BlAsian Exchanges - Softcover

BlAsian Exchanges is the story of a Filipino American writer's recollection of his attraction for Black Women and Black culture. To stoke his storytelling, journalist-turned novelist Earvin Ilokano recruits Black women on the Internet to be his muses and the ensuing e-mail exchanges produce a seemingly endless discussion on cultural and historical similarities among Asian Americans and African Americans and how each group sees each other.

When Asian American journalist Earvin Ilokano recurrently experiences the consternation of his newspaper's publisher despite the plaudits of his editor, he deals with the situation constructively by penning a novel that recollects his lifelong attraction for Black culture and Black women. To stoke the recollection, he recruits Black women over the Internet to be his muses and what ensues are prolong e-mail exchanges. As Ilokano fights the temptation to go beyond flirting with the muses, he chronicles his attraction for Black women and Black culture throughout his life, the frustrations of being a progressive journalist at a conservative-owned newspaper, the daily challenges of an American-born Asian male navigating the cultural harmony/conflict of being Asian group up and living among Black people, pride for the Ilokan regional heritage of his parents' province in the Philippines, his views and observations of living in San Francisco, and the daily challenges of being an Asian American man married to a Black woman. In the tradition of Ralph Ellisons Juneteenth, this story also includes the Black and Asian voices that Ilokano is influenced by as he grows up. Ilokano's street smart diction and journalistic writings coupled with his application of Greek mythology to the issues he writes about make for poignant and insightful polemics about BlAsian (Black women/Asian men) relationships.