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The Fishermen and the Dragon: Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast
A gripping, twisting account of a small town set on fire by hatred, xenophobia, and ecological disaster—a story that weaves together corporate malfeasance, a battle over shrinking natural resources, a turning point in the modern white supremacist movement, and one woman’s relentless battle for environmental justice.
By the late 1970s, the fishermen of the Texas Gulf Coast were struggling. The bays that had sustained generations of shrimpers and crabbers before them were being poisoned by nearby petrochemical plants, oil spills, pesticides, and concrete. But as their nets came up light, the white shrimpers could only see one culprit: the small but growing number of newly resettled Vietnamese refugees who had recently started fishing.
Turf was claimed. Guns were flashed. Threats were made. After a white crabber was killed by a young Vietnamese refugee in self-defense, the situation became a tinderbox primed to explode, and the Grand Dragon of the Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan saw an opportunity to stoke the fishermen’s rage and prejudices. At a massive Klan rally near Galveston Bay one night in 1981, he strode over to an old boat graffitied with the words U.S.S. VIET CONG, torch in hand, and issued a ninety-day deadline for the refugees to leave or else “it’s going to be a helluva lot more violent than Vietnam!” The white fishermen roared as the boat burned, convinced that if they could drive these newcomers from the coast, everything would return to normal.
A shocking campaign of violence ensued, marked by burning crosses, conspiracy theories, death threats, torched boats, and heavily armed Klansmen patrolling Galveston Bay. The Vietnamese were on the brink of fleeing, until a charismatic leader in their community, a highly decorated colonel, convinced them to stand their ground by entrusting their fate with the Constitution.
Drawing upon a trove of never-before-published material, including FBI and ATF records, unprecedented access to case files, and scores of firsthand interviews with Klansmen, shrimpers, law enforcement, environmental activists, lawyers, perpetrators and victims, Johnson uncovers secrets and secures confessions to crimes that went unsolved for more than forty years. This explosive investigation of a forgotten story, years in the making, ultimately leads Johnson to the doorstep of the one woman who could see clearly enough to recognize the true threat to the bays—and who now represents the fishermen’s last hope.
By the late 1970s, the fishermen of the Texas Gulf Coast were struggling. The bays that had sustained generations of shrimpers and crabbers before them were being poisoned by nearby petrochemical plants, oil spills, pesticides, and concrete. But as their nets came up light, the white shrimpers could only see one culprit: the small but growing number of newly resettled Vietnamese refugees who had recently started fishing.
Turf was claimed. Guns were flashed. Threats were made. After a white crabber was killed by a young Vietnamese refugee in self-defense, the situation became a tinderbox primed to explode, and the Grand Dragon of the Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan saw an opportunity to stoke the fishermen’s rage and prejudices. At a massive Klan rally near Galveston Bay one night in 1981, he strode over to an old boat graffitied with the words U.S.S. VIET CONG, torch in hand, and issued a ninety-day deadline for the refugees to leave or else “it’s going to be a helluva lot more violent than Vietnam!” The white fishermen roared as the boat burned, convinced that if they could drive these newcomers from the coast, everything would return to normal.
A shocking campaign of violence ensued, marked by burning crosses, conspiracy theories, death threats, torched boats, and heavily armed Klansmen patrolling Galveston Bay. The Vietnamese were on the brink of fleeing, until a charismatic leader in their community, a highly decorated colonel, convinced them to stand their ground by entrusting their fate with the Constitution.
Drawing upon a trove of never-before-published material, including FBI and ATF records, unprecedented access to case files, and scores of firsthand interviews with Klansmen, shrimpers, law enforcement, environmental activists, lawyers, perpetrators and victims, Johnson uncovers secrets and secures confessions to crimes that went unsolved for more than forty years. This explosive investigation of a forgotten story, years in the making, ultimately leads Johnson to the doorstep of the one woman who could see clearly enough to recognize the true threat to the bays—and who now represents the fishermen’s last hope.
379 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 9, 2022
212 people are currently reading
4792 people want to read
About the author
Kirk Wallace Johnson
3 books316 followersAuthor of The Fishermen and the Dragon: Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast (August 9, 2022), The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century," and To Be a Friend is Fatal: The Fight to Save the Iraqis America Left Behind."
Founder of the List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies.
Founder of the List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 213 reviews
November 3, 2022
Well reported, but I think the book would have felt more like one cohesive product if the author had more distinctly intertwined the two stories (the Vietnamese vs. the American fishermen & the environmental battle against Gulf Coast corporations).
The subject matter is also deeply unsettling - that's not a mark against the book, just something to keep in mind, should you want to pick this up.
Click here to hear more of my thoughts on this book over on my Booktube channel, abookolive!
The subject matter is also deeply unsettling - that's not a mark against the book, just something to keep in mind, should you want to pick this up.
Click here to hear more of my thoughts on this book over on my Booktube channel, abookolive!
August 30, 2022
This is the true story of the fight of the Vietnamese refugees and the locals of the Gulf Coast area for their fishing rights in the 1970's.
When the locals can't run the Vietnamese off on their own they enlist the aid of the KKK. They were terrorized and had their boats and homes burned and in an act of self defense one of the locals was killed. Then there were the environmental concerns from the large corporations to contend with that are still going on today.
This reads like a legal thriller and I found it to be very informative about a period of time I didn't know anything about.
When the locals can't run the Vietnamese off on their own they enlist the aid of the KKK. They were terrorized and had their boats and homes burned and in an act of self defense one of the locals was killed. Then there were the environmental concerns from the large corporations to contend with that are still going on today.
This reads like a legal thriller and I found it to be very informative about a period of time I didn't know anything about.
July 21, 2023
When I first read the blurb, I was a little skeptical. How well could a single book encompass both environmental justice and racial justice? As it turns out, these stories are more intertwined than I’d expected.
The character- and story-focused narrative style is engaging and immediately hooks the reader with a feeling of suspense. Narrative nonfiction is delightful when done well, but runs the risk of leaning too far into sensationalism and abandoning good scholarship. This book’s extensive citations are evidence of a well-balanced tightrope act.
Full Review at Lone Star on a Lark
The character- and story-focused narrative style is engaging and immediately hooks the reader with a feeling of suspense. Narrative nonfiction is delightful when done well, but runs the risk of leaning too far into sensationalism and abandoning good scholarship. This book’s extensive citations are evidence of a well-balanced tightrope act.
Full Review at Lone Star on a Lark
October 19, 2023
THE FISHERMEN AND THE DRAGON: FEAR, GREED and a FIGHT FOR JUSTICE
Kirk Wallace Johnson
I lived most of my life in Galveston County and only moved the last 7 years to Brazoria County. I was a Clear Creek Graduate of 1974 and a police officer by 75. I remember much of this and parts that did not make the book. My husband at the time, a Garme Warden was on the docks during one of the incidents reported in this book and it was a scary time. I bought fish off the boats and the hauls were good. I had a fishing camp near Point Comfort in Jackson County and have eaten Gulf fish all my life. I know the new expansion plants referred to in this book, they are still there.
I find it funny that our concerns of global warming are not centered on how big industry pushes the impact. I had not realized that the fishing industry in my own area was no longer a big deal. It seems clear that big industry greed may make our lifes easier but also kill our world by pollution of the bays and oceans. We are driven by Big pharma, big plants, and getting more, more, more....
I don't think this is a story, this could be a road map to the future... it is sort of a must read...
5 stars
Happy Reading!
Kirk Wallace Johnson
I lived most of my life in Galveston County and only moved the last 7 years to Brazoria County. I was a Clear Creek Graduate of 1974 and a police officer by 75. I remember much of this and parts that did not make the book. My husband at the time, a Garme Warden was on the docks during one of the incidents reported in this book and it was a scary time. I bought fish off the boats and the hauls were good. I had a fishing camp near Point Comfort in Jackson County and have eaten Gulf fish all my life. I know the new expansion plants referred to in this book, they are still there.
I find it funny that our concerns of global warming are not centered on how big industry pushes the impact. I had not realized that the fishing industry in my own area was no longer a big deal. It seems clear that big industry greed may make our lifes easier but also kill our world by pollution of the bays and oceans. We are driven by Big pharma, big plants, and getting more, more, more....
I don't think this is a story, this could be a road map to the future... it is sort of a must read...
5 stars
Happy Reading!
June 2, 2023
In the post-Vietnam War era of the late 1970s, shrimpers and crabbers in the Galveston Bay area were struggling. Lighter and lighter catches were making their livelihoods more perilous. This book tells the gripping and somewhat forgotten story of the intense and often violent battle to eliminate the perceived and real causes of the threat to the fishing industry. The story expanded to the greater Gulf Coast and continued in some form through the decades up to the present.
One aspect of the story has to do with the backlash against Vietnamese refugees who settled along the water in small fishing towns like Seadrift, using their pooled resources to purchase trawlers and assist each other into the shrimping and crabbing business. This centuries-old system, known as hui to the Vietnamese, sounded dangerously like communism to the fiercely independent local fishermen. As resentments built, intimidation tactics toward the Vietnamese escalated. Nets were cut, boats were burned, and, ultimately a shooting occurred, marking the first murder in Seadrift’s history. It wasn’t long before the Ku Klux Klan arrived in Seadrift to buffer the cause. It arrived in the form of the Grand Dragon of the Texas Klan, a Vietnam War veteran named Louis Beam, who recruited and rallied the locals.
But the real enemy was being ignored. At the same time the local fisherman were preoccupied with the Vietnamese, the marine life in the bays was dying off or showing up with bizarre mutations. Huge crude oil spills and off shore petrochemical plants that were dumping toxins into the water and air threatened life and livelihood. This second aspect of the story evolved into a long standing battle for environmental protection, bringing to the fight Morris Dees, the founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Seadrift’s only female shrimper and soon-to-become renowned environmental activist, Diane Wilson.
The author does a masterful job of pulling together the many threads of this story and manages to make it read in places like a riveting true crime tale. He follows all of the key players to the end in a detailed epilogue. My only complaint is that, while he mentions that not all residents of Seadrift supported the abolishment of the Vietnamese and the town council voted against bringing in the KKK, this was easy to miss. I feel that, in fairness, he might have stressed it a bit more.
One aspect of the story has to do with the backlash against Vietnamese refugees who settled along the water in small fishing towns like Seadrift, using their pooled resources to purchase trawlers and assist each other into the shrimping and crabbing business. This centuries-old system, known as hui to the Vietnamese, sounded dangerously like communism to the fiercely independent local fishermen. As resentments built, intimidation tactics toward the Vietnamese escalated. Nets were cut, boats were burned, and, ultimately a shooting occurred, marking the first murder in Seadrift’s history. It wasn’t long before the Ku Klux Klan arrived in Seadrift to buffer the cause. It arrived in the form of the Grand Dragon of the Texas Klan, a Vietnam War veteran named Louis Beam, who recruited and rallied the locals.
But the real enemy was being ignored. At the same time the local fisherman were preoccupied with the Vietnamese, the marine life in the bays was dying off or showing up with bizarre mutations. Huge crude oil spills and off shore petrochemical plants that were dumping toxins into the water and air threatened life and livelihood. This second aspect of the story evolved into a long standing battle for environmental protection, bringing to the fight Morris Dees, the founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Seadrift’s only female shrimper and soon-to-become renowned environmental activist, Diane Wilson.
The author does a masterful job of pulling together the many threads of this story and manages to make it read in places like a riveting true crime tale. He follows all of the key players to the end in a detailed epilogue. My only complaint is that, while he mentions that not all residents of Seadrift supported the abolishment of the Vietnamese and the town council voted against bringing in the KKK, this was easy to miss. I feel that, in fairness, he might have stressed it a bit more.
July 28, 2023
Amazing!! I never even knew any of this happened and it was literally down the street from me.
The real enemy of corporate greed that was pushed aside in favor of bigotry and racism and xenophobia. Misguided hatred as an excuse to perpetuate white supremacy. This book was so well-researched and well informed.
Everything in this book was so connected over decades and it was wild to see how connected so much is.
The real enemy of corporate greed that was pushed aside in favor of bigotry and racism and xenophobia. Misguided hatred as an excuse to perpetuate white supremacy. This book was so well-researched and well informed.
Everything in this book was so connected over decades and it was wild to see how connected so much is.
May 1, 2023
note The author capitalizes White throughout his book, I have done the same thing here.
Weaving over 30 years of social unrest on the Gulf Coast of Texas, Kirk Wallace Johnson writes a compelling story.
In the 1970's an influx of refuges from Vietnam were relocated to the coast of Texas. The fishing in the gulf had begun to suffer and the White fishermen immediately blamed the new residents. Hate, and violence ensued. At this same time, petrochemical companies filled the air and water with dangerous chemicals. The White fishermen never tying the loss of sea life to the dumping (or simply happy with blaming the foreigner). The native Texans wanted the Vietnamese off their waters. Not getting any satisfaction from the government they brought in the KKK. Rallies were held, the National Guard was called in and terror for the Viet fishermen and anyone that tried to help them reigned supreme.
During this same time a local shrimper noticed the deformation of sea life. Diane Wilson saw the anti-Vietnam fishers as damned fools. The petrochemical industry was destroying their livelihood, not the Vietnamese. It took Wilson decades of self protest to finally get some results. To this day she is still active in keeping the waters safe.
Johnson did his research and wrote another great book about a part of history I knew nothing about.
Weaving over 30 years of social unrest on the Gulf Coast of Texas, Kirk Wallace Johnson writes a compelling story.
In the 1970's an influx of refuges from Vietnam were relocated to the coast of Texas. The fishing in the gulf had begun to suffer and the White fishermen immediately blamed the new residents. Hate, and violence ensued. At this same time, petrochemical companies filled the air and water with dangerous chemicals. The White fishermen never tying the loss of sea life to the dumping (or simply happy with blaming the foreigner). The native Texans wanted the Vietnamese off their waters. Not getting any satisfaction from the government they brought in the KKK. Rallies were held, the National Guard was called in and terror for the Viet fishermen and anyone that tried to help them reigned supreme.
During this same time a local shrimper noticed the deformation of sea life. Diane Wilson saw the anti-Vietnam fishers as damned fools. The petrochemical industry was destroying their livelihood, not the Vietnamese. It took Wilson decades of self protest to finally get some results. To this day she is still active in keeping the waters safe.
Johnson did his research and wrote another great book about a part of history I knew nothing about.
November 23, 2025
After being completely surprised and absorbed by The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century, I knew I wanted to read more from Kirk Wallace Johnson. But diving into The Fishermen and the Dragon felt like something I needed the right moment for — because this story revolves around so much hatred, prejudice, and violence that I knew it wouldn’t be a casual reading experience.
I listened to the audiobook, and there’s a choice the narrator or producers made that initially bothered me: all derogatory and racist slurs are bleeped out. At first it struck me as a kind of censorship, but once I settled into the book, the bleeps became unexpectedly effective. They were jarring every single time, and because you can’t “get used” to the disruption, it forces you to stay alert to the ugliness of the language without ever normalizing it. I ended up appreciating that choice far more than I expected.
The book itself is essentially two parallel stories: the escalating conflict between newly resettled Vietnamese immigrants and white fishermen on the Texas Gulf Coast — a conflict the KKK quickly exploits for its own agenda — and an environmental crisis story that feels ripped straight from the early pages of an Erin Brockovich case file. Both are compelling on their own. The racism-driven violence is horrifying, and the corporate environmental destruction is infuriating. But I’m not entirely convinced Johnson fully melds these threads together. It also struck me as odd that the environmental story doesn’t even get a nod in the title, which only highlights how unevenly the two halves sit beside each other. At times, they feel like two separate books nudging each other for space, and I’m not sure either storyline gets the complete arc it deserves.
Still, this remains an eye-opening and deeply researched narrative. Johnson pulls from decades of interviews, case files, and sealed records to reconstruct a forgotten chapter of history — one that feels disturbingly relevant. Even when the two halves didn’t completely meld for me, I was invested the entire time.
I’ll definitely continue to return to Johnson’s work. He has a way of digging into true stories that are stranger, darker, and more complex than fiction — and making you sit with them long after you close the book.
I listened to the audiobook, and there’s a choice the narrator or producers made that initially bothered me: all derogatory and racist slurs are bleeped out. At first it struck me as a kind of censorship, but once I settled into the book, the bleeps became unexpectedly effective. They were jarring every single time, and because you can’t “get used” to the disruption, it forces you to stay alert to the ugliness of the language without ever normalizing it. I ended up appreciating that choice far more than I expected.
The book itself is essentially two parallel stories: the escalating conflict between newly resettled Vietnamese immigrants and white fishermen on the Texas Gulf Coast — a conflict the KKK quickly exploits for its own agenda — and an environmental crisis story that feels ripped straight from the early pages of an Erin Brockovich case file. Both are compelling on their own. The racism-driven violence is horrifying, and the corporate environmental destruction is infuriating. But I’m not entirely convinced Johnson fully melds these threads together. It also struck me as odd that the environmental story doesn’t even get a nod in the title, which only highlights how unevenly the two halves sit beside each other. At times, they feel like two separate books nudging each other for space, and I’m not sure either storyline gets the complete arc it deserves.
Still, this remains an eye-opening and deeply researched narrative. Johnson pulls from decades of interviews, case files, and sealed records to reconstruct a forgotten chapter of history — one that feels disturbingly relevant. Even when the two halves didn’t completely meld for me, I was invested the entire time.
I’ll definitely continue to return to Johnson’s work. He has a way of digging into true stories that are stranger, darker, and more complex than fiction — and making you sit with them long after you close the book.
February 23, 2025
" While White shrimpers were burning crosses and menacing Vietnamese fishermen, Wilson was clearing out room in her freezer to store new mutations that turned up in the daily catch. People close to her were getting cancer, well before their time."
This is an extremely well researched book. It actually could have been written and marketed as two books under one cover. Even with that comment I still need to rate this powerful read a 5.
The first part of the book was heart wrenching. Taking place in the 1970's and 80's Vietnamese shrimpers in a small town on the gulf coast of Texas were terrorized by White (this is how the author presented the word) shrimpers. The Klu Klux Klan were brought in to scare the Vietnamese to leave not only the fishing waters but their homes as well.
The second part is a tribute to Diane Wilson, a brave one woman army who fought the very large corporations that were polluting the waters and bringing disease to the surrounding communities. With virtually no one backing her she used many unusual ways to bring attention to the plight of the fishermen, seafood and fishes and communities which were being damaged by chemicals illegally dumped in the waters. Wilson went on several hunger strikes including one that lasted 30 days. With a read of this book you will follow her decades long battle.
This book aids us in remembering that we need to remember all peoples should be treated equally as well as we need keep our land and waters clean by any and all means possible.
This is an extremely well researched book. It actually could have been written and marketed as two books under one cover. Even with that comment I still need to rate this powerful read a 5.
The first part of the book was heart wrenching. Taking place in the 1970's and 80's Vietnamese shrimpers in a small town on the gulf coast of Texas were terrorized by White (this is how the author presented the word) shrimpers. The Klu Klux Klan were brought in to scare the Vietnamese to leave not only the fishing waters but their homes as well.
The second part is a tribute to Diane Wilson, a brave one woman army who fought the very large corporations that were polluting the waters and bringing disease to the surrounding communities. With virtually no one backing her she used many unusual ways to bring attention to the plight of the fishermen, seafood and fishes and communities which were being damaged by chemicals illegally dumped in the waters. Wilson went on several hunger strikes including one that lasted 30 days. With a read of this book you will follow her decades long battle.
This book aids us in remembering that we need to remember all peoples should be treated equally as well as we need keep our land and waters clean by any and all means possible.
October 23, 2022
5 stars - an incredible work of non-fiction that reads like a novel. Kudos to Kirk W. Johnson for his meticulous and even-handed research of events that apparently did not appear on my radar when they were happening - even though most of this happened in the town in which I grew up (Seabrook, Texas).
After the Viet Nam War, the U.S. government resettled thousands of Vietnamese refugees. Some, who had a background in fishing, were resettled along the Texas Gulf Coast. The Vietnamese stuck together and worked as a community to build their shrimping business, but the whites who had been shrimping these waters for decades felt threatened. The Vietnamese worked harder and longer, and were soon much more successful than the white shrimpers. Anger and resentment grew, and the KKK got involved, because the only way to fix this problem was to make the Vietnamese people leave. And leave they almost did, until a famous lawyer, Morris Dees, from the Southern Poverty Law Center, got involved.
Alongside the story of the Vietnamese shrimpers is the story of the selling out of the coastal lands to the petrochemical industries who were destroying the waters. This is really two deep-dive research stories combined into one book, but yet, the two stories and the plight of the Texas Gulf Coast is deeply connected.
According to Johnson's website, there will be a limited TV series of this book through Paramount TV. I cannot wait!
After the Viet Nam War, the U.S. government resettled thousands of Vietnamese refugees. Some, who had a background in fishing, were resettled along the Texas Gulf Coast. The Vietnamese stuck together and worked as a community to build their shrimping business, but the whites who had been shrimping these waters for decades felt threatened. The Vietnamese worked harder and longer, and were soon much more successful than the white shrimpers. Anger and resentment grew, and the KKK got involved, because the only way to fix this problem was to make the Vietnamese people leave. And leave they almost did, until a famous lawyer, Morris Dees, from the Southern Poverty Law Center, got involved.
Alongside the story of the Vietnamese shrimpers is the story of the selling out of the coastal lands to the petrochemical industries who were destroying the waters. This is really two deep-dive research stories combined into one book, but yet, the two stories and the plight of the Texas Gulf Coast is deeply connected.
According to Johnson's website, there will be a limited TV series of this book through Paramount TV. I cannot wait!
May 18, 2023
I would give this 4.5 stars if I could. The only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is because I feel like it could have been two books; one about the issues with the KKK (yeugh) and the Vietnamese fisherman, and one about the Diane Wilson and her fight for the environment.
February 26, 2023
The Klu Klux Klan terrorized immigrant Vietnamese fisherman in Galveston Bay, Texas back in the 1970s. They used tactics that you would expect from such an evil group - burning boats, making death threats. Sometimes newcomers to the US understand their endowed rights better than those who were born here. The Vietnamese fought back valiantly. The Klan eventually slunk off into obscurity.
A larger threat to the Bay that continues today is the massive pollution of its waters by large chemical plants located on shore. Diane Wilson, a part time shrimper, mother of five kids, and wife of a no account, unemployed man stepped into the role of a heroine. She brought the issue into some prominence among her friends and neighbors and briefly annoyed the polluting behemoth corporations.
It's a book, written with passion, that will make you angry which is usually a good thing.
A larger threat to the Bay that continues today is the massive pollution of its waters by large chemical plants located on shore. Diane Wilson, a part time shrimper, mother of five kids, and wife of a no account, unemployed man stepped into the role of a heroine. She brought the issue into some prominence among her friends and neighbors and briefly annoyed the polluting behemoth corporations.
It's a book, written with passion, that will make you angry which is usually a good thing.
May 1, 2023
Absolutely infuriating that corporations continue to be allowed to wreck our environments, and also that growing up literally down the street from where this book takes place, I knew nothing about this piece of history.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who lives in the Galveston/Seabrook/Kemah/Houston area.
Truly an incredible read that you won't be able to put down.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who lives in the Galveston/Seabrook/Kemah/Houston area.
Truly an incredible read that you won't be able to put down.
September 11, 2022
Parts of this book were totally amazing and jaw dropping. Parts made me so angry I wanted to scream at the injustice and awfulness. In the end there was even a limited resolution that brought a tiny ray of light to the blackness, but for 50 years this situation has not significantly changed, and certainly is far from any sort of acceptable resolution. In fact the corruption, hypocrisy, lying and illegal activity seems to have ebbed and flowed at best, but never left. Ultimately this book made me VERY angry, sad and hopeless.
Having read and enjoyed Kirk Wallace Johnson's first best selling book " The Feather Thief" I was looking forward to a great story. It was, in a way, but it was also so big, so filled with injustice, hate, evil, corruption and horrid behavior it was impossible for me to get my head around it.
The stories were just TOO BIG!!!!! Post Vietnam immigration into Texas in the 1970's was itself a watershed of bad behavior and toxic choices by so many people. Add the element of the struggling crab and shrimp industries, ties to the Texas coast...being slowly and legally polluted into cancerous oblivion by corporations like Dow, Dupont, Alcoa, Union Carbide and Formosa, a huge Chinese conglomerate...as well as others and the Oil companies as well. But the cry of Texans was that they brought jobs, But at a Horrid cost in the long run. The corporations orchestrated HUGE tax cuts and ignored any pollution controls for decades, driving the Gulf to become a cesspool of filth and death.
Add to all this was the hated KKK......the arrogant and evil brotherhood of white supremacists who spread their filthy ideas with fear and intimidation. They insinuated themselves into an already
impossible dilemma, deliberately instigating trouble, racism and death. The characters involved were so hateful and repugnant it was difficult to separate that bile from the story. Their antics and rhetoric were always one step above the law, just legal enough to hide behind the First Amendment while burning, looting, hurting and terrorizing other people and trampling all of their rights.
I think what bothered me about the story was the seriousness of it, the HUGE SCOPE of all these issues and then trying to tell a story that big in a quick 300 pages was just a skim coat or frustration. There were 2 issues really that somehow got connected in the story, despite being only loosely connected over the 50 plus years. The Vietnamese immigration and the KKK were at the start of the law suits against the polluters, but it was a broad stroke to try to tell the story of BOTH simultaneously. It struck me a bit like trying to climb Mount Everest and K 2 at the same time.
So the book was good, But it HURT...... literally. It hurt every aspect of my soul and I hated the players and the horrid bad actions of so so many. Even though the KKK has diminished in scope, right now there is ample reason to fear for our Democracy. There is no end. Corporate greed, our unwavering love of money as a GOD....as everything.....and the ability of injustice to twist and convolute the Constitution for evil, racist hateful behaviors astounds me.
We have clearly destroyed much of our planet in the name of money, wealth, jobs and power. This book clearly illustrates that and offers a slim ray of hope, but not much, not much at all.
Having read and enjoyed Kirk Wallace Johnson's first best selling book " The Feather Thief" I was looking forward to a great story. It was, in a way, but it was also so big, so filled with injustice, hate, evil, corruption and horrid behavior it was impossible for me to get my head around it.
The stories were just TOO BIG!!!!! Post Vietnam immigration into Texas in the 1970's was itself a watershed of bad behavior and toxic choices by so many people. Add the element of the struggling crab and shrimp industries, ties to the Texas coast...being slowly and legally polluted into cancerous oblivion by corporations like Dow, Dupont, Alcoa, Union Carbide and Formosa, a huge Chinese conglomerate...as well as others and the Oil companies as well. But the cry of Texans was that they brought jobs, But at a Horrid cost in the long run. The corporations orchestrated HUGE tax cuts and ignored any pollution controls for decades, driving the Gulf to become a cesspool of filth and death.
Add to all this was the hated KKK......the arrogant and evil brotherhood of white supremacists who spread their filthy ideas with fear and intimidation. They insinuated themselves into an already
impossible dilemma, deliberately instigating trouble, racism and death. The characters involved were so hateful and repugnant it was difficult to separate that bile from the story. Their antics and rhetoric were always one step above the law, just legal enough to hide behind the First Amendment while burning, looting, hurting and terrorizing other people and trampling all of their rights.
I think what bothered me about the story was the seriousness of it, the HUGE SCOPE of all these issues and then trying to tell a story that big in a quick 300 pages was just a skim coat or frustration. There were 2 issues really that somehow got connected in the story, despite being only loosely connected over the 50 plus years. The Vietnamese immigration and the KKK were at the start of the law suits against the polluters, but it was a broad stroke to try to tell the story of BOTH simultaneously. It struck me a bit like trying to climb Mount Everest and K 2 at the same time.
So the book was good, But it HURT...... literally. It hurt every aspect of my soul and I hated the players and the horrid bad actions of so so many. Even though the KKK has diminished in scope, right now there is ample reason to fear for our Democracy. There is no end. Corporate greed, our unwavering love of money as a GOD....as everything.....and the ability of injustice to twist and convolute the Constitution for evil, racist hateful behaviors astounds me.
We have clearly destroyed much of our planet in the name of money, wealth, jobs and power. This book clearly illustrates that and offers a slim ray of hope, but not much, not much at all.
May 22, 2022
Another riveting read from Kirk Wallace Johnson. Here, racial animosity, prejudices and hatred that White fishermen have for Vietnamese fishermen, is on full display. And, one can see the playbook of conspiracy theories and disinformation continue into today. Basically, nothing has changed, other than the targets of White grievances. What tied it all together is the environmental impact of the big companies, polluting the waters and causing health issues for the residents of the area. The author has delved deeply into court records, newspapers and interviews to give a full and complete picture about what happened down on the Texas Gulf Coast. This work of narrative non-fiction will be enjoyed by readers of Patrick Radden Keefe, Jonathan Harr, Paige Williams, Susan Orlean, Clint Smith and Isabel Wilkerson.
I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.
I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.
September 13, 2022
Kirk Wallace Johnson weaves together dozens of historical events during the assimilation of Vietnamese refugees into the shrimping industry of Galveston Bay after the Vietnam War. The book reads like a novel. I enjoyed the courtroom drama and description of KKK events more than the second half of the book devoted to one woman's fight against Formosa, a super-polluter of the shrimp and oyster waters. The issues were presented fairly, without political or environmental bias from the author. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Gulf Coast seafood industry and environmental issues.
October 22, 2022
Vietnam war refugees meet small town America and both meet big industry. Told from first hand accounts of the Vietnamese Americans, the small town residents/workers and the KKK, this book unintentionally (?) draws scary parallels to todays Trump era. Though that is never even mentioned, it was revelatory to hear the same verbiage of todays far right echoing that of the KKK in southern Texas against these refugees!
September 23, 2022
This book has a cast of characters - redneck shrimpers, Vietnamese refugees, a Ku Klux Klan grand dragon, a working-class woman tilting at windmills, founder of the SPLC, and too many money grubbing, corrupt Tx politicians and corporate leaders to count - who make for a gripping, terrible tale along the Texas gulf coast.
November 12, 2022
3 1/2. I'm not a huge non-fiction fan and while parts of the story were riveting and outrageous, it was hard work to read it. Also felt like two separate stories happening with just the tenuous link of the Vietnamese.
May 24, 2025
It was well written and I enjoyed it. I don't think the book spent enough time on the Vietnamese experience or the issues of racial violence and ideology.
My real issue is that the author bleeped slurs in the audio book, which is a choice I find deeply ignorant and bigoted against blind people. Here is an email I sent the author about this issue. He never responded. I shouldn't have been so nice, I was hoping he would actually engage with me. Fuck him.
"Hi Kirk,
I recently picked up your book The Fisherman and the Dragon because I am a scholar of White supremacy and the history you cover in this text is underdiscussed. However, I quickly chose not to read this book because of your choice to bleep slurs in the audiobook. Since you were so thoughtful in your consideration of when to use slurs I thought you might be interested in why I find the choice to bleep slurs unacceptable, because it is probably not something you have considered.
The primary purpose of audiobooks is accessibility for disabled people who cannot read traditional print books (blind and low vision people, people with dyslexia and other learning disabilities). By refusing to allow slurs to be read but allowing them to be written you are denying information to disabled people while giving it to non disabled people, which is a form of discrimination. Specifically, censoring of language for disabled people but not for other audiences is a form of infantilization. This issue most commonly impacts the d/Deaf community when captions are censored but profanity is spoken.*
Removal of profanity is a serious issue because it can impact comprehension. For example, in your book I probably don’t know all the slurs the Klan was using for Vietnamese people in the 70/80s, but I would like to know in case some of those words are being used in the present day. I also might not be able to tell which group is being spoken about derogatorily if the slurs are bleeped.
Lastly, your contention that it is worse to hear a slur spoken than to read it is not a widely accepted idea either in academia or social justice spaces. It is certainly not true for people whose only experience with slurs is through speech or screen readers. I strongly believe that equitable access to information should come before the feelings of a non disabled audience.
Thank you for taking the time to consider what I have to say. Obviously you can’t go back and rerecord the audiobook, but I hope you will prioritize accessibility in your future work.
Best,
Alex
P.S. After expressing my frustration, I’m going to read the book after all :)
*{Here is an article if you want to learn more about the fight against censorship:
Cameron, K. (2025). Contesting Captions: Netflix, Fan Campaigns, and the Labor of Access. Television & New Media. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476425131...
The section “Queer Eye and Caption Quality” discusses the issue of profanity and why advocates fight for its inclusion.}"
My real issue is that the author bleeped slurs in the audio book, which is a choice I find deeply ignorant and bigoted against blind people. Here is an email I sent the author about this issue. He never responded. I shouldn't have been so nice, I was hoping he would actually engage with me. Fuck him.
"Hi Kirk,
I recently picked up your book The Fisherman and the Dragon because I am a scholar of White supremacy and the history you cover in this text is underdiscussed. However, I quickly chose not to read this book because of your choice to bleep slurs in the audiobook. Since you were so thoughtful in your consideration of when to use slurs I thought you might be interested in why I find the choice to bleep slurs unacceptable, because it is probably not something you have considered.
The primary purpose of audiobooks is accessibility for disabled people who cannot read traditional print books (blind and low vision people, people with dyslexia and other learning disabilities). By refusing to allow slurs to be read but allowing them to be written you are denying information to disabled people while giving it to non disabled people, which is a form of discrimination. Specifically, censoring of language for disabled people but not for other audiences is a form of infantilization. This issue most commonly impacts the d/Deaf community when captions are censored but profanity is spoken.*
Removal of profanity is a serious issue because it can impact comprehension. For example, in your book I probably don’t know all the slurs the Klan was using for Vietnamese people in the 70/80s, but I would like to know in case some of those words are being used in the present day. I also might not be able to tell which group is being spoken about derogatorily if the slurs are bleeped.
Lastly, your contention that it is worse to hear a slur spoken than to read it is not a widely accepted idea either in academia or social justice spaces. It is certainly not true for people whose only experience with slurs is through speech or screen readers. I strongly believe that equitable access to information should come before the feelings of a non disabled audience.
Thank you for taking the time to consider what I have to say. Obviously you can’t go back and rerecord the audiobook, but I hope you will prioritize accessibility in your future work.
Best,
Alex
P.S. After expressing my frustration, I’m going to read the book after all :)
*{Here is an article if you want to learn more about the fight against censorship:
Cameron, K. (2025). Contesting Captions: Netflix, Fan Campaigns, and the Labor of Access. Television & New Media. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476425131...
The section “Queer Eye and Caption Quality” discusses the issue of profanity and why advocates fight for its inclusion.}"
March 14, 2023
This is really a book with two intertwined threads, both of them set on the Texas Gulf coast within roughly the same timeframe, beginning in the early 1980's.
The first narrative begins with the end of the Vietnam war and the resettlement of refugees along the Texas Gulf coast. The story's focus is on the bayside towns of Kemah and Seabrook, an area where I grew up. The Vietnamese were fishermen and shrimpers in their home country, and soon began to apply their trade in their new home. White shrimpers along the coast were highly pissed off that these 'undeserving immigrants' (they were called much worse) were encroaching on 'their territory'. It got crazy enough that the KKK showed up. Soon thereafter Vietnamese boats were set on fire, and many in the community were scared and ready to leave the area. Legal actions were set in motion, with a very interesting cast of characters involved.
The second thread tells the story of one local woman's crusade against the gigantic chemical companies that proliferated along the coast at that time. She was a poor shrimper trying to raise a family but began to increasingly notice that much of her catch was deformed. Convinced it was due to the pollution from the plants and the frequent oil spills along the bay, she began a very unpopular campaign to try to force reforms.
It is absolutely infuriating and heartbreaking to read about the destruction of the Gulf Coast's marine life and ecosystem because of the behemoth petrochemical plants that dumped enormous amounts of poisons into the water and air. And because these companies provided jobs and goodies for the impoverished local communities, their recklessness was disregarded, both by the town citizens and the Texas politicians. It is staggering the amount of damage done. And I suspect that many of the same abuses still take place today.
The Vietnamese/White drama came to the fore a couple of years after I left the area, so I really had no idea about any of the drama. But we certainly lived with the pollution in the Galveston Bay and the Houston ship channel.
This is a fascinating study of white supremacy, immigrant struggles in America, and corporate greed and malfeasance. Close to 5-stars, and highly recommended.
The first narrative begins with the end of the Vietnam war and the resettlement of refugees along the Texas Gulf coast. The story's focus is on the bayside towns of Kemah and Seabrook, an area where I grew up. The Vietnamese were fishermen and shrimpers in their home country, and soon began to apply their trade in their new home. White shrimpers along the coast were highly pissed off that these 'undeserving immigrants' (they were called much worse) were encroaching on 'their territory'. It got crazy enough that the KKK showed up. Soon thereafter Vietnamese boats were set on fire, and many in the community were scared and ready to leave the area. Legal actions were set in motion, with a very interesting cast of characters involved.
The second thread tells the story of one local woman's crusade against the gigantic chemical companies that proliferated along the coast at that time. She was a poor shrimper trying to raise a family but began to increasingly notice that much of her catch was deformed. Convinced it was due to the pollution from the plants and the frequent oil spills along the bay, she began a very unpopular campaign to try to force reforms.
It is absolutely infuriating and heartbreaking to read about the destruction of the Gulf Coast's marine life and ecosystem because of the behemoth petrochemical plants that dumped enormous amounts of poisons into the water and air. And because these companies provided jobs and goodies for the impoverished local communities, their recklessness was disregarded, both by the town citizens and the Texas politicians. It is staggering the amount of damage done. And I suspect that many of the same abuses still take place today.
The Vietnamese/White drama came to the fore a couple of years after I left the area, so I really had no idea about any of the drama. But we certainly lived with the pollution in the Galveston Bay and the Houston ship channel.
This is a fascinating study of white supremacy, immigrant struggles in America, and corporate greed and malfeasance. Close to 5-stars, and highly recommended.
October 14, 2022
Great non-fiction narrative and fascinating history that was mostly new to me. Johnson manages to weave together a number of social challenges on the Gulf Coast. In the late 70's the fishing and shrimping "industry" of local independent fisherman were struggling. Many of the problems stemmed from climate change and polluted waters from oil spills to toxic waste dumps local chemical and plastic companies. The local fisherman decided to target a challenge that the could see and attempt to control- the recent influx of Vietnamese fisherman fleeing the violence and conflict in Vietnam. Misunderstandings with language and culture lead to violence to each other and their property and an invite to the Grand Dragon and KKK to scare away the new competition. In a landmark case that really made a name for the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Vietnamese sued for a right to fish in the gulf coast without harassment.
Johnson extends the history beyond the lawsuit to circle back to the environmental crimes against the Gulf Coast and another landmark court case against the biggest offenders. It also continued the story of the KKK in the area and a somewhat sullied story of the founders of the SPLC. I had no idea and will need to look further into their current status.
My heart goes out to the Gulf Coast community as a whole. I don't agree with many of the choices they made but I can't imagine watching your home and family being poisoned to thoroughly and losing all the social benefits that would come from taxes that were waived. The area was the most polluted in the US for years and will have lasting affects through generations.
Johnson extends the history beyond the lawsuit to circle back to the environmental crimes against the Gulf Coast and another landmark court case against the biggest offenders. It also continued the story of the KKK in the area and a somewhat sullied story of the founders of the SPLC. I had no idea and will need to look further into their current status.
My heart goes out to the Gulf Coast community as a whole. I don't agree with many of the choices they made but I can't imagine watching your home and family being poisoned to thoroughly and losing all the social benefits that would come from taxes that were waived. The area was the most polluted in the US for years and will have lasting affects through generations.
January 8, 2023
Do not pass go, go straight to Free Parking… whatever the right Monopoly analogy is it translates to - READ THIS BOOK!!
This superb book is a follow up to Johnson’s stunning debut “The Feather Thief”…. Which is another must read effort. While the topics are very different, the style is the same - deeply researched, crisply written and moving at a brisk “who done it?” pace.
I heard an interview with the author on NPR’s “Fresh Air” and so knew the basic framework - Vietnamese refugees arrive in the region in the late 70s and begin to catch crab and shrimp in the Texas gulf region. Longtime local “white” fisherman do not like this and conflict ensues. This conflict eventually includes the KKK and the media. In general, the Vietnamese are portrayed as hard working, plucky settlers trying to carve out a life in this new world. One could say they are a perfect example of chasing “the American dream”. In the meantime most of the locals (but not all) are portrayed as xenophobic bigots…. One could say they are trying to “preserve the American dream” as long as it is for Americans first. There are many memorable characters all around and I would not be surprised at all if this book were made into a movie.
The last section of the book was not really referenced in the NPR episode and that is the environmental impact of the large petrochemical plants sprouting up all along the gulf coast. While the core fight is “white vs Vietnamese” the real antagonist is a bevy of heavily polluting companies being wooed to Texas for their jobs which pay multiples of a shrimpers income. There is a fascinating “Erin Brockovich” type segment which concludes the book.
In summary - Johnson has delivered two staggeringly good books in very short order. If you read primarily non-fiction you will be in hog heaven with both of them. If you read primarily fiction give this a try - you will be spellbound by a truth is stranger than fiction read.
This superb book is a follow up to Johnson’s stunning debut “The Feather Thief”…. Which is another must read effort. While the topics are very different, the style is the same - deeply researched, crisply written and moving at a brisk “who done it?” pace.
I heard an interview with the author on NPR’s “Fresh Air” and so knew the basic framework - Vietnamese refugees arrive in the region in the late 70s and begin to catch crab and shrimp in the Texas gulf region. Longtime local “white” fisherman do not like this and conflict ensues. This conflict eventually includes the KKK and the media. In general, the Vietnamese are portrayed as hard working, plucky settlers trying to carve out a life in this new world. One could say they are a perfect example of chasing “the American dream”. In the meantime most of the locals (but not all) are portrayed as xenophobic bigots…. One could say they are trying to “preserve the American dream” as long as it is for Americans first. There are many memorable characters all around and I would not be surprised at all if this book were made into a movie.
The last section of the book was not really referenced in the NPR episode and that is the environmental impact of the large petrochemical plants sprouting up all along the gulf coast. While the core fight is “white vs Vietnamese” the real antagonist is a bevy of heavily polluting companies being wooed to Texas for their jobs which pay multiples of a shrimpers income. There is a fascinating “Erin Brockovich” type segment which concludes the book.
In summary - Johnson has delivered two staggeringly good books in very short order. If you read primarily non-fiction you will be in hog heaven with both of them. If you read primarily fiction give this a try - you will be spellbound by a truth is stranger than fiction read.
January 4, 2024
This book was recommended to me on Libby as the Harris County Library’s pick for 2023. I have lived close to the area detailed in the book nearly my whole life. I have gone fishing in the bays, visited Kemah and Seabrook, spent days on the beach at Galveston Bay, and driven through stinky Pasadena numerous times. It opened my eyes to the somewhat unknown history of those areas, and the resulting issues still affecting them today. I found the book to be really well-researched and detailed. I also appreciated how the epilogue went back and discussed where many of the main characters ended up 30-40 years after the key events from the book. Especially in light of the changing attitudes today towards refugees, involvement in the KKK, and environmental concerns. Great read, I’m glad I happened to come across this book!
January 15, 2024
I would’ve easily given this book five stars except that the author lost his way towards the end. He should’ve wrapped it up with what happened with the Vietnamese fishers. Instead, he added a new topic of toxic environmental waste that would’ve been better told as a separate book.
Up until that point, it was pretty riveting and even the epilogue was great to read. But that boy in between that took place many years after the lawsuit against the KKK had no correlation to the clear xenophobia against the Vietnamese. The fact that the factory centered on your second portion was from Taiwan felt completely unrelated given it had nothing to do with xenophobia.
Highly recommend the book anyway. It was almost five stars!, and I really appreciated learning the history of the Southern Poverty Law Center (and was so glad I never donated a penny to it myself).
Up until that point, it was pretty riveting and even the epilogue was great to read. But that boy in between that took place many years after the lawsuit against the KKK had no correlation to the clear xenophobia against the Vietnamese. The fact that the factory centered on your second portion was from Taiwan felt completely unrelated given it had nothing to do with xenophobia.
Highly recommend the book anyway. It was almost five stars!, and I really appreciated learning the history of the Southern Poverty Law Center (and was so glad I never donated a penny to it myself).
December 18, 2022
I listened to this on audiobook. The book reads like a True Crime story. Very well researched and interesting. I finished it in 2 days! True story about the Seabrook community in the 80’s and 90’s, how the Vietnamese fishermen were treated and the environmental activists that worked to protect Galveston Bay. VERY insightful and indicative of how issues we fight today happen, what happens to communities when biggots are not challenged and corporations are allowed to make money without regulation.
September 15, 2023
This is the first Kirk Wallace Johnson book I've read. The Fisherman and the Dragon starts with corporate pollution impacting shrimping along the Gulf Coast of Texas, tells a powerful story of racism, the Vietnamese fisherman blamed, white supremacy and the KKK in the 1970s, then returns to the environmental impact bringing us to the present. The two are connected, but it's almost two stories, and the environmental sections felt rushed.
July 21, 2024
This book tackled a lot: the Vietnam War and immigration; the KKK and white supremacy; the fight between white and Vietnamese fishermen; pollution of the Texas coast; the fight for positive environmental change. Despite all these very complicated and complex topics, KWJ did an excellent job relaying the events into a cohesive work that was an interesting and informative read. I hope he continues to write more!
January 26, 2025
2.5⭐️
The ending of this book was much more engaging than the middle. The beginning I really enjoyed but I think I read it too methodically because I thought I’d need to keep careful track of the characters but then I didn’t. Anyways, I enjoyed the book and it was cool to learn about this period of history on the Gulf Coast.
The ending of this book was much more engaging than the middle. The beginning I really enjoyed but I think I read it too methodically because I thought I’d need to keep careful track of the characters but then I didn’t. Anyways, I enjoyed the book and it was cool to learn about this period of history on the Gulf Coast.
April 26, 2025
Very frustrating story of an area I know very little about, had to take it in chunks. Very well written & researched, and I appreciate how thoughtful the author was with how to tell the story: I've never heard slurs being beeped out in an audiobook, and I appreciate it as a way to show when they were used without subjecting people to the actual words.
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