"Who Keeps Us Safe?" is a podcast by Asian Americans living in Seattle that explores safety, policing, and abolition in our communities and beyond. Join us monthly as we speak with organizers in the Seattle area, and reflect on their work and learnings. We hope that our listeners will use this podcast to begin and/or supplement their own conversations about safety and policing in their own communities. This is a project of PARISOL: Pacific Rim Solidarity Network, a grassroots anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, Hong Konger, Taiwanese, and Chinese* diaspora group based in Seattle. PARISOL is dedicated to local & international solidarity, community building, cultural & politicized learning, abolition, and anti-racist work.
This episode was produced for the podcast Who Keeps Us Safe? (WKUS) and was previously released in September 2021. The production crew is a small volunteer team of community organizers: Andy Allen, Alex Chuang, Jenn Shaffer, and Ryan Fang. Together, they record their conversations with other Seattle organizers and explore the idea of community safety. For their second episode, they caught word of a demonstration sponsored by the CID Coalition, where they were protesting the opening of a building which houses high-value, luxury condominiums in the Chinatown-International District (CID). The demonstration took place on June 25, 2021. Later, the WKUS team sat down with some members of the CID Coalition to talk more about gentrification and how this connects with ideas of safety.
You can find the CID Coalition on Facebook @HumbowsNotHotels, as well as Coast to Coast Chinatowns Against Displacement on Facebook @C2CChinatowns.
Listen to the episode at the official WKUS podcast website.
For their first 6 episodes, Who Keeps Us Safe? partnered with KVRU 105.7FM to air their podcast on the radio. For this reason, you'll hear some brief station ID's in some of the episodes.
For a full transcript of this episode, head to this link.
Find out more about WKUS at their linktree site, or follow them on Instagram @who_keeps_us_safe.
Featured Image: In Episode 2 of the "Who Keeps Us Safe?" podcast, the crew spoke with several organizers of a protest against the gentrification of the Chinatown-International District (CID). (Artwork: Jiy Ludden 杰意)
Before you move on to the next story …
The South Seattle Emerald™ is brought to you by Rainmakers. Rainmakers give recurring gifts at any amount. With around 1,000 Rainmakers, the Emerald™ is truly community-driven local media. Help us keep BIPOC-led media free and accessible.
If just half of our readers signed up to give $6 a month, we wouldn't have to fundraise for the rest of the year. Small amounts make a difference.
We cannot do this work without you. Become a Rainmaker today!