Why we need to talk about anti-Asian racism: Reading and discussion by the Literary Society with Hami Nguyen as part of the International Weeks Against Racism in Karlsruhe.
"Our invisibility left us speechless for a long time. Our speechlessness led others to believe that we had a good life as a model minority. It also led us to believe that we had no right to our language. Yet so much had been taken from us over decades, and we were content just to be allowed to exist here, even though we were always included in the cries of 'Foreigners out!'"Â
In this personal book, activist and author Hami Nguyen addresses the issues of racism and class using her own life story as an example. Anti-Asian racism is underrepresented in German discourse because people who are perceived as Asian are considered "assimilated." They are invisible.Â
The stories of Vietnamese migrants in Germany are rarely told—yet they are part of German history.
Hami Nguyen was born in Vietnam in 1989 and fled with her mother to Germany in 1991, where her father had worked as a contract worker in the GDR. She studied economics, sociology, and political science in Halle/Saale and Lucerne. In 2022, she was voted one of the 100 most important women in the country by Focus magazine. In 2024, her debut Das Ende der Unsichtbarkeit – Warum wir über anti-asiatischen Rassismus sprechen müssen (The End of Invisibility – Why We Need to Talk About Anti-Asian Racism) was awarded the Book Prize of the Immigration Book Fair. She works as an education officer and freelance author and campaigns for a more just society under @hamidala_.
An event in cooperation with Citykirche Karlsruhe (Ev. Stadtkirche), gallery owner Yvonne Hohner / Galerie Yvonne Hohner Contemporary, UNESCO City of Media Arts (Cultural Office of the City of Karlsruhe) as part of the International Weeks Against Racism Karlsruhe and THE CAGE by Fahar Al-Salih.Â
