian violence in the US is that it started in the 19th century against the first arrivals and has continued unabated, periodically more direct and more violent. It’s deeply rooted in economic and military policies and interests of the US and the political rhetoric and actions of national leaders. Anti-Asian violence clearly directs us to connect the dots: between US foreign policies and domestic policies; between white supremacist racism and misogyny.

Click here to listen to the show. 59:50 min 

About the Guests

Rev. Deborah Lee is the Director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity organizing faith communities for immigrant justice and ending criminalization and incarceration and is based in Oakland Chinatown.  She is a founding member of Women for Genuine Security and the International Women's Network Against Militarism.

Esther is an organizer with Red Canary Song since 2019, a sex-workers-led grassroots collective that does massage worker outreach in NYC and pushing for the full decriminalization of sex work. She is also currently a consultant at The Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center and the Communications Associate at The Bronx Defenders. 

Tammy Kim is a freelance reporter and essayist, a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times, and a co-host of the Time to Say Goodbye Podcast. She previously worked as a social-justice lawyer and is active in the labor movement. etkwrites.tumblr.com /@etammykim

Recording of the Red Canary Song Vigil for 8 Thursday 18 March 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfyJWmXytbY 1:38:00 min

Ways to support:  https://www.redcanarysong.net/atlanta

Butterfly Asian and Migrant Worker Support Network

https://www.butterflysw.org/