Radical Public Health Statement on Anti-Asian Racism and Violence
Radical Public Health is deeply disturbed and heartbroken by the ongoing acts of white supremacist violence against Asians in America. We stand in firm solidarity with our Asian communities across Chicago, the nation, and around the globe. We grieve the losses of the beloved women who were killed at three massage parlors on March 16, 2021 in Atlanta, GA. We condemn this racist and misogynist violence. Our hearts are with their families and friends as they mourn this devastating tragedy.
Radical Public Health recognizes the connection between violent attacks against Asians, the dehumanizing criminalization of sex workers, and the violence against Black communities; the root causes are white supremacy and capitalism. These racist attacks are not isolated incidents, but part of a system of anti-Asian rhetoric and American imperialism that has colonized, othered, and exploited Asian countries for decades. The United States has a long, shameful history of committing violence against Asians in this country and abroad through wars, racist laws, and military occupation. Hatred is not the source of this issue, but rather a symptom of the root causes--white supremacy and capitalism. We cannot address hate without addressing its source and the structures that allow it to occur. In order to fight anti-Asian racism, we must call out its perpetrators and the powers behind it. The US ruling elites put forward anti-China ideas on a daily basis (whether in the NYT or by Trump) and this demonization of one of their main imperialist competitors is a proximal cause of the attacks on Asian workers.
Increasing police presence in Asian communities is not the solution to individual attacks just as increasing military bases across the globe is not the path to democracy. These political choices are themselves racist and violent. We also know that the police are perpetrators of violence against Asians and Pacific Islanders, as was the case with Angelo Quinto, a 30-year old Filipino man experiencing a mental health crisis who was murdered by police on December 26, 2020.
While it is not clear whether the Atlanta victims were in the sex trade, we do know that they were massage parlor workers. Unfortunately, this is not the first incident of Asian massage parlor workers being killed at their occupation. In 2017, Yang Song, a 38-year old Chinese migrant massage worker, was killed during a police anti-prostitution raid of her workplace in Flushing, Queens (NY). We honor their lives by demanding full decriminalization and protection of massage and sex workers, as this class of workers are constantly targeted by police as well as sexual and gender-based violence. We support and are in solidarity with grassroots Asian and sex worker-led organizations including Butterfly, Sex Workers Outreach Project, Massage Parlor Outreach Project, and Red Canary Song.
We call upon our colleagues, allies, the School of Public Health, and the entire UIC community to not only stand in solidarity with our Asian communities but to also denounce any solution that involves policing communities of color. We demand public health practices that center marginalized people, prioritize mental health, and support the decriminalization of sex work.