LCCRSF Statement on Anti-Asian Violence

“End Violence Against Asian and Pacific Islander People”
By Kill Joy, in collaboration with Rebo Prints and Grafica Pamilya

LCCRSF Statement on Anti-Asian Violence   

Last night, eight people were brutally murdered in Atlanta, Georgia in the span of an hour by a white supremacist who targeted three Asian massage parlors. Seven of them were women, six of them were Asian women, and it is clear that this was a racist, misogynist attack on Asian women. While there is still little information about who these women were, we want to focus on honoring and uplifting their lives rather than the details of their death and the life of their murderer. We are heartbroken, and devastated by their deaths. We are horrified that white supremacy has taken the form of mass murder alongside an increasing number of anti-Asian attacks in the past year. According to Stop AAPI Hate, there have been 3,800 reports of anti-Asian hate since March 2020 to February 2021, with women reporting hate incidents at double the rate of men.   

We also recognize that anti-Asian violence is nothing new. The United States has a long history of state violence against Asians. Those first excluded from America were Asian women in the 1880’s, followed by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Our country’s imperial wars in Korea, Laos, and Vietnam were tremendous forces of sexual violence against Asian women, and our nation’s leaders have actively stoked racism against Asian people during the pandemic. 

At this time, we look toward the leadership of Asian organizations and, in particular, Asian sex worker organizations, to lead our movement to end anti-Asian violence moving forward. We understand that police and the carceral system have a long history of killing, sexually assaulting, and criminalizing Asian massage workers, while sex workers and Asian sex workers have a long history of creating safety for themselves and their communities outside of the carceral institutions that have never protected them. While we grieve these deaths, we commit to fighting all forms of anti-Asian violence, working in partnership and solidarity with communities of color.  

“In The Future Our Asian Pacific Elders Are Safe” Jess X Snow and Kill Joy made these images, poems and meditation portals free for use for organizers, activists, healers in the community working to protect Asians, and doing the incredible work to stop AAPI hate and Violence.

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