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Spa killings add to nation’s anxiety, amplify concerns of Asian Americans

In this March 17, 2021, file photo, flowers, candles and signs are displayed at a makeshift memorial outside of the Gold Spa following a shooting in Atlanta. While the U.S. has seen mass killings in recent years where police said gunmen had racist or misogynist motivations, advocates and scholars say the shootings this week at three Atlanta-area massage parlors targeted a group of people marginalized in more ways than one, in a crime that stitches together stigmas about race, gender, migrant work and sex work. (Alyssa Pointer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File) In this March 17, 2021, file photo, flowers, candles and signs are displayed at a makeshift memorial outside of the Gold Spa following a shooting in Atlanta. While the U.S. has seen mass killings in recent years where police said gunmen had racist or misogynist motivations, advocates and scholars say the shootings this week at three Atlanta-area massage parlors targeted a group of people marginalized in more ways than one, in a crime that stitches together stigmas about race, gender, migrant work and sex work. (Alyssa Pointer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)

By Kelly Yamanouchi / The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (TNS) March 30, 2021 5 min read

ATLANTA — At Transformations Therapy of Atlanta, social worker Jennifer Lee has noticed a change, one that maybe bears witness to a year fraught with trauma.

The number of Asian Americans seeking therapy at the center is increasing, said Lee.

It’s “the combination of COVID-19, of staying quarantined for so long, of seeing this slow uptick of anti-Asian rhetoric that maybe other people haven’t recognized unless you’re in the community,” said Lee, who is Korean American.

Add to that a shooting spree at three Asian spas in metro Atlanta. Though the assault shocked, saddened and angered people around the world, it’s particularly worrisome for Asian Americans.

Eight people, including six women of Asian descent, were killed in the March 16 attack. Since then, some Atlanta area therapists have reported an increase in calls from Asian Americans feeling anxiety or grief over the rhetoric and violence.