When We Are Kin - by Kyle T Mays (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A bold vision for a Black and Indigenous future rooted in real solidarity, a future that exists beyond the confines of the liberal imagination

Current advocates of reparations for slavery and land back often fail to scrutinize racial capitalism and settler colonialism, instead accepting that their destinies will forever be tied to US empire. But as scholar Kyle T. Mays insists in When We Are Kin, we can and should demand a kind of repair that goes beyond a white supremacist idea of what justice can be.

In a series of short essays, Mays traces the history of alliances between Black and Indigenous movements; outlines the limitations of certain demands for reparations, including cash payments, that do not fundamentally critique racial-settler capitalism; and interrogates contemporary land back initiatives that fail to fully address decolonization. Along the way, he asks, What does solidarity look like between Black and Indigenous peoples in the United States? Can we find ways to co-belong and co-resist on Turtle Island?

Drawing on the Anishinaabe philosophy of mino-bimaadiziwin (the good life), Mays argues that we can resist as kin only when we center the land in building our collective futures.

Review Quotes

"Kyle Mays ain't playin'. With courage, concision, and candor, When We Are Kin lays bare hard truths about the limits of reparations and sovereignty without decolonization and the dismantling of racial-settler capitalism. But this is not a takedown. On the contrary, it is a clarion call to deepen Black and Indigenous solidarity by understanding the complexities of our braided histories, abandoning liberal notions of property, and fighting for our liberation--together."
--Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination

"When We Are Kin is rigorous, unflinching, and deeply rooted in Afro-Indigenous love, memory, and accountability. This book is not just history; it is a call to action, a refusal to let white supremacy script our relationships to land, kinship, or one another."
--Dr. Jessica Hernandez, author of Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science and Growing Papaya Trees: Nurturing Indigenous Roots During Climate Displacement

"When We Are Kin makes a case for an intentional Black and Indigenous relationality that rejects the logics of white supremacy and colonialism in favor of practices of solidarity forged through co-belonging and co-resistance, a liberation we make together."
--Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, author of Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead

"Kyle Mays has mastered the art of simplifying unnecessary jargon and complicating the half-truths that we take at face value. In When We Are Kin, he makes the best case for Afro-Indigenous solidarity and asks us to reconsider justice and equity on our terms. I will be thinking about this book for quite some time!"
--Brea Baker, author of Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership

"This book gets right to the heart of the matter: Black and Indigenous liberation is intertwined, and the struggle for collective liberation will take all of us. Mays's vision maps out what we owe one another as we do the work of getting free."
--Robyn Maynard, author of Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present

"It's rare to find a book that is both genuinely refreshing and entertaining, while speaking with such clarity and courage. When We Are Kin is fearless. Kyle Mays tells the truth plainly--no sugarcoating, no shortcuts. This book isn't optional for anyone serious about building solidarity. And if we are truly committed to liberation, then we need more voices willing to speak this boldly."
--Trevor Smith and Savannah Romero, cofounders of the BLIS Collective

"In When We Are Kin, Kyle Mays does what only he can do--speak truth to power about Black-Indigenous solidarity with humor, authority, and introspection. He puts his whole foot in it and says all the things that need to be said, confronting the uncomfortable nuances around landback and reparations as strategies of decolonization. With history as his witness and the archives bringing the receipts, Mays demonstrates how the notion of assumed alliance between our peoples, simply because of a shared experience of oppression, creates a fragile and altogether incomplete site of unity. He instead helps us to understand that it is through the cultivation of Black-Indigenous kinship and centering of the land that we get there--actualized tribal sovereignty and Black freedom. A masterpiece."
--Amber Starks (Melanin Mvskoke), Afro-Indigenous advocate, organizer, and cultural critic