Living an Abolitionist Life

Abstract: “Living an Abolitionist Life” is at once a testimony to the everyday praxis of abolition feminism and a theoretical framework for understanding the abolitionist impulse characteristic of an anti-carceral Asian American feminist praxis. Using Sara Ahmed’s feminist scholarship as a guide, the author observes various shifts from the individual to the collective, distilling the urgency of abolition feminism into a praxis of everyday choices. The first case study sits with the cultural politics of emotion, reviewing reactions to anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic including discourse surrounding calls for hate crimes legislation and mass appeal through the hashtag #StopAsianHate. Next, the author considers collective care through Ahmed’s notion of “becoming a feminist ear,” foregrounding 18 Million Rising, an Asian American digital-first organization that authored Call on Me, Not the Cops , an intergenerational resistance to policing. The article ends with a discussion on orientation and orientalism, revisiting the case of Yang Song, a Chinese migrant massage worker who fell four stories to her death in Flushing, Queens during a police raid in 2017. Holding on to the liberatory potential of Asian American abolition feminism, the author writes less with the intention to evidence the indisputable worth of Asian American abolition feminism and more to offer a way of noticing everyday gestures of being in political struggle by centering those who live abolitionist lives.

Duke Scholars

Author Anna Storti Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies