I am a Korean immigrant woman to the United States and an outreach organizer for Red Canary Song, a grassroots collective based in Flushing, New York, that supports the labor rights of Asian and migrant massage and sex workers. When Americans learn that I was raised in Korea, they start talking about K-pop and K-beauty. However, these positive contemporary references to Korean popular culture do not erase the scars and pain resulting from war and loss under US militarism and imperialism. In Korea, I lived near US camp towns and witnessed the ways that US militarism and imperialism led to the subjugation of Korean women.1 I am reminded of these histories while working with Asian migrant massage and sex workers in the United States and hearing their stories of police raids, arrests, the “rehabilitation” programs of the anti–human trafficking NGOs, and deportation.
For instance, C, a Korean massage worker...
