THE RACIALIZATION OF INDIVIDUALS OF ASIAN DESCENT IN THE UNITED STATES: A REASSESSMENT OF ASSIMILATION THEORY

Abstract

This research project revisits the debate between assimilation theories and the whiteness paradigm by centering the lived experiences of individuals of Asian descent in the United States. The first article, presented in Chapter Two, investigates how assimilative pressures toward whiteness—combined with the racialized status of Asian individuals—shape the emotional labor performed by Asian and Asian American students in U.S. higher education. Emotions, often overlooked in existing scholarship on Asians and Asian Americans, are analyzed here as key indicators of their racialized positioning. Chapter Three presents the second article, which explores how individuals of Asian descent navigate identity formation across diverse social settings while contending with pressures to assimilate into whiteness. The study emphasizes the significance of ethnic markers—such as names, language, and food—in shaping identity and fostering both interpersonal relationships and cultural belonging. However, in white-dominated spaces, these non-white markers are frequently devalued, and participants experience pressure to conform to whiteness. The article also addresses how the boundaries of whiteness are maintained: even when individuals adopt markers associated with whiteness, their Asian identity often prevents them from being fully accepted as white. The third article, presented in Chapter Four and originally published in the peer-reviewed journal Socius, examines the voting behaviors of various Asian American subethnic groups. This study highlights intra-group variation in civic engagement by analyzing ten ethnic subgroups within the broader, pan-ethnic Asian American category.