The Shooting, Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Fetishization of Asian-Americans

8 women were shot and killed by a man named Aaron Long in Georgia, 6 of who is of Asian heritage. He raided 3 spas while carrying a gun, with clear intentions to shoot and murder these innocent women enjoying their leisure at the spas.

He has been charged with 8 counts of murder and a count of sexual assault. Due to the possibility of a hate crime, the Asian-American community has been stirring in anger. However, the police have not yet filed this case of slaughter as a hate crime on Asian-American minorities as they could not find any racial intentions at this stage.

The man had rampaged into 3 spas in Georgia with the aim of killing Asian-American women due to his “sexual desires” that he wanted to eliminate. His intentions were clearly stated, but why is the police not filing this case as a hate crime? The police in charge of this case have reported that the perpetrator’s intentions were not based on race, but rather on gender. However, with 6 out of 8 women injured being Asian-Americans, the racial intentions are very clear. This was a gender-based racist hate crime.

The xenophobia on Asian-Americans has been a prevailing and exacerbating issue in the United States, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, and it needs to stop. Countless innocent lives were lost, hurt, and injured, just because of murderers’ racial intentions that do not stem from logical reasoning. It is unfair how People of Color are always the victims of these incidents and are not always given the appropriate justice.

Sheila W., an ethnically Asian but U.S. nationality holder claimed that “as a student wishing to attend university in the states, it terrifies and scares me that hate crimes against ethnic minorities like myself are prevalent in modern society.” She added how the names of the Asian-American victims will be remembered.

Many Asians immigrate to the U.S. looking for more economic and educational opportunities, not to become victims of shootings, abuse, and sexual harassment. This is a rising issue for not only Asians but all the ethnic minorities living in the U.S. The Black Lives Matter movement that filled up the entire summer and fall of 2020 is only the inauguration for the rights and lives of all People of Color to be secured.

Aside from the xenophobia against Asian-Americans, it is also important to note the repulsive concept of the fetishization of Asian women. This has been a rising controversy in the U.S. following the increase in sexual harassment and abuse allegation cases on Asian women. In an article published under VOX, Lillian, an Asian-American woman, has been receiving messages such as “I want to try my first Asian woman” and “I need my yellow fever cured” on online dating platforms from Caucasian men. Not only are these responses repulsive, harassing, and racist, they also objectify, hypersexualize, and exoticize Asian women.

The origin of Asian fetishization can be traced back to the late 1800s in the U.S. Asian women were banned from immigrating into the U.S. as they were thought to be active in the prostitution industry. There was, and still is, a stigma that Asian women are good, demure, and obedient. According to film scholar Celine Parreñas Shimizu, the sexual depiction of Asian women in cultural films began with films such as “The Good Woman of Szechuan” and “Madame Butterfly.” Based on these titles, it can already be inferred how these films portray Asian women to be “behaved” and “sexually excessive.” For more information regarding Asian fetishization, visit here.

The Asian fetishization that hurts young women today is the reason why many believe the shooting by Aaron Long to have a gender-based racial motive. It is his sexual temptations of Asian women that he allegedly wanted to eliminate, by slaughtering innocent Asian women, some of who were married with kids, in spas. While this case of shooting is an extreme example of how racial hypersexualization continues to negatively impact young women in the U.S., there are excessive incidents of innocent lives hurt and lost due to racial motives. Whether in forms of violence, discrimination, or sexualization, the targeting of racial and ethnic minorities need to stop. Once and for all.