Unassimilable: An Asian Diasporic Manifesto for the Twenty-First Century by Bianca Mabute-Louie (Hardcover) (PREORDER)

Nonfiction - Social Science - Cultural & Ethnic Studies - Asian Studies

RELEASE DATE: 1/14/2025 (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER'S WAREHOUSE AND ARRIVE 1-2 DAYS AFTER THE RELEASE DATE)

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 its 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 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 revolutionary politics. Scholarly yet accessible, informative and informed, this book is a major addition to Ethnic Studies and American Studies.

AUTHOR BIO: 

Bianca Mabute-Louie is an award-winning sociologist, speaker, and activist completing her PhD at Rice University, where she researches the intersections of race, religion, and politics. She is published in top academic journals, including Social Forces and Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, as well as in public outlets like Elle Magazine. Bianca has been featured in CNN, TIME, ABC, LA Times, among other outlets. Over the last decade, Bianca has served Asian American community organizations and taught Asian American Studies. Through her work in academia and the community, Bianca is committed to the praxis of solidarity and collective liberation.

"With searing ethos and rigorous logos, Bianca Mabute-Louie's UNASSIMILABLE upends our notions of what it means to be an immigrant, a citizen, and a comrade; and charts a provocatively compelling path forward for Asians in America." -- Jose Antonio Vargas, Pullitzer-Prize winning journalist and author of Dear America

"Bianca Mabute-Louie's Unassimilable is an expansive -- sometimes funny, sometimes harrowing -- portrait of growing up in the Chinese American ethnoburbs and coming into awareness of her place in the world. Through memoir, witness, and sociology, she never fails to ask the hardest questions of herself and her peers. With this personally moving and intellectually bracing narrative, she becomes an important new voice in the discussions over the future of Asians in diaspora." -- Jeff Chang, author Can't Stop Won't Stop and We Gon' Be Alright

"UNASSIMILABLE is a rallying cry for the Asian diaspora. The book has reframed my thinking on activism, identity, and intersectionality, and it left me inspired to organize and protest in new directions. Mabute-Louie is a one-of-a-kind visionary who will lead us to a bold new frontier for Asian America." -- Qian Julie Wang, New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Country

"A daring and provocative call to break free from the myopic gaze of whiteness and claim our innate power, belonging, and dignity on our own terms." -- Michelle MiJung Kim, Award-Winning Author of The Wake Up: Closing the Gap Between Good Intentions and Real Change

"Unassimilable tells the story of its author's ever-evolving understanding of her Asian American identity and the frameworks that have shaped how she exists in America....accessibly written and driven by the author's personal journey." -- Booklist

"Every so often, you come across a book that you just know would have changed the trajectory of your life, if only you had it years before. For me, UNASSIMILABLE is that book. Bianca Mabute-Louie offers a compass for Asian Americans and anyone committed to reckoning with the sins of our country's past--all in the hope of reimagining a better future." -- Anthony Christian Ocampo, author of Brown and Gay in LA

"UNASSIMILABLE touched me deeply. What a profound reading experience to feel held and challenged in equal measure. Bianca Mabute-Louie balances rigorous scholarship with personal vulnerability in service of a message Asians in America need urgently. Why settle for cultural identifiers and social movements that flatten our complexities, which are our greatest assets? Mabute-Louie calls us to wider political community, to action, to our whole and best selves." -- Angela Garbes, author of Essential Labor and Like a Mother

"UNASSIMILABLE is equal parts wit and incisive critique on the role of Asian Americans in social and racial justice issues that will impact us for generations. Bianca simultaneously tugs at our heart strings, while also inviting us into intentional analysis and critical action to move all our communities toward freedom and empowerment."
-- Dr. Jenny Wang, author of Permission To Come Home.

"Unflinching in its call for an evolution, from Asian American identity to Asian diasporic consciousness that transcends place and time, to embrace a refusal to fit within existing paradigms of the world, so we can collectively forge more humanizing possibilities." -- Dr. Oiyan Poon, author of Asian American is not a Color and Rethinking College Admissions

"...reminds readers of what has long been possible and already exists. UNASSIMILABLE is a testimony" -- Dr. Connie Wun, co-founder of AAPI Women Lead