Week 8 _ Angela Alejandro _ ASA114

In this week’s reading “In the Black Pacific: Testimonies of Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian Displacements” by Bernard Scott Lucious, the author focuses on the contemporary translational term of “black pacific” which he argues signifies “cross-cultural exchanges, linkages, or identities that emerge as two or more cultures emerge (pg.123).” Through analyzing the experiences of African military men who participated in American military ventures in the Asia-Pacific, the Asian women in relationships with these men, and the child born to these interracial relationships, Lucious argues that the black pacific is an interdiasporic site of critical inquiry. The author centers on the lived experience of blackness in Vietnam and later addresses how that influenced how Vietnamese Afro-Americans are treated in the Vietnamese American diaspora. Both Asian American and Black Americans are marginalized with heavy stereotypes placed on them by White mainstream America, my question is how do the children of these interracial relationships grapple with these stereotypes?

Luscious, Bernard Scott. “Into the Black Pacific: Testimonies of Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian Displacements.” Displacements and Diasporas: Asians in the Americas. Rutgers University Press, 2005.

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