• South End Press; July 1, 1999

• Paperback

• 504 pages

• Used

This collection of 18 essays by activists and academics should provoke recognition that discussions of race in the U.S. must go beyond the binary black-white model. Glenn Omatsu contributes a valuable overview of Asian-American activism, dating it to the 1968 student strike at San Francisco State University. In a stimulating essay exploring the Los Angeles riots, Bong Hwan Kim notes that simply trying to foster dialogue between blacks and Koreans to solve racial tension is useless without an agenda for social transformation. Sonia Shah observes that Asian women's groups have yet to develop a specifically Asian feminism, though Asian women are victimized by highly particular stereotypes of dress, beauty and accent. Jessica Hagedorn and David Mura argue that their hybrid identities can be a source of richness. Addressing mainstream politics, Milyoung Cho traces political battles in New York City's Chinatown, warning that race-based voting can be self-defeating. Other essays address protests against the musical, Miss Saigon , domestic violence and the future of Asian-American studies. Aguilar-San Juan is a former editor at South End Press.