PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The FBI director says the Atlanta spa shootings don't look like a hate crime, but advocates say it's worth a deeper look.
In books, movies and TV shows, Asian women are often portrayed as exotic sex symbols. That drives fetishization, says Shea Rhoades, director of Villanova Law School’s Institute to Address Commercial Sexual Exploitation.
"There has been just legacies of misogyny tied to the sexual fetishes that men have for women of color, and specifically Asian women," Rhoades said.
She says the stereotype has created a demand for Asian women in the sex trade, which can be directly tied to human trafficking — but because such activity happens in the shadows of society, true demographics will never be accurate.
"There is a market, not just in prostitution, in these illicit massage businesses for specifically Asian women, but it’s also in porn," she said.
Rhoades says, though it’s difficult to prove a race-based hate crime, authorities must continue to dig into the suspect’s social media and web search history. She says his claim of having a sex addiction doesn’t automatically rule out a hate crime. She says his addiction could have motivated the violence he took against women, and specifically Asian women.
"I am just really hopeful that the city of Atlanta investigates not only the hate crime against women, and I am saying 'women' before I am saying race, but that they will look deeper into this to see if trafficking was in play," she said.
Women of Asian decent in the United States have reported violence against them nearly 2.5 times than have men of Asian descent, according to a new report by Stop AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) Hate.
To learn more about how to support Asian Americans, visit these organizations:
• #ImReadyMovement
• National Association of Asian American Professionals
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice