In my 1994 book, Margins and Mainstreams: Asians in American History and Culture, I wrote: “We are a kindred people, African and Asian Americans. We share a history of migration, interaction and cultural sharing, and commerce and trade. We share a history of European colonization, de-colonization, and independence under neo-colonization and dependency. We share a history of oppression in the United States, successively serving as slaves and cheap labor, as peoples excluded and absorbed, as victims of mob rule and Jim Crow. We share a history of struggle for freedom and the democratization of America, of demands for equality and human dignity, of insistence on making real the promise that all men and women are created equal. We are a kindred people, forged in the fire of white supremacy and struggle….”
That history, I maintained, provided the common ground upon which solidarities between African and Asian Americans were built, and I gave several examples of those unities.
