The Vernacular of Whiteness: The Racial Position of Asian and Asian Americans in Upholding the U.S. as a White Supremacist Empire

Given the extensive literature and findings on contemporary racial dynamics, analysts have yet to fully theorize a critical perspective on the role that Asian and Asian Americans play as transnational racial actors in upholding the dominant racial ideology today; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). This is central to the global, transnational racial order that structures a racially affective economy of language use. Such racially affective economy extends to other facets culture, particularly the reception of Hallyu. This dissertation is a qualitative study spanning approximately three (3) years of participant observation across multiple sites incorporating open-ended interviews with Asian and Asian Americans at a historically and predominantly white university in the Southeastern United States. This study also utilizes autoethnographic reflections and archival materials in conjunction with participant observation and interview data. Through approaching every aspect of the qualitative design in this study as a participant myself, such as ethnographic participant observation, open-ended interviews, autoethnography, and archival materials, I locate and explore how Asian and Asian Americans reproduce their racial position in the hierarchy by the reification of the racial category, "honorary white" (i.e., wedge between Black and white). The racial apathy intertwined with the imperial modality observed in this dissertation is indispensable to the global construction of race. This dissertation critically engages and interrogates how DEI initiative aimed at Asian Americans at Southern University (pseudonym) works in tandem with the nation-state, effectively producing and matriculating bicultural and transnational racial actors while taking advantage of the racialized laborers in DEI. This dissertation brings together three (3) analytic points of exploratory findings from Asian and Asian American students, staff, and faculty at SU in illustrating some of the key reasons why white supremacy reigns despite the higher visibility of Asian popular culture (i.e., Hallyu) and institutional emphasis on DEI.