the shooting in Atlanta of 8 massage parlour workers by a white man was a white supremacist hate crime and the latest in a series of attacks on Asians in the US. however, it’s also extremely important to note that the group he targeted are a community that is already more vulnerable to state violence than many, in form of police raids, deportations, and systematised stigmatisation. this is an industry that’s often conflated with and overlapping with sex work, and the industry has faced decades of criminalisation and dehumanisation, with a long history of being targeted by cops and systemic injustice along with racialised misogyny and fetishisation. they are also often excluded from conversations about the latest rise of anti-asian racism in the US, since many do not fulfill the “american” part of asian-american.
if you can donate, also consider donating to red canary song, butterfly network, and swan vancouver, grassroots organisations and activists that fight for migrant and labour justice for migrant workers and sex workers.