Seven of the eight people killed were women; six were of Asian descent. The suspect, according to police, appeared to blame his actions on a “sex addiction."

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.

“In some ways this is another manifestation of the targeting of marginalized people...