A scholar and activist’s brilliant socio-political examination of Asian Americans who refuse to assimilate and instead build their own belonging on their own terms outside of mainstream American institutions.
In this hard-hitting and deeply personal book, a combination of manifesto and memoir, scholar, sociologist, and activist Bianca Mabute-Louie transforms the ways we understand race, class, citizenship, and the concept of assimilation and the toxic model minority myth, detailing their impact on Asian American communities from the nineteenth century to present day.
UNASSIMILABLE opens with a focus on the San Gabriel Valley (SGV), the first Asian ethnoburb in Los Angeles County and in the nation, where she grew up. A suburban neighborhood with a conspicuous Asian immigrant population, SGV thrives not because of its assimilation into Whiteness, but because of its unapologetic catering to its immigrant community.
Mabute-Louie then examines “Predominantly White Institutions With A lot of Asians” and how these institutions shape the racial politics of Asian Americans and Asian internationals, including the fight against affirmative action and the fight for ethnic studies. She moves on to interrogate the role of the religion, showing how the immigrant church is a sanctuary even as it is an extension of colonialism and the American Empire. In the book’s conclusion, Bianca looks to the future, boldly proposing a reconsideration of the term Asian American for a new label—Asian Diaspora—that better clarifies who Asians in America are today.
UNASSIMILABLE offers a radical vision of Asian American political identity informed by a refusal of Whiteness and collective care for each other. It is a forthright declaration against assimilation and in service of cross-racial, anti-imperialist solidarity and the revolutionary politics of decolonization. Scholarly yet accessible, informative and informed, this book is a major addition to Ethnic Studies and American Studies.
In this essential work of Asian American studies, Mabute-Louie challenges us to look beyond assimilation and toward liberation:
- The Ethnoburb Model: An inside look at the San Gabriel Valley, a community that thrives not by assimilating into Whiteness, but by creating its own ecosystem of unapologetic immigrant culture.
- A Critique of "PWI-WAAs": A sharp analysis of how elite institutions shape Asian American racial politics, from the fight against affirmative action to the struggle for Ethnic Studies.
- Immigrant Sanctuaries: An interrogation of the immigrant church, revealing it as a vital sanctuary that can also perpetuate the harms of colonialism and the American Empire.
- Anti-Imperialist Solidarity: A powerful call for cross-racial, anti-imperialist solidarity that moves beyond the limits of representation and toward revolutionary politics.