Vince Schleitwiler - Strange Fruit of the Black Pacific: Imperialism’s Racial Justice and Its Fugitives

STRANGE FRUIT OF THE BLACK PACIFIC

NATION OF NATIONS: IMMIGRANT HISTORY AS AMERICAN HISTORY

General Editors: Rachel Buff, Matthew Jacobson, and Werner Sollors

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Strange Fruit of the Black Pacific: Imperialisms Racial Justice and Its Fugitives

Vince Schleitwiler

Strange Fruit of the Black Pacific

Imperialisms Racial Justice and Its Fugitives

Vince Schleitwiler

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York

www.nyupress.org

2017 by New York University

All rights reserved

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ISBN: 978-1-4798-6469-0 (hardback)

ISBN: 978-1-4798-5708-1 (paperback)

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A book in the American Literatures Initiative (ALI), a collaborative publishing project of NYU Press, Fordham University Press, Rutgers University Press, Temple University Press, and the University of Virginia Press. The Initiative is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information, please visit www.americanliteratures.org.

Some people manage to stay free.

Mosquito (Gayl Jones)

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Any book worth reading must be the expression of a desire to become indebted to others. Whether this is such a book is not for me to decide, but I am lucky to have accumulated the tally that follows. As always, the greatest debts remain unaccounted and nameless.

Over the years, my teachers have given me more than a student should ask, particularly one so incorrigible as myself. I am honored by their patience and friendship, and grateful for their steadfast kindness through adversity. Joycelyn Moody taught me that reading could be a calling, and the pursuit of literacy a lifes task; I am still learning. Chandan Reddys terrifying intellect is surpassed only by his inexhaustible generosity, and I am better for having drawn upon both. From Johnnella Butler I learned that integrity can be sustained with grace at the highest levels of institutions not designed for your survival, a reminder that has saved me on more than a few occasions. Vince Rafael is the most literary thinker I have been fortunate to meet, and his restless mind pushed this project in profound ways. Eva Cherniavskys steady and exemplary mentorship steered me through many difficult challenges.

Kiko Benitez was an invaluable guide to my early incursions into Filipino literatures, and Alys Weinbaum showed me how to draw my first maps of the planet Du Bois. Steve Sumida, Gail Nomura, Peter Kwong, and Duanka Mievi have been generous and supportive since my undergraduate years. Student organizers at the University of Washington and Oberlin, including Diem Nguyen, Genji Terasaki, Robin Russell, Marc Philpart, Dana Arviso, and many others provided me with the greater part of my education. I will never be done thanking my old friends from GO-MAP, especially Jerry Pangilinan and Cynthia Morales. In and beyond Seattle, Jeff Chiu, Amy Reddinger and Rhonda Mellinger, Lesley Larkin, Seema Sohi, Caroline Yang, Andrea Opitz and Stacy Grooters, Marites Mendoza, Ryan Burt, Trang Ta, and Keith Feldman allowed me to understand friendship as a form of study. Tamiko Nimura continues to show me the way forward. As a teacher, I have been fortunate to learn alongside many fine students, including Jacquelin Magby Baker, Rhassan Hill, Claire Schwartz, Charlotte Silverman, Kaveh Landsverk, Naima McFarland, Lauren Zachary, Christopher Holland, Sophia Rosenfeld, Jackie Harris, Logan Lawson, Alina and Amber Penny, and too many others to name.

Much love and respect to the Willliamstown diaspora, and to those still holding it down in the Berkshires: Tracey and Devyn Spence Benson, Stphane Robolin and Evie Shockley, Travis and Jessica Gosa, Neil Roberts and Karima Barrow, Jackie Hidalgo and Sourena Parham, Kiara Vigil and Blake Johnson, Jennifer Randall Crosby, Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, and Manu Vimalassery. The peerless Joyce Foster, learned and wise, is a beacon to me, as to many. Dorothy Wang is fearless and always true. Laylah Ali, Allan Isaac, Wendy Raymond, Greg Robinson, Lisa Lowe, and Elena Creef offered timely encouragement. Mike Phillips, Rebecca Zorach, and Cauleen Smith swung through town when I needed them most.