Evolution of a Race Riot

Title page for Evolution of a Race Riot. Published in 1997 in Berkeley, California.

Evolution of a Race Riot is a zine made by Mimi Thi Nyguen. It was published in 1997 and made in Berkley, California.

Summary

Evolution of a Race Riot sought to attack and deplore the racism and homophobia present in the punk rock world and riot grrrl movement by including various works by women of color expressing their frustrations through fiery prose, poetry, and visual art. The work included in this collection dug to the visceral heart of socially normalized discrimination in its many forms and served as a manifesto of angry, nonwhite LGBTQ+ feminism. It was also a way for these women to lift one another up and empower those who felt ignored and harassed outside and inside the realm of riot grrrl. The contributors found that within riot grrrl, zines discussing the damage of racism and misogyny were few and hard to come by. And even when they did, they were dominated by white women and did not express the many experiences and struggles of people of color. Therefore, these women decided to create their own zine exposing racism as it truly was and challenging the riot grrrl group for being activists who actively discriminated against those who wanted to be members.

Background

Art piece from Evolution of a Race Riot.

The riot grrrl movement originated in 1991, when a group of women from Olympia, Washington, and Washington, D.C., held a meeting about sexism in their local punk scenes in the United States. This group believed in girls actively engaging in cultural production, creating their own music and fanzines rather than following existing materials. The women involved in this meeting found they typically had very little to no voice in their local punk scenes and wanted to make a change. One of those women was Mimi Nguyen, who put her rage to work and found other punks of color to start a conversation with them. Her purpose was to target racism, privilege, and isolation that was present in a predominantly white subculture. In Evolution of a Race Riot Nguyen used letters and pictures she received from other punks of color to make a compilation zine. This was a large contribution to the movement, being the first zine by and for punks of color to comprehensively address race and racism in punk and riot grrrl. It contributed to creating a network and sense of community, within the movement for Mimi and other people of color in the typical “white-centric” narrative.

Biography of the Creator

Mimi Thi Ngyuen's profile photo for Arts and Sciences Faculty at Dartmouth.

Born in Saigon, 1974, Ngyuen earned her education at University of California, Berkeley and master’s degree at New York University. She is a professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Dartmouth College. She is a published author and her first book, The Gift of Freedom: War, Debt, and Other Refugee Passages, has won multiple awards including Outstanding Book Award in Cultural Studies from the Association of Asian American Studies. In 2024 she came out with her second book The Promise of Beauty and is part of an editorial collective for Bangran Remixed: A Critical BTS Reader. Nyguen has been published in many magazines as well. She has also been a co-editor on issues such as positions: asia critique and Alien Encounters: Pop Culture in Asian America. Consistent themes within her work are feminism, diversity, suppression, and what it means to be an Asian American. Most notably she has been making zines since 1991 including Slander and Race Riot. She is a significant figure within the riot grrrl movement. Race Riot is her most notable work.