A Gulf Unites Us: The Vietnamese Americans of Black New Orleans East

Asian Americans have historically been enlisted by dominant whites to delegitimize black claims for justice, particularly in the aftermath of racial crises. This process has been termed racial triangulation, and the Los Angeles unrest of 1992 serves as perhaps its most salient example in recent memory. But in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (2005), the Vietnamese American and black residents of New Orleans East demonstrated profound, if understated, acts of solidarity that challenged triangulation. This article highlights two factors that contributed black-Asian solidarity. First, both communities were buoyed by respective histories of resilience—usable pasts that community members summoned to explain their unlikely return and rebuilding efforts. Their stories became mutually recognizable, as each saw in the other motives for return that could not be reduced to economic concerns. Second, Vietnamese American and black residents of New Orleans East were not prone to the class antagonisms said to enflame the supposed "black-Asian conflict" now endemic to the contemporary inner city. In New Orleans East, class heterogeneity cuts across both racial groups, and in a moment of racial crisis such complex and layered class dynamics can neutralize presupposed antagonisms, thus clearing path for unexpected alliances.