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. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation is a study of Asian and Asian American student communities at a historically and predominantly white university located in the Southeastern United States. This dissertation deals with how Asian and Asian American communities are unable to come to ethnic solidarity in various exchanges in language, pop-culture, and nationalistic viewpoints. From analyzing data deriving from three years of observing and interviewing Korean and Korean American student organizations, library, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion administration, this dissertation identifies the case of the United States as a white supremacist empire.

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My dissertation, Family Across the Seas: Asian Diasporas in the Americas, explores literary depictions of Asian immigration history in contemporary women’s literature and creates conversations between Caribbean literature, Asian American literature, and Latinx literature. This dissertation compares multigenerational literary works that portray extended depictions of Asian Latin American and Asian Latinx immigrant experiences. My dissertation draws on literary works from Caribbean literature (Mayra Montero’s Como un mensajero tuyo), Latinx literature (Cristina García’s Monkey Hunting; Angie Cruz’s Let It Rain Coffee), and Asian American literature (Elaine Castillo’s America Is Not the Heart; Karen Tei Yamashita’s Brazil-Marú and Circle K Cycles). Through a close reading of multigenerational literature on Asian (Latin) American immigrant experiences, my dissertation examines how literature becomes an ideological tool for writers to depict the experiences of Asians and the Asian diasporas in the Americas and their negotiations of identity and belonging. This dissertation highlights the overlapping and intertwined histories of the Spanish and U.S. empires, the transoceanic crossings of people of Asian ancestry, and the racialization of Asians in the Americas. In my dissertation, I extend the geographical scope of “America” to “the Americas,” which include the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States. By doing so, I acknowledge the historical connection between Asia and the Americas. Using Junyoung Verónica Kim’s Asia–Latin America as a method, the dissertation centers on the Global South and literary representations of Asian immigration experiences in the Americas. This dissertation engages with history and existing works on the Asian presence through the analysis of the multigenerational literature. / Spanish