AAF Remembers Five Years Since Murders of Atlanta Spa Workers
On March 16, 2021, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Soon Chung Park, Yong Ae Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun González, and Paul Andre Michels were killed in a tragedy that marked a tipping point in anti-Asian hate.
On this day five years ago, eight people were murdered in Atlanta, six of them Asian women massage workers. Today, we remember Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Soon Chung Park, Yong Ae Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun González, and Paul Andre Michels, and we send love to their families.
Their deaths shook us deeply here in New York, as Asian New Yorkers faced racist violence throughout the pandemic—violence that continues to this day. In the memory of the Atlanta spa shooting victims and all victims of anti-Asian hate, the Asian American Federation has been combating racism and discrimination, training our communities to keep ourselves safe, advocating for legal, victim support, and mental health services, and demanding policy changes that protect and empower our most vulnerable. Together with our PATH partners, we are building systems that strengthen safety and belonging in neighborhoods across New York and promoting community-based reporting options.
Five years ago, Asian Americans were being told that we didn’t belong here in the places we call home and we were to blame for the problems our country faced. None of this was new. This bigotry was part of a long history of racial injustice stretching back from the Yellow Peril of the 1800s to Japanese internment in World War II to Islamophobia in the wake of 9/11. In this history we find not just discrimination against Asian Americans but a common thread of racism and violence against all communities of color and marginalized groups. Today, racist rhetoric is again being deployed by government officials to attack immigrant communities. In this assault on immigrants and their loved ones, we see the same forces that led to the murder of six Asian women and we see the same injustices that we must collectively fight back against.
Anti-Asian hate has not gone away. It has evolved. From pandemic scapegoating to Islamophobic violence to anti-South Asian harassment to xenophobic deportations, an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. Five years ago, Asian New Yorkers showed up in force to defend our loved ones, demanding an end to the hate. In each other, we found the resilience and strength we needed. We learned that our power is in our community, our unity. We must continue showing up today for our families and neighbors and fighting for a New York where all are welcome and where everyone can live in safety and dignity.