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Note: This article contains spoilers.<\/em><\/p>\n During the first half-hour of \u201cSinners,\u201d hundreds of thoughts rushed through my mind, ranging from how gorgeous Miles Caton\u2019s (debut) voice is to wondering how they seamlessly shot Michael B. Jordan (\u201cCreed III\u201d) passing a cigarette to himself. But the thing that stuck out to me the most was the appearance of Bo (Yao, \u201c#LookAtMe\u201d) and Grace (Li Jun Li, \u201cBabylon\u201d) in the film; an Asian American shopkeeping couple in the Deep South. As an Asian American, my personal knowledge of the Asian American diaspora in the early 20th century consisted of the large<\/a> communities on the West Coast of the United States \u2014 not anywhere near Clarksdale, Mississippi. After the film ended, I did some research and discovered that Chinese Americans really did have a presence<\/a> in the Mississippi Delta at that time.<\/p>\n The spread of Chinese Americans to the Mississippi Delta area began in the late 19th century<\/a>, as white plantation owners used newly immigrated workers to pick cotton in a similar manner to the recently freed Black slaves. Over time, these Chinese communities began opening their own businesses \u2014 grocery stores \u2014 in the area, serving both white and Black customers. But still, the Chinese Americans in these Mississippi Delta communities found themselves in limbo; they were not Black, but they were not white either. They were stuck in this awkward middle. This overlooked community played a vital role in small towns across the South, and as such, director Ryan Coogler (\u201cCreed III\u201d) includes them in \u201cSinners,\u201d providing meaningful, historically accurate representation. Coogler even went so far as recruiting Dolly Li, a documentarian on Asian American history, as a historical consultant in depicting the Chinese American community for the film.\u00a0<\/p>\n During the climax of \u201cSinners,\u201d an Asian American character takes center stage. In the scene, vampires surround all sides of the juke joint and Grace, under a spell of fury and desperation due to the torment inflicted on her, allows them to enter, kickstarting a clash between the survivors and the vampires. This scene has resulted in discourse<\/a> about Grace\u2019s decision to let the vampires in, but more commonly, about Grace herself.\u00a0Many<\/a> have<\/a> pointed<\/a> to Grace and her ethnic identity as Chinese in a Black-dominated space as a possible metaphor for the complex relationship<\/a> between Asian and African Americans throughout the history of the U.S. While I believe that any piece of art is open to interpretation, I find this to be a total misreading of Coogler\u2019s intention with \u201cSinners,\u201d which is a celebration of cultures together.\u00a0<\/p>\n