Where do Asian Americans fit into the U.S. racial order? Are they subordinated comparably to Black people or permitted adjacency to whiteness? The racial reckoning prompted by the police murder of George Floyd and the surge in anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic raise these questions with new urgency. Asian Americans in an Anti-Black World is a groundbreaking study that will shake up scholarly and popular thinking on these matters. Theoretically innovative and based on rigorous historical research, this provocative book tells us we must consider both anti-Blackness and white supremacy—and the articulation of the two forces—in order to understand U.S. racial dynamics. The construction of Asian Americans as not-white but above all not-Black has determined their positionality for nearly two centuries. How Asian Americans choose to respond to this status will help to define racial politics in the U.S. in the twenty-first century.

‘Claire Kim's Asian Americans in an Anti-Black World is yet another critically important work from a leading theoretician of racial politics within the U.S. An acute observer of the complicated racial dynamics of the twenty-first century U.S., Kim centers anti-blackness as critical for understanding the complex racial dynamics that continue be central to shaping U.S. society and politics.’

Michael Dawson - The University of Chicago

‘Sure to elicit controversy and debate, Kim offers a stunning and provocative account of the racial positioning of Asian Americans in a pervasively anti-Black social order. In a work of enormous breadth, she challenges prevailing narratives and paradigms of Asian American history and politics by illustrating how Asian Americans have benefitted from anti-Blackness. Grasping the functionality of ‘better than Black’ for white supremacy becomes essential to imagining how anti-Asian racism might be framed and contested.’

Michael Omi - University of California, Berkeley

‘A razor-sharp retelling of Asian American history…The story of race and rights in the United States cannot be told without Asian Americans. This book will show you why.’

Jeff Guo Source: NPR Books We Love