Book Review by Marina Davis
This is an essay collection organized into four parts: The African and Asian Diasporas In the West: 1800-1950, From Bandung to the Black Panthers: National Liberation, The Third World, Mao, and Malcolm, Afro/Asian Arts: Catalysts, Collaborations, and the Coltrane Aesthetic, and Afro/Asia Expressive Writing.
Part one, The African and Asian Diasporas In the West: 1800-1950, has three essays and focuses on different conflicts involving Black Americans and Asian people, namely Black American experiences in the Korean war, Chinese freedom fighters in Cuba, and Black-Asian conflicts in the U.S.
Part two, From Bandung to the Black Panthers: National Liberation, The Third World, Mao, and Malcolm, has four essays plus two statements from Mao Zedong. The essays focus on Asian influences on the Black liberation, especially the communist movement under Mao. The two statements by Mao are about his support for the Black liberation movement in America.
Part three, Afro/Asian Arts: Catalysts, Collaborations, and the Coltrane Aesthetic, has seven essays. These essays focus on the intersection between Asian American and Black American cultures, namely martial arts and hip-hop.
Part four, Afro/Asia Expressive Writing, has seven essays. All of them are personal essays rather than academic. The essays explore things like race and national identity, politics, and revolution.
This is a fantastic book to learn more about the complex interactions between two of the most influential and culturally significant minority groups in the United States of America.
