Red Canary Song

Founded| November 2018 in Flushing, Queens
Founder| Kate Zen, Athena G., Red S., and Julie X.

Area served

| United States
Method| Grassroots
Website| www.redcanarysong.net

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

* 2021 Atlanta spa shootings
* Xenophobia and racism related to the COVID-19 pandemic
* Page Act of 1875
* Asian fetish
* Sex positive feminism
* Anti-Chinese sentiment
* Stop Asian Hate

## References

[edit]

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