An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
YOU DON‘T WRITE a book like this without some love. I first have to give a
shout out to the best editor in the game: Gayatri Patnaik. The editor of the
ReVisioning American History series at Beacon Press, she believed in this
project from the beginning. I appreciated her criticisms and feedback—she
da best! Thank you to Maya Fernandez, Ruthie Block, and the entire
Beacon team for your work on this project. Much love.
I also want to thank Paul Ortiz and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, both with
whom I had early conversations about this project and are also authors in
the ReVisioning American History series. You should check them out. They
helped me think about the larger history of Black and Indigenous struggle
and to carefully imagine what this history could look like in a book format.
I’d like to thank my mother for doing her part as a single mother to raise
five children. Thank you to my siblings Twin, YaYa, Shaun, and J for
always supporting me and showing me love. They always keep my
grounded and remind me that I’m not as cool and important as I think I am.
Thank you to my nieces and nephews: RJ, Brandon, Hayden, Cherish,
Makiah, and J.J. You are part of the future generation that is going to
continue challenging American democracy.
I have to give a big shout to my mentors and Fam: Dr. G (Geneva
Smitherman), AJ Rice, Austin Jackson, David E. Kirkland, Jeffrey
Robinson, H. Samy Alim, and Ashley Newby. No one has influenced me
more in the academy than my academic mama, Dr. G. She has mentored me
and always demanded that I honor my ancestors and do work on behalf of
the future generations. I gotta give a big shout out to AJ. We been brothas
since our first experience during the Ronald E. McNair Program. I
appreciate you being there and I know you got my back. Thank you all for