Building Back, Together: Book Review
Building Back, Together: Review of the Collection Building America: Immigrant Stories of Hope and Hardship, edited by Mary Assel and Glenn O’Kray
By Cheryl Caesar
“No One Is Coming to Save Us from Trump’s Racism,” wrote social critic Roxane Gay in early 2018. The then-President had just sneered publicly at certain countries, including the native land of Gay’s parents, Haiti, as “shitholes.” No one did. In 2020, reeling from Trump’s broadcast suggestions to inject bleach against the coronavirus, Gay reflected on the social inequalities that were only exacerbated by the pandemic. “Remember, No One Is Coming to Save Us,” she wrote. “Eventually, doctors will find a coronavirus vaccine, but black people will continue to wait, despite the futility of hope, for a cure for racism.”
Today we might be forgiven for feeling, if not salvation, at least a momentary reprieve. A chance to breathe. President Biden’s vaccine rollout proceeds ahead of schedule, and last month* the CDC told us that vaccinated people need no longer wear masks or practice social distancing. The United States has rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement. A task force is working to reunite families separated at the border by the last administration.
And yet. The racism and xenophobia that put Trump in the White House are rampant and overt. Anti-Asian hate crimes continue to spread, a toxic legacy. Yesterday in New York’s Chinatown, a man assaulted a 55-year-old Asian woman in the street – apparently a complete stranger -- and this kind of hate crime is no longer even front-page news. Immigrants and refugees are vilified daily on cable “news” stations. Now is the right time to seek out what Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe called “a balance of stories.” As counterweight against the relentless reports of ignorance and aggression, we can turn to collections like Building America: Immigrant Stories of Hope and Hardship, with its deliberately plural byline: “by Many Who Love This Country and the Freedom for Which It Stands.” This volume, assembled by the Building America Project out of Detroit and published by Ardent Writer Press in 2020, brings together stories of hopeful recent arrivals and family tales from generations ago.
Editors Mary Assel and Glenn O’Kray state their goal plainly: to diminish hatred and fear of the “Other” by sharing stories of human universals: hope, passion, the drive to make a better life for one’s descendants. From Hungary, Malta, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, El Salvador … immigrants tell their stories of hardship and struggle, concluding on notes of hope, gratitude for a better life, and the determination to share it with others. Thank you! they write. We feel blessed. And when one is blessed, there is an obligation to work hard and bless others.
“Miracles do not hide behind closed door,” write editors Assel and O’Kray, “nor do they roam the skies to come to our rescue at will. However, when desire and need are intertwined with passion and personal drive, we learn to create our own miracles.” No, no one is coming to save us. But if we can stay open to the wondrous stories of our living, constantly-evolving society, miraculous changes are possible for us together.
(All proceeds from the sale of this book go the American Civil Liberties Union.)
* Editor's note: Cheryl Cesar's review was submitted on June 2, 2021. The CDC guidelines have since changed with the spread of the Delta variant, and will likely change again, as the pandemic progresses.
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Cheryl Caesar lived in Paris, Tuscany and Sligo for 25 years; she earned her doctorate in comparative literature at the Sorbonne. She teaches writing at Michigan State University. She publishes poems in America, Europe and Africa. Her book Flatman: Poems of Protest in the Trump Era, is available from Amazon. Three of her recent COVID poems appear in Rejoice Everyone! Reo Town Reading Anthology, and one in The Social Gap Experiment, also available from Amazon.