Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast
May 16, 2022
Two interrelated clashes along the Gulf Coast of Texas are recounted in this scrupulously reported saga. Journalist Johnson (The Feather Thief) details how, in the late 1970s, fisherman Billy Joe Aplin, frustrated by numerous personal setbacks and a failed effort to rally others in Seadrift, Tex., against industrial plants he believed were polluting local waters, fixated upon the region’s newly arrived Vietnamese fishermen as the source of his troubles. After instigating a series of confrontations, Aplin was shot dead by one of the Vietnamese fishermen; in retaliation, local whites burned houses and boats belonging to the Vietnamese and sought the support of the Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. By the end of the 1980s, Johnson writes, the two sides had reached a “kind of grudging acceptance” of each other, even as toxic runoff and oil spills endangered their livelihoods. Local fisherwoman Diane Wilson launched a grassroots movement with the steadfast support of Seadrift’s Vietnamese community and ultimately won the largest settlement in U.S. history “stemming from a private citizen’s lawsuit against an industrial polluter.” Johnson’s exceptional research, including interviews with Aplin’s family, Klan sympathizers, and members of the Vietnamese community, allows him to marshal this sprawling history into a propulsive narrative. The result is a fascinating study of the forces roiling the Texas Gulf Coast and other parts of America.
July 1, 2022
Shrimping was already a hardscrabble occupation on the Texas Gulf Coast when two significant changes took place in the 1970s. The one the predominantly white fishing community noticed was the arrival of Vietnamese refugees, who took to shrimping to gain a foothold in America. The one they disregarded was the rise of petrochemical plants with their attendant pollution, waste dumping, oil spills, and other profound environmental calamities. The manufacturers were powerful employers and benefactors; their competitors were powerless Vietnamese fishermen. Johnson (The Feather Thief) weaves compelling twin tragedies into a searing narrative that details the escalating conflict between locals and Vietnamese newcomers that explodes into a deadly night in the tiny town of Seadrift in 1979, followed by Klan involvement and a lawsuit featuring Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Local resident, Diane Wilson, also evolves into an environmental crusader, who singlehandedly takes on the petrochemical companies polluting the Gulf Coast. VERDICT Two stories interweave, collide, and ripple for more than 40 years, and Johnson's thorough, diligent research and brisk storytelling make this narrative compelling for those seeking thrills or truths. Recommended for readers interested in environmental or racial justice and the power of activism.--Janet Ingraham Dwyer
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from June 15, 2022
Fast-paced though complex account of ethnic collision among the fisheries of Gulf Coast Texas. "This is a book about a racist backlash against refugees fleeing a ruinous war," writes Johnson, author of The Feather Thief, to open a narrative that pits Vietnamese newcomers to East Texas against an array of enemies, most dangerously the KKK. When the Vietnamese arrived, they found few friends among the White fishermen of Galveston Bay, who were happy to sell those newcomers junk boats and machinery at exorbitant prices, as with one who "grinned at a reporter while describing the time he sold a boat to a Vietnamese shrimper for $25,000, even though he knew it was decrepit." Meanwhile, Johnson notes, a Gallup poll soon after the fall of Saigon "showed only 36 percent of Americans believed refugees fleeing the calamitous war of their country's own making deserved resettlement," lending weight to the hostility on a homefront suddenly populated by a wave of 130,000 Vietnamese. One Anglo fisherman bought into the widely circulated lie that among the refugees were Viet Cong agents bent on destroying America, and he began terrorizing two young brothers in "Gook City," one of whom killed their tormentor. Amazingly, he was acquitted by an all-White jury on the grounds of self-defense, which only lent energy to KKK members from far afield who came to chase the Vietnamese out. In another kind of radicalism, a Taiwanese manufacturer that had been dumping toxic chemicals into the bay, poisoning the fishery, met local resistance that included both Anglos and Vietnamese. In the end, the KKK dwindled away, but "the White supremacist movement charged ahead." Even though most shrimp consumed here is imported, Johnson observes that the domestic crop is largely brought to market by Vietnamese fishermen. His fascinating and disturbing narrative is a winning mix of biography, true crime, and ecological study. A carefully written investigation full of villains--and the occasional hero.
COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Starred review from July 1, 2022
Xenophobia, the ethical limits of free speech, environmental disaster, the psychological effects of war, corporate greed--Johnson tackles all of these and more in his follow-up to 2018's The Feather Thief, broadening his gaze beyond a singular case as he profiles the post-Vietnam War turmoil experienced in Seadrift, a small Texas fishing town on Galveston Bay. A small population of Vietnamese refugees had relocated to Seadrift and begun, unwelcome or not, fishing and shrimping next to the locals. When tensions reach their zenith, a young Vietnamese fisherman shoots and kills a white Seadrifter, causing a firestorm of a trial that gains the notice of the Ku Klux Klan. There are many players in this sprawling story, which moves from the late 1970s through present day. Johnson gives particular life to two of the central figures of the story: Colonel Nam, the de facto leader of the Vietnamese shrimpers, and Diane Wilson, whose reverence for the bay leads her to take on the chemical plants that have been ravaging its waters for decades. The Fisherman and the Dragon is a sprawling historical narrative with sobering connections to our current moment. Book clubs interested in nonfiction selections will find much to work with here.
COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
July 1, 2022
Xenophobia, the ethical limits of free speech, environmental disaster, the psychological effects of war, corporate greed--Johnson tackles all of these and more in his follow-up to 2018's The Feather Thief, broadening his gaze beyond a singular case as he profiles the post-Vietnam War turmoil experienced in Seadrift, a small Texas fishing town on Galveston Bay. A small population of Vietnamese refugees had relocated to Seadrift and begun, unwelcome or not, fishing and shrimping next to the locals. When tensions reach their zenith, a young Vietnamese fisherman shoots and kills a white Seadrifter, causing a firestorm of a trial that gains the notice of the Ku Klux Klan. There are many players in this sprawling story, which moves from the late 1970s through present day. Johnson gives particular life to two of the central figures of the story: Colonel Nam, the de facto leader of the Vietnamese shrimpers, and Diane Wilson, whose reverence for the bay leads her to take on the chemical plants that have been ravaging its waters for decades. The Fisherman and the Dragon is a sprawling historical narrative with sobering connections to our current moment. Book clubs interested in nonfiction selections will find much to work with here.
COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.