Fear, Anger In Atlanta’s Asian American, Pacific Islander Community Over Media Coverage

Last week’s shootings at multiple Atlanta spas that left eight people dead, most of them women of Asian descent, have opened up an underbelly of generalizations and “victim shaming” in the media,  according to local Asian American and Pacific Islander community members who have been following the aftermath of the killings.

WABE’s health reporter Sam Whitehead took over “All Things Considered” this week and spoke with Asian American Journalists Association’s Naomi Tacuyan Underwood and Leng Leng Chancey, executive director of the advocacy group 9to5 about guidance for reporters covering and contextualizing the AAPI community moving forward.

Since the violence on March 16, the AAJA has put out a list of best practices that AAPI journalists encourage the media to follow, including being cautious about language in news coverage that could fuel the hypersexualization of Asian women.