The East is Black: Cold War China in the Black Radical Imagination by Robeson Taj Frazier

Abstract

Reviewed by: The East is Black: Cold War China in the Black Radical Imagination by Robeson Taj Frazier Keisha N. Blain THE EAST IS BLACK: Cold War China in the Black Radical Imagination. By Robeson Taj Frazier. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 2014. In a fascinating new book entitled The East is Black, Robeson Taj Frazier explores the significance of China for a cadre of black activists and thinkers during the Cold War. Drawing on an impressive array of primary sources from the United States and China—including archival material, newspapers, oral histories, films, and travel narratives—Frazier describes how W.E.B. Du Bois, Shirley Graham Du Bois, Robert F. Williams, Mabel Williams, Vicki Garvin, and William Worthy “deployed and grappled with media, travel, and travel narrative in their interactions in China and in their formulations of transnational politics” (4). Using the terms “radical imagining” to describe the ideas, interactions, political practices, and creative expressions that he traces, Frazier deepens our understanding of the cultural and political exchanges and historical connections between people of African descent and persons of Asian descent. In five chapters (including a coda), Frazier examines the significance of China’s march towards socialism for black Americans during the Cold War. These men and women, Frazier asserts, “opposed U.S. imperialism abroad and capitalism and antiblack racism at home … [and] made it well known that the social and economic treatment of black Americans and racial minorities in the United States amplified the inadequacies of the country’s paradigm of international relations and world community” (5). [End Page 151] While Frazier is attentive to the myriad ways black men and women engaged China and endorsed Afro-Asian solidarity, he pays equal attention to the contradictions in their positions. In the first chapter, Frazier describes the significance of the Du Boises’ visit to China in 1959, highlighting the couple’s admiration for China’s modernization project, the “Great Leap Forward,” and the efforts to strengthen relations between Africans and the Chinese. According to Frazier, the Du Boises “believed that China’s rejection of U.S. domination and its projects to induce China’s economic advancement could aid decolonial efforts in Africa” (47). Yet, they overlooked the disastrous consequences of the “Great Leap Forward” and “perpetuated a paternalist framing of Sino-African relations: Africans as under Chinese tutelage” (49). In this chapter, Frazier also offers a close reading of Du Bois’s historical novel Worlds of Color (1961), unpacking some of the contradictions in the black radical imagination and interrogating global discourses on race and racial identity. In subsequent chapters, Frazier grapples with these tensions through an exploration of the ideas and activities of a diverse group of black men and women who engaged in transnational political practices through various mediums including journalism, media, and overseas travel. Frazier’s The East is Black is a deeply nuanced and well-researched book that enriches the literature on twentieth century black internationalism. It is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship on Afro-Asia by Gerald Horne, Robin D. G. Kelley, Yuichiro Onishi, and others. Among its many strengths, Frazier’s book highlights the gendered contours of black transnational ideas and activism; and draws insights from various fields including history, American studies, and critical race theory. Through careful and in-depth analysis, Frazier has written an important study, which will enhance undergraduate and graduate course syllabi on a range of topics including Race and Ethnicity, Transnationalism, and the modern African Diaspora. Keisha N. Blain University of Iowa Copyright © 2016 Mid-America American Studies Association