Red Canary Song Explained

Red Canary Song
Method:Grassroots
Founded Date:November 2018 in Flushing, Queens
Founder:Kate Zen, Athena G., Red S., and Julie X.
Area Served:United States

Red Canary Song is an American grassroots coalition that advocates for the rights of Asian and migrant massage parlor workers. The coalition works to provide political representation, labor rights, collective organizing for migrant massage workers, and protection from violence by police and police impersonators across the United States and within the diaspora in Toronto, Paris, and Hong Kong.[1] [2]

History

Red Canary Song was founded in November 2018 by Kate Zen, Athena G., Red S., and Julie X. following the death of 38-year-old Flushing, Queens massage worker Yang Song on November 25, 2017 when she fell four stories to her death during a police raid.[3]

As of 2021, the group is currently based in Flushing, and directed by Yin Q.[4] and Esther Kao.[5] Red Canary Song was created shortly after Song's death to support her family and fight for police accountability.[6] The coalition currently strives to address the hypersexualization and xenophobia that massage workers are likely to fall victim to, as made apparent by the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings.[7] Red Canary Song advocates that shutting down massage businesses is not the proper means of ensuring massage workers a better quality of life. Rather, the solution lies in recognizing the rights and dignity of these workers. While Red Canary Song supports all migrant massage workers, the coalition does not wish to impose the assumption nor the identity of migrant sex workers upon anyone.[8]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Q. . Yin . Sex Worker Mutual Aid Combats Persistent Exclusion of Migrant Massage Workers . A Women's Thing . June 2020 . 25 April 2021.
  2. Web site: Rowland . Maggie . Pseudo-feminism has obscured violence against Asian-American women • The Tulane Hullabaloo . The Tulane Hullabaloo . 1 April 2021.
  3. News: Barry . Dan . Singer . Jeffrey . The Case of Jane Doe Ponytail . The New York Times . 11 October 2018 . 9 April 2021.
  4. Web site: How activists are mobilizing on Instagram to fight anti-Asian racism after Atlanta . news.yahoo.com. 19 March 2021 .
  5. Web site: Solis . Marie . Are police the biggest threat to massage parlor workers' safety? . the Guardian . en . 23 April 2021.
  6. Web site: Campoamor . Danielle . Red Canary Song Has Supported Asian American Workers, Long Before Atlanta . Refinery 29.
  7. News: Shih . Elena . How to Protect Massage Workers . The New York Times . 26 March 2021 . 25 April 2021.
  8. Ho . Rosemarie . Migrant Massage Workers Don't Need to Be Rescued . The Nation . 2 April 2021 . 25 April 2021.