An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States (Unabridged)
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5.0 • 8 Ratings
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
The first intersectional history of the Black and Native American struggle for freedom in our country that also reframes our understanding of who was Indigenous in early America
Beginning with pre-Revolutionary America and moving into the movement for Black lives and contemporary Indigenous activism, Afro-Indigenous historian Kyle T. Mays argues that the foundations of the US are rooted in antiblackness and settler colonialism, and that these parallel oppressions continue into the present. He explores how Black and Indigenous peoples have always resisted and struggled for freedom, sometimes together, and sometimes apart. Whether to end African enslavement and Indigenous removal or eradicate capitalism and colonialism, Mays show how the fervor of Black and Indigenous peoples calls for justice have consistently sought to uproot white supremacy.
Mays uses a wide-array of historical activists and pop culture icons, “sacred” texts, and foundational texts like the Declaration of Independence and Democracy in America. He covers the civil rights movement and freedom struggles of the 1960s and 1970s, and explores current debates around the use of Native American imagery and the cultural appropriation of Black culture. Mays compels us to rethink both our history as well as contemporary debates and to imagine the powerful possibilities of Afro-Indigenous solidarity.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The Black Lives Matter movement may have exploded during the 21st century, but its roots go back hundreds of years. Kyle T. Mays’ eye-opening audiobook lays out an African American– and Indigenous-focused history of the United States. The historian traces his own Black and Saginaw Chippewa ancestry, uncovering the ways that these communities’ struggles evolved and coexisted from prerevolutionary America to present day. Mays isn’t afraid to hit on some discomfiting insights, like how civil rights leaders in the 1960s largely excluded Indigenous Americans from their quest for equality. Narrator Shaun Taylor-Corbett captures Mays’ deep empathy, which gives this rigorously researched book real emotional depth. There are some hard truths in An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States—the kind we can’t afford not to know.
