API Chaya condemns in the highest possible terms the white supremacist shootings at massage parlors that killed eight people in Georgia. Six of the victims were Asian women. We feel deep sadness and rage with our communities. We urge all of you to center on the dignity and agency of massage parlor workers. Many immigrant and migrant Asian women work at the intersections of care services and the sex industry. Both forms of labor are devalued and stigmatized in our societies. API Chaya honors their work. We stand with all massage parlor workers and sex workers, including those who are undocumented and working class. We organize to build a world where their needs are met, rights are upheld, and where they have accessible and safe options for their livelihoods. 

We condemn all anti-Asian violence, including targeted attacks on our elders and community members, police violence (including raids of massage parlors), deportations, incarceration and the public health crisis in prisons exacerbated by COVID 19, and acts of war in our home countries. All are rooted in the long history of U.S. imperialism all over the globe. All are connected to the conditions that allow for intimate partner violence, sexual abuse, and labor exploitation to continue in our homes and neighborhoods. 

We send our love to all massage parlor workers across the country and invite those in the Seattle area to reach out to API Chaya for any support or resources. Our helpline number is 1-877-922-4292 and our advocates will be accessible in the languages you speak. We are committed to your care and healing. The Massage Parlor Outreach Project is coordinating a vigil to honor the lives lost on March 16th, and all those impacted by anti-Asian violence. Please stay tuned for the details.

“Don’t waver. Don’t let despair sink its sharp teeth

Into the throat with which you sing.  Escalate your dreams.

Make them burn so fiercely that you can follow them down

any dark alleyway of history and not lose your way.

Make them burn clear as a starry drinking gourd

Over the grim fog of exhaustion, and keep walking.

Hold hands. Share water. Keep imagining.

So that we, and the children of our children’s children
may live.”
- Aurora Levins Morales

In love and hope for a better future,
API Chaya