Model Minority Mutiny: AAPI Activism at the Claremont Colleges

This video is the culmination of 6 weeks of late-night/early-morning brainstorming, interviewing, researching, storyboarding, editing, and re-editing. Thank you to Professor Karin Mak and our fellow students of the Spring 2016 ASAM86: Social Documentation and Asian Americans course for supporting us throughout this journey of uncovering the rich, incredibly important hxstory of Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) activism at the Claremont Colleges. In presenting this project, we acknowledge that there is still so much hxstory to uncover, and there are many ways in which the AAPI community and other communities of color are still growing and being challenged, too. Although this wasn’t explicitly addressed in the video, within the AAPI community, we are still working to address our own anti-blackness, to decenter East Asian narratives, to move in solidarity with other communities of color, and to deepen the inclusivity of our activism -- for the following, but not limited to: low-income AAPIs, undocumented AAPIs, indigenous AAPIs, queer and trans AAPIs, mixed AAPIs, AAPIs with disabilities, AAPI mental health, Muslim AAPIs, black and brown AAPIs, AAPI womxn, AAPI survivors, and incarcerated AAPIs. With all of that said, we hope that you are able to learn, cherish, and become inspired by our final project.

The fight for justice is far from over; this video is just the beginning.

-Film by Esther Cheung, Mabel Kyinn, & Teofanny Saragi-