by Dae Shik Kim

When I used to live on Capitol Hill, I would run into Kshama Sawant a couple times a month at the Central Co-op. I would always take a quick peek into her shopping cart and knew right away she was about to throw down. Seattle is a small enough city where it isn’t out of the ordinary to see one of your local electeds in public. I’ve seen Andrew Lewis in his Indochino suit panic-jogging through Pioneer Square so many times and never really thought much of it. But seeing Kshama Sawant do “human” things always felt a little different. Maybe because most of us have never seen her break “character,” especially within the walls of City Hall. Or maybe because corporate media loves to portray “radical leftists” as joyless figures, quick to cancel others, perpetuating stereotypes that overlook multifaceted lives and passions.