by Norma Timbang

After hearing of the shootings in Atlanta, the first thing that rose up in my mind was the very real impact of racist, sexist, and xenophobic stereotypes upon Asian and Pacific Islander women and how those impacts can range from microaggressions to disappearances to murders. I am angry and grieving. I have known women who worked in massage parlors and the sex industry and I felt this loss deeply. I am also so very angry about the way people are reluctant to see this as a hate crime.