Sex, Death, and Empire: The Roots of Violence Against Asian Women

The hate killings of Asian women in Atlanta in 2021 shocked the nation and brought attention to the prevalent dangers facing Asian women in the United States.  Readers of this blog may be interested in The Nation’s new cover story, “Sex, Death, and Empire: The Roots of Violence Against Asian Women.”   The report traces a line from America’s earliest empire in the Philippines to Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and anti-Asian violence at home. Ethnographer and activist Panthea Lee documents the history of prostitution of Asian women in Western empire-building and global inequality.

“As an Asian woman in America, the who-knows-if-race-played-a-role reporting feels like cultural gaslighting, denying both our experience and America’s history,” writes Lee. “Repeatedly denying the role of race while pointing the finger at mental illness relieves the state of culpability…. In the long shadow of state-sanctioned violence against Asian women—violence reinforced through culture and distorted by mental illnesses that this country stokes but refuses to treat—Asian American women are constantly told we must find individual solutions for our safety.”

Lee’s feature is accompanied by an interview with public defender Jason Wu.  See “Multiple Things Can Be True”: Understanding the Roots of Anti-Asian Violence.

KJ