Nuanced clash and imagined legal engagement are key to “model minority mutiny”

Asian Americans in social work In the wake of the surge of anti-Asian racism in the U.S. during the pandemic, we are reminded of the enduring presence of racism experienced by Asian Americans. Within the field of social work too, Asian Americans have routinely experienced anti-Asian racism. Social workers were instrumental in the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII by facilitating their removal from their homes to internment camps (Park, 2015). Asian American social work students are also routinely invisibilized and often experience racial discrimination (Kwong, 2018). A qualitative study examining the experi-ences of Asian American social work students in the U.S. found common impressions of belittlement and second-guessing their own cultural experiences and knowledge due to being invalidated by educators or field instructors (Chung, 2008). These anti-Asian racist experiences in social work may potentially contribute to the underrepresentation of Asian Americans in the field and social work programs. According to the 2020 labor force statistics, only 3.7% of employed social workers in the country are Asian Americans, much lower than the percentage of Asian Americans (6%) among the U.S. labor force in general (Bureau of Labor Statistics U.S. Department of Labor, 2020a, 2020b). This statistic is reflected in the pipeline of Asian American social work students who comprised a minority across various social work programs in 2019: 2.2% in BSW, 3.5% in MSW, 3.3% in DSW, and 9.9% in Ph.D. programs, although those with a PhD degree is not reflective of the labor force statistics (Council on Social Work Education, 2020). Among social work faculty, 6.8% of full-time and 2.4% of part-time faculty are Asian Americans (Council on Social Work Education, 2020). It is imperative to understand further the disaggregation of these percentages by Asian American ethnic groups. While this is not a comprehensive list of all the key events in the long history of discriminatory policies and practice, this provides a glimpse of just how entrenched Anti-Asian racism has been at multiple levels including in the field of social work. Anti-racist social work practice, education, and research for Asian Americans? In reflection of the current racial climate in the U.S., it is critical to re-visit the experiences of Asian Americans in the U.S. and the social work profession. The rapid surge of anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic calls for more active practice, educational, and academic responses. First, in order to address anti-Asian racism, social work scholars and practitioners need to reflect on their own biases toward people of Asian ancestry and to raise their own awareness of racial experiences of Asian Americans. Based on the understanding of racial positions of Asian American, social workers can challenge anti-Asian racism in their multiple roles. For example, social workers can develop culturally specific evidence-based interventions that can address the detrimental effects of anti- Asian discrimination. They can also promote and advocate for anti-racist policies and programs that disrupt anti-Asian racism. Social work educators can develop implicit and explicit curriculums that raise awareness of Asian American groups and their racial experiences. Social work researchers can build rigorous scientific evidence regarding the prevalence and negative impacts of anti-Asian racism and its mechanism. Below, we provide recommendations and implications for social work educators, researchers, and practitioners to uplift the lived experiences of Asian Americans and tools to address anti-Asian racism. Conceptualize and position Asian Americans Social work scholars must acknowledge the complexity of the Asian American identity and the positionality of Asian Americans in the U.S. Race as a social construct was conceptualized to purport a false belief of white superiority over other racial groups to justify the inequitable allocation of resources and the colonization and enslavement of people (Cooper & David, 1986). Whereas people of Asian descent have been historically described with labels, such as Oriental and Asiatics; inspired by the Black Power Movement and the fight for Ethnic Studies, Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee founded the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA) at the University of California, Berkeley in 1968, which first used the term Asian American (Dirlik, 2010; E. Lee, 2015). The term challenged Oriental cultural hegemony and recognized the shared history and struggles of Asian Americans (Dirlik, 2010). The term Asian American has evolved and has been used to access funding, resources, and political power. Numerous iterations have also emerged to encompass other racial groups such as Asian Pacific Islander (API), Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI), Asian Pacific Islander, and Desi Americans (APIDA), and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander (AANHOPI). However, it is essential to acknowledge that Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians have distinct histories and experiences from Asian Americans (Kauanui, 2005). Thus, using such terms needs to be weighed carefully lest identities, groups, and lived experiences are lumped together. Understanding the positionality of Asian Americans in the U.S. is integral in comprehending the workings of white supremacy. Extant theoretical frameworks like the Racial Triangulation Theory & Racial Position Model illustrate how Asian Americans have been placed in proximity to whiteness and racial superiority while simultaneously being othered as perpetual foreigners (C. J. Kim, 2016; Zou & Cheryan, 2017). This is operationalized through concepts such as the Model Minority Myth (MMM) that suggest that Asian Americans are academically and economically successful through hard work, therefore, implicating the inability of other nonwhite racial groups (e.g., Black, Latinx, Native Americans, etc.) to achieve similar success as Asian Americans (E. D. Wu, 2014). In fact, through 294 the overrepresentation of some Asian groups in select fields, the MMM erases and makes invisible, many of the disparities within Asian and Asian American groups (Shih et al., 2019). The MMM also pits Asian Americans against other Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities to compete for the limited resources available to them and deters inter-solidarity organizing to challenge and eradicate white supremacy. Some Asian Americans may also internalize the MMM, which has been associated with anti-Blackness and lack of support for affirmative action (Yi & Todd, 2021), thus advancing the agenda of white supremacy, which also negatively affects Asian Americans and, in the process, disregards disparities within the Asian American population. More importantly, while we discussed the positionality of Asian Americans in the U.S., we recognize the role of Asian Americans as colonial settlers and encourage the importance of working alongside Indigenous communities to shift material wealth back to the original stewards of this land. We also acknowledge the crucial need to challenge the role of the U.S. in propagating imperialism, militarization, and (neo)colonization of countries in Asia that influence the economies, (im)migration, and well-being of Asians.