The Fishermen and the Dragon Quotes

“This town is my town!' replied Billy Joe, though he'd come only a few years before Sau. 'This land is my land! This house is my house!”
― Kirk Wallace Johnson, The Fishermen and the Dragon: Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast

“Unlike White Seadrifters who had access to bank loans, the Vietnamese, many of whom struggled to speak English or make sense of the paperwork, were effectively sealed off from the usual sources of capital. What they had to their advantage, though, was a centuries-old system known as hui, which functioned as a private loan club. All members of the club contributed their earnings to a pool, which was then distributed to a single family each month on a rotating basis. No paperwork or lawyers were required; the system was bound by trust and intense stigma if a member failed to pay his share on time. Through the hui, a Vietnamese family could get enough money overnight to put a down payment on a boat or buy it outright, to the bewilderment of the Whites selling them the boats, often at an exorbitant markup. Where were the Vietnamese, crammed into trailers and working for peanuts at the plant, getting all this money? Rumors started to spread among White fishermen about a secret government program giving refugees interest-free loans. They were increasingly convinced that the government, which existed to them in the form of Parks and Wildlife agents inspecting their boats and catch – oftentimes writing tickets – was out to get them: perhaps the resettlement of Vietnamese refugees was part of some deeper plot.”
― Kirk Wallace Johnson, The Fishermen and the Dragon: Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast