Model Minority Mutiny: addressing anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic in social work

ABSTRACT

The rise of anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic signaled a lasting and ongoing history of racism in the United States. These events were a reminder to reexamine the condition of Asians and Asian Americans in the field of social work in the U.S. The purpose of this article is to support inter-solidarity movements in social work to uplift the lived experiences of Asian Americans with four recommendations: conceptualizing and positioning the Asian American identity, acknowledging the heterogeneity of the Asian American population, integrating Asian American history in the social work curriculum, and using research strategies to address anti-Asian racism uplift the experiences of Asian Americans.

KEYWORDS:

• Asian American
• racism
• COVID-19
• anti-Asian racism
• anti-racist

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. We use the term Asian Americans to broadly denote Asians in the U.S., that is those who are American citizens, as well as members of the Asian diaspora who are here on a visa or are undocumented. The term Model Minority Mutiny was coined by Soya Jung (2014) to be in community with the liberation of BIPOC communities and challenge white supremacy.