What does "hapa" mean?

[Paul]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

I don't see it as racist. Simply historical fact that Hawaiians first interbreeded with Haoles and so it must have been a big deal at the time. Must have been amazing for Hawaiians to see these babies in the early 1800s that looked totally different from what they had seen for their entire lives having been totally isolated for thousands of years.

Same thing for the word Haole being used to describe the Caucasian foreigners even though Asians are equally foreign. Nothing inherently racist, just a result of Caucasians being the first foreigners. So it stuck.

It's racist in the sense that Hawaiians seem to put the Haole on a pedestal above other ethnic groups. To be part Haole makes a Hawaiian special. To be part Chinese does not. I agree. It must have a big deal when Hawaiians first made contact with Haoles. They must have seemed like gods to the Kanaka Maoli. A degree of this Haole worship continues to this day with the use of the word Hapa.

[kimo55]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

no, paul i dunthingsew. uh uh.
never heard of this. Not one shade of it. not so much as a semblance or one iota.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

I'm going on a limb by assuming that the term Hapa Haole means part Hawaiian part Caucasian. So is it safe to assume just the word Hapa means part Hawaiian and you could then use that term for other ethnicities such as Hapa Filipino, Hapa Japanese, Hapa whatever?

Or does Hapa simply mean "part" or "half"? If that's the case then you could use the word Hapa for any mixed ethnicity not limited to Hawaiian or Haole. Just because it's a Hawaiian word that doesn't mean it's limited to Hawaiian ethnicity.

[pzarquon]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

Hawaiians think more highlyof Caucasians than other ethnic groups? Um... If one were to ascribe any tendencies towards racial profiling or preference to Hawaiians or even locals, I really don't think anyone would put haole at the top of the "worship" list!

That said, kamuelaka's theory as to why "hapa" might more commonly apply to half Caucasians than half Chinese, or why "haole" ended up largely equivalent to "Caucasian" is so simple, it works for me.

Craig, I think we were in the neighborhood of your question upthread. Some folks feel "hapa" -- "half" -- should mean that one of those halves, or at least some portion, is Native Hawaiian. I say, since the Pukui/Elbert dictionary says "hapa Hawai'i" is "half Hawaiian," that "hapa Kepani" (half Japanese) or "hapa haole" (half Caucasian) makes perfect sense.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

I found Hawaiian newspapers as early as 1866 "...me na kaikamahine hapa Pake" (with the young half-Chinese girls).

This article talks of the census, and its title is "there number of Americans in Hawai'i has increased" (1925). In it, hapa isn't used to conclude the "other half is Hawaiian". Hapa is half of whatever ethnicity ( one sentence describes those half Chinese and half something else).

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

Hawaiians think more highly of nobody than any other group. The fact that I have Chinese sugarcane worker, Irish whaler, British businessman and Hawaiian akua in my genealogy--and that mine is a typical mix--speaks for that point.

[Jonah K]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

Hmm. Sit in front of the computer and discuss the history of the "multiracial Asian movement" and it's appropriation of the term hapa or go to the beach? The beach wins!

Haunani-Kay Trask, Teresa Williams-Leon, J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Cynthia Nakashima, Velina Hasu Houston, Maria Root, Yen Le Espiritu, Reggie Daniel, Don Nakanishi, UCLA's Asian American Studies Center, UH's Center for Hawaiian Studies, and countless others are all to blame. During the early 1980s, few would have envisioned "hapa" courses on the curriculum at Amherst, UCLA, USC and other colleges and universities. Sadly, kanaka maoli scholars and intellectuals have had virtually no input on the content of these courses....
http://www.amherst.edu/~nsharma/cour.../Syllabus.html

"Hapa" clubs also weren't envisioned...
http://www.studentgroups.ucla.edu/hapa/mix.html

[kaneohegirl]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

when I was growing up hapa was HALF... you was half something wether it was haole, japanese, hawaiian, chinese, whatever... you were half an half... an it never carried a stigma of being hapa anything.... was better to be hapa then to all haole thats for sure... so for me hapa will always mean half!.... thats what I grew up with that the definition I know thats how I use it when I speak.

[Mahi Waina]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

The South had legal definitions going all the to 1/128th part Negro. Remember the Octaroon Ball?

Why not come up with strict definitions to end this controversy?

1/2 Hawaiian = hapa

1/4 = koaka

1/8 = walu

So you could be hapa haole koaka pake walu pukiki walu pilipino

[Paul]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

Hawaiians think more highlyof Caucasians than other ethnic groups? Um... If one were to ascribe any tendencies towards racial profiling or preference to Hawaiians or even locals, I really don't think anyone would put haole at the top of the "worship" list!

Maybe the Haole is not worshipped as much these days but that's the way is was in the past. The Kanaka Maoli themselves threw away their culture and tried to become Haole as much as possible back then. They became christians, wore european style clothes, gave themselves european names and the Kanaka Maoli women intermarried with the Haole men like crazy. Even the royalty did this. I suppose they thought they were improving the blood. But I don't blame them for doing so in the face of what seemed to them a vastly superior culture. I'm saying remnants of this mentality still exists. It's not so much worshipping anymore but a feeling of envy or jealousy.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

The South had legal definitions going all the to 1/128th part Negro. Remember the Octaroon Ball?

Why not come up with strict definitions to end this controversy?

1/2 Hawaiian = hapa

1/4 = koaka

1/8 = walu

So you could be hapa haole koaka pake walu pukiki walu pilipino

I would say that I am hapawalu Pake, hapawalu Kelemania, hapaha Ilelani and hapa Hawai'i (hapa-walu: 1/8, hapaha: 1/4, hapa: half), which is how I learned my fractions in Hawaiian. If I would say that I was 3/4 of something, it would be koluhapaha (three hapa four).

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

Hmm. Sit in front of the computer and discuss the history of the "multiracial Asian movement" and it's appropriation of the term hapa or go to the beach? The beach wins!

Haunani-Kay Trask, Teresa Williams-Leon, J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Cynthia Nakashima, Velina Hasu Houston, Maria Root, Yen Le Espiritu, Reggie Daniel, Don Nakanishi, UCLA's Asian American Studies Center, UH's Center for Hawaiian Studies, and countless others are all to blame. During the early 1980s, few would have envisioned "hapa" courses on the curriculum at Amherst, UCLA, USC and other colleges and universities. Sadly, kanaka maoli scholars and intellectuals have had virtually no input on the content of these courses....
http://www.amherst.edu/~nsharma/cour.../Syllabus.html

"Hapa" clubs also weren't envisioned...
http://www.studentgroups.ucla.edu/hapa/mix.html

as much as I am reluctant to rely upon scholars and intellectuals to guide a 'correct' path for social change, it is curious to me that hapa it lived as a "part-Asian and American born" identity in these links that you submitted.

They need a term, like Spanglish.

[Peshkwe]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

There's so many to choose from too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...multiraciality

Me...I be Metis

[Jonah K]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

as much as I am reluctant to rely upon scholars and intellectuals to guide a 'correct' path for social change, it is curious to me that hapa it lived as a "part-Asian and American born" identity in these links that you submitted.

They need a term, like Spanglish.

I agree. However, there was a "trade-off" of sorts that took place between some kanaka maoli activists and some Hawai'i-educated future leaders in the "multiracial Asian movement." I've already mentioned some of the major players, so you can probably figure out what happened.

['i'iwipolena]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

The South had legal definitions going all the to 1/128th part Negro. Remember the Octaroon Ball?

I wouldn't know. Hawaiians had nothing to do with the enslavement and subjugation of the African people.