A History of Linkage: African and Asian, African-American and Asian-American
By Yuri Kochiyama
© Yuri Kochiyama, 1998.
Much of the history of African/Asian and Black American/Asian American inter-actions is not as well known as it should be. All peoples of whatever race or color have criss-crossed into each other's lives more than we think. But such history, like all true history, has often been hidden, lied about, or distorted. Malcolm X used to admonish: "Study history. Learn about yourselves and others. There's more commonality in all our lives than we think. It will help us understand one another." We also need to remember that history, depending on how it is told, can be used as a weapon to divide us further, or as a vehicle to seek truths that might bring us to greater mutual understanding.
Unfortunately, thanks to the mass media, we are more likely to hear about ways that we are divided. We hear about attacks on African students at Nanjing University in China, the killing of 15-year old African American Latasha Harlins by a Korean shopkeeper in Los Angeles, and anti-Korean actions following the verdict in the beating of Rodney King. These events also reveal the social and economic gaps between peoples of color.
But there is so much that unites us, which we do not learn. As Gary Okihiro observed in a paper he wrote: "Africans and Asians share a history of migration, interaction, and cultural sharing. They share a history of European colonization, decolonization, and independence under new colonization and dependency. Africans and Asians share a history of oppression in the U.S., successively serving as slave and cheap labor . . . "
Filipino Slaves Come
The first Asians who came to the United States were Filipino slaves, who were originally taken to Mexico by Spanish and Portuguese merchants in the 18th and 19th centuries. They escaped to New Orleans, Louisiana, where their descendants live today, in their own communities. Also in that period, people from China and India were sold to European and American ship captains as "coolies" in the same way the pigs were sold: they were put in pigpens, nearly naked and filthy, with their destinations painted on their chests. Many Chinese workers were sent to Latin America.
Between 1870 and 1890, when Congress was debating the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act barring Chinese immigrants, African American leaders like Frederick Douglass and Augustus Straker spoke out against the bill. They considered the objections to the Chinese "in kind and principle" identical to attacks on Blacks, and said that their opponents were the same as those of the Chinese. Senator Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi, the only African American in the U.S. Senate, voted courageously against limiting the rights of the Chinese people by the Exclusion Act.
During the Spanish-American War of 1898, some 6,000 Black soldiers sent to the Philippines with Theodore Roosevelt's "Rough Riders" were repelled by American atrocities (600,000 Filipino civilians massacred). Feeling kinship with their "brown brothers," as they said, the Black soldiers risked their lives by joining the Filipino guerrillas.
At the turn of the century, a Japanese man named Sen Katayama became the first Asian to attend a Black college in the southern United States. He went on to be an outstanding labor leader and friend of the acclaimed Black writer of the Harlem Renaissance period, Claude McKay. Together they organized the Communist Party in New York. U.S. labor history has ignored Katayama, probably because racism marginalized workers of color.
In the early 1920s another Asian came to the U.S. while in exile for his work to free Vietnam from French colonialism. Ho Chi Minh lived in the ghettoes of Chicago and Harlem, became an admirer of Black leader Marcus Garvey, and wrote one of the earliest books on racism in the United States (it was published in the Soviet Union). During the U.S. war on Vietnam he was seen as a hero by Blacks and other Americans opposed to the war, who often considered it a racist war and identified with its victims.
In the 1930s the Black historian and leader W.E.B. DuBois visited China, Manchuria and Japan. DuBois met Mao Tse-tung and other Chinese leaders. Famed Black Americans who have visited the People's Republic of China also include Langston Hughes, Vicki Garvin, Robert Williams, and several members of the Black Panther Party.
Inter-action was common between African-Americans and the Japanese as well. In the midwestern United States, immigrant Japanese related to the newly emerging Nation of Islam (NOI), and some made ties for the purpose of friendship and trade. In early 1940, Elijah Muhammed and others of the NOI went to jail because they would not support World War II against Japan and spoke out against it; they also opposed the concentration camps where Japanese Americans were sent at the time. First generation Issei Japanese worked with militant Black nationalists in those years.
The historic 1955 conference of non-aligned nations held in Bandung, Indonesia brought together African and Asian leaders in a historic gathering. The U.S. was irked at not being invited but many prominent Blacks attended, including Adam Clayton Powell and Margaret Cartwright, the first Black reporter assigned to the United Nations. The Bandung conference was organized by Indonesian president Ahmad Sukarno, whom Malcolm X held in high esteem because he would not bow down to the white man.
The 1950s also saw the United States getting embroiled in the Korean War. At a huge rally in New York, the distinguished and charismatic Black leader Paul Robeson declared that "it would be foolish for African Americans to fight against their Asian brothers." He urged Blacks to resist being drafted and said that "the place for the Negro people to fight for their freedom is at home." Despite worldwide recognition for Robeson's many talents -- as a football hero, lawyer, actor, singer, and speaker -- he came to be seen as a threat by the United States. In reality, he was an anti-imperialist internationalist and lover of humanity.
The 1960s brought many acts of solidarity involving Asians and Blacks alongside Latinos and Native Americans. We find these in protests against the Vietnam War; support for the "I" Hotel in San Francisco; student struggles for ethnic studies. There was much interaction between Black Panthers, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Young Lords, I Wor Kuen, Brown Berets and other Chicano groups, the Red Guards, and Manila Town Filipino activists. Together Asian activists supported Wounded Knee in the West and the Attica Brothers on the East Coast; the fight to bring the People's Republic of China into the United Nations; and support for Third World political prisoners throughout the country, including Puerto Rican independistas.
Beyond our borders, Mao Tse-tung, leader of the emerging People's Republic of China, said during the 1968 urban riots by African Americans: "I hereby express resolute support for the just struggle of the Black people in the United States." In that same period Mao sent thousands of workers to help build the railroads between Zambia and Tanzania in East Africa. Chinese workers also helped to construct the national sports stadium in Zimbabwe and a library in Harare. In addition, Zimbabwe received work teams from North Korea. An outstanding Korean woman writer, Pak Sunam, always referred to Franz Fanon -- the Martinique-born psychiatrist who became a powerful voice of anti-colonial, anti-racist struggle -- as "her brother."
There are many stories of solidarity featuring Malcolm X; he probably impressed Asian Americans, in particular youth, more than any other Black leader. In June, 1964 Malcolm met with Japanese atom-bomb victims who came to New York for plastic surgery and toured the U.S. speaking out against nuclear proliferation. They were deeply impressed by Malcolm's graciousness and openness. Malcolm also spoke of his admiration for Mao Tse-tung and his support for Vietnam's struggle, which he saw as the struggle of the whole Third World.
Another important area of Black/Asian interaction has been music, primarily jazz. Coltrane, Max Roach, Milford Graves, Herbie Hancock and other jazz greats made periodic tours to Japan, as did reggae artists such as Jimmy Cliff. At the same time, Asian American musicians like Fred Ho, Mark Izu and Francis Wong have created jazz combos. Dancer/singer Nobuko Miyamoto and poet Janice Mirikitani are heralded by Black audiences.
There are still more examples of Black/Asian interaction. But much remains to be done to build bridges and create a united force that can challenge the system in which those with wealth and power live high off the toil and desperation of the marginalized. We must all work to break down barriers and phobias and build working relations, while understanding that each group has its own primary issues and needs its own privacy and leadership. If we want to change society, we must begin by transforming ourselves; learning from one another about one another's history, culture, dreams, hopes, personal experiences. We must become one, for the future of humanity.
Note: This article is a condensed version of a speech made by Ms. Kochiyama at the African/Asian Round Table, San Francisco State University, on Oct. 1, 1997. The author, a Japanese American born in California, is a longtime community activist living in Harlem who has worked on many issues, in particular supporting political prisoners. She worked closely with militant Puerto Rican groups like the Young Lords Party and was a member of the Organization of Afro-American Unity as well as a close friend of Malcolm X.
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