Asians in America: Not a Model Minority and Not a Minority

In the 21st century, we are global citizens with boundaries blurred in a digital age. Asians are the majority, globally. Asians are also now the largest "minority" group of the American Psychiatric Association, after women. How does this impact psychiatry, which has traditionally been rooted in European American norms? How must psychiatry shift to accommodate this 21st century reality? A brief history of Asians in America is presented. The 14th amendment of 1868 granted African Americans equal rights to citizenship. Yet in 1875, Chinese women became the first class of persons excluded from US immigration by the Page Act. This was followed by the exclusion of all Chinese persons in1882. Asian women were enslaved and sold well into the 1900''s, and Asians were not granted equal rights to citizenship until 1965. At the same time, Asians have been touted as a high-achieving "model minority". This minimizes the impact of discriminatory laws and practices, and manifests "splitting" between minority groups. A review of psychiatry in relation to Asian Americans, past, present and future, is presented. Diversity, equity and inclusion practices as relevant to Asian Americans, are reviewed. The promise of digital psychiatry as a tool for health access equity is explored. A clip from "Childhood in Translation", a film about language barriers in health access, is presented. This session is presented by the APA Foundation.