Abstract Despite growing interest in the racialization of emotion management and evidence that this racialization varies across different racial groups, minimal scholarship has attempted to interrogate how Asian Americans experience racialized feeling rules or perform racialized emotion management in the workplace. Using qualitative interviews with 35 Asian American professionals to examine these processes, I find that controlling images about Asians, particularly the “model minority” stereotype, shape the feeling rules they encounter and constrain their access to certain forms of emotional expression. Additionally, racial incidents within and outside of the workplace heighten their need to perform emotion management, which is particularly relevant given recent upticks in anti-Asian violence. This study reveals how controlling images lead to racialized feeling rules for Asian Americans and how, conversely, their racialized emotion management can reinforce stereotypes. At the same time, it shows how Asian Americans continue to experience racialization, with important implications, both within the workplace and beyond.
Read full abstract