An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by Kyle T. Mays
An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by Kyle T. Mays
Black and Indigenous people's efforts toward justice have played a central role in the radical transformation of our country, whether it meant ending African enslavement and Indigenous removal, creating deeper calls for nationalism and self-determination, or seeking a complete eradication of capitalism and colonialism. This groundbreaking history argues that the foundations of the United States are rooted in anti-blackness and settler colonialism, and that these parallel oppressions continue well into the present.
In An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States, Afro-Indigenous historian Kyle T. Mays explores the relationship and differences between the Black American quest for freedom and the Native American struggle for sovereignty, beginning in pre-Revolutionary America and moving into the movement for Black lives and contemporary Indigenous activism.
While citing a wide array of historical activists and pop culture icons, "sacred" texts, and commonly studied historical moments to tell a lesser-known story of the U.S. from the perspectives of Black and Native Americans, Mays unearths stories of crucial periods such as the civil rights movement and the Black and indigenous freedom struggles of the 1960s and 1970s. He also explores current debates around the use of Native American imagery and the appropriation of Black culture. An empowering chronicle of resistance, An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States explores the challenges and possibilities of Afro-Indigenous solidarity -- and envisions what the aftermath of white supremacy and settler colonialism might look like going forward.
Kyle T. Mays is an Afro-Indigenous writer and scholar of U.S. history, urban studies, race relations, and contemporary popular culture. He is an assistant professor of African American studies, American Indian studies, and history at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Beacon Press, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 1st Printing, 2021
THIS IS A BRAND NEW BOOK.