Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity

In 1992 the U.S. media was treated to "conflict" between blacks and Asians during the Los Angeles uprising. The event crystallized white-supremacist stereotypes of blacks as the "problem" minority and Asians as the successful "model" minority.

In this landmark work, historian Vijay Prashad refuses to engage this typical racial discussion. Instead, he examines the ways in which blacks and Asians have exchanged cultural and religious symbols, appropriated personas and lifestyles, and worked together to achieve political change for centuries. From the Shivites of Jamaica, who introduced Ganja and dreadlocks to the Afro-Jamaicans; to Ho Chi Minh the Garveyite; to Japanese-American Richard Aoki, a charter member of the Black Panthers, African-and Asian-derived movements and cultures, like all others, have been porous rather than discrete.

Prashad argues that these moments of exchange and cooperation between peoples of Asian and African descent demonstrate a need to reexamine the way we approach history. Multiculturalism is not enough, because it assumes a certain cultural purity that doesn't exist. Prashad offers instead the theory of polyculturalism, which allows for solidarity, not just lip service to diversity.