There’s No Evidence Atlanta Spa Victims Were Sex Workers – So Why Is That Part of the Narrative?

One week after the tragic mass murder of eight people at three spas outside Atlanta, including six Asian women, the authorities and the media are still struggling to unpack the racial and sexual components of the crime. While there is no evidence that any of the victims engaged in sex work, experts note that media coverage after the mass murder has explored the prevalence of sex workers in Atlanta, in massage parlors and in general — entangling these victims in a larger narrative at the intersection of racial, class and gender-based biases. “The conversation about these victims being sex workers really indicates to me the broader problem of the conversation being shaped by the [suspected] killer,” Melissa Borja, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan and affiliated researcher with the Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center, told TheWrap.