LOUDER THAN THE LIES

A polemic against Asian American stereotypes as well as a case for how to heal and move forward.

This accessible first book by Camp, an artist and a teacher, is organized into three sections: The System, Living in the System, and Dismantling the System. “My hope,” she writes in the introduction, “is that we can collaboratively create a deeper understanding of what it means to be Asian American.” The author distinguishes between ethnic identity and racial identity. “Being Asian American,” she writes, “is its own unique experience of integrating these two parts together.” Camp interweaves stories of her own upbringing, with Taiwanese roots, and the necessity of examining personal experiences within a global framework. She offers histories of Eurocentric thinking, American capitalism, settler colonialism, and white supremacy, explaining how these contributed to the creation of race. Asian Americans, she writes, were long consigned to a space “characterized by fulfilling a need for cheap labor, but later it was met with periods of extreme xenophobic backlash, not being granted citizenship, having severely limited rights…experiencing segregation, and being victims of racial violence.” She explores how this began to shift during the Civil Rights Movement, one result being the perception of Asian Americans as the “model minority,” stereotyped for hard work and pressured to perform well academically. In addressing how white supremacy affects everyday living, she makes a convincing case for resisting commodification of labor and taking time to rest. In noting that Asian American history is often erased from curricula, she writes, “We need to be visible to ourselves and believe in our own worth.” Camp envisages a reality that allows Asian Americans to center—and care for—themselves.

A personal and impassioned look at Asian American life.