Reflecting on the local impact of the Atlanta spa shootings, one year later

One year ago, on March 16, 2021, a gunman killed eight people across three spas and massage parlors in Atlanta. The shootings deeply impacted Asian American communities across the nation — including Nashville’s — because six of the victims were Asian women.

Before joining WPLN, reporter Juliana Kim covered the Atlanta shootings for the New York Times. On Wednesday, she spoke with This Is Nashville host Khalil Ekulona about how the shootings reverberated among Asian Americans who live in Middle Tennessee.

“For the folks that I’ve spoken to, (the shootings) triggered familiar woes that they feel of being here — of being in a city, of being in a state where they make up a tiny fraction of the population,” she said. “It triggered those feelings of feeling undervalued and misunderstood and overlooked.”

Kim also shared the emotional impact of reporting on the shootings as a woman of Korean descent.