Contradictions of Capital and Labor: Capital Accumulation and the Racialized Policing of Asian Massage Parlors in Seattle's Chinatown-International District
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Date
2023-03-24
Authors
Chen, Kaijing Janice
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Massage parlors in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District have experienced heightened police surveillance, mobilized by legislation that increasingly regulates massage labor performed by Asian migrant women. This wave of criminalization coincides with contested and renewed investment in the neighborhood, indicating the use of policing to displace workers and create the conditions for a new spatial fix, or the production of space through capital accumulation. Through an analysis of legislative records, police reports, and media accounts, I argue that the policing of Asian massage parlors draws on a sensationalist imaginary of human trafficking that simultaneously evokes longstanding racialized tropes and furthers the racialization of Asian migrant workers. Finally, I investigate how anti-trafficking rhetoric rationalizes greater police surveillance that displaces Asian massage workers and opens new spaces for capital accumulation.
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Keywords
Asian American, massage labor, political economy, racial capitalism