What does "hapa" mean?

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

I know that no one here is the first to say it/hear it said. It has been around for a loooong time. It still rashes my ass...one day though I might not let it.

[kimo55]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

... to say it/hear it said. It has been.... I might not let it.

uh. we been talkin about alot here. clarify for an old feebleminded ranter... what is this "it" ?

[Miulang]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

But I also think I can understand why Mainland "hapas" (meaning half Caucasian, half Asian) are now starting to feel less like second class "half breed" cousins to full blooded whatevas as their representation among the general population increases.

If the "hapas" in California all lived in Hawai'i (which has the greatest number of mixed-raced people), I don't think they would have the same issues with race that they face up here. It's the "funny, you don't look [fill in the blank]" that really gets tedious. It's especially obvious when your last name is of a certain ethnicity (hence, you're supposed to "look" a certain way) and you don't look like like what people expect (as in PZ's example with his daughter in FL). Invariably they will wonder if you were adopted or wonder how you ended up with a surname that doesn't quite match what they expect.

You would rarely get that kind of questioning in Hawai'i.

Miulang

['i'iwipolena]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

I figure that if using the term hapa to apply to themselves helps them resolve some of their issues and feel less like second class citizens, then what the hell..., and anyway there's not that much that I could really do to stop it.

There are going to be some tweaked out myths about the origin of the word hapa as the word spreads. For example, someone might start saying that hapa comes from hā (stalk) and pā (fleeting) which they will work out to mean 'fleeting stalk,' and they'll start saying that the word was originally a pejorative term for mixed race Hawaiians since they had parentage from the outside and would no doubt leave Hawai'i. I really hope I didn't give one of those Huna guys any ideas about manipulating the word, but they're off topic.

[kamuelakea]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

Another instance of ignorant mainlanders jacking something from Hawaiian culture...

If you're gonna call yourself hapa, you should be part Native Hawaiian.

If you're Japanese and Irish (or whatever other mix), you ain't hapa. You're bi-racial, mixed race, whatever... but you ain't hapa.

I agree with you that this is driven by the desire to take something that these mainland groups see as a "negative" and cloak it in a term that is associated with a "positive" ie the paradise of Hawaii. Something sad about taking a non-negative Hawaiian word like Hapa and attaching it to this self help identity crisis California therapy group.

They could deal with their mixed-race issues calling themselves anything they want. Doesn't need to be Hapa since just about none of these people are even part-Hawaiian.

Language always changes and people will do whatever they want with words, that's how new languages are born. But for me Hapa means Hawaiian and Haole.

And Japanese/Haole or Chinese/Haole is Amerasian or Eurasian, not Hapa.

More than 2 races? Cosmopolitan. multiracial or mixed.

['i'iwipolena]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

Language always changes and people will do whatever they want with words, that's how new languages are born. But for me Hapa means Hawaiian and Haole.

That is a good point. It really shouldn't cause a big commotion among those of us who use the word to refer to those of Hawaiian and Haole ancestry, as long as we remember what it means to us.

[pzarquon]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

Something sad about taking a non-negative Hawaiian word like Hapa and attaching it to this self help identity crisis California therapy group.

Er... except I'm pretty sure the more inclusive -- that is, "incorrect" to some -- use of "hapa" started here. That is, we probably used "hapa" to mean half or part Hawaiian initially, but got lax ourselves. ('We' meaning people in Hawaii versus people in California, although certainly many people in Hawaii obviously maintain the stricter definition.) I'm pretty sure that even when I was in elemetary school, classmates who were half Japanese, half Caucasian were called "hapa." Erika's experience earlier in the thread is similar.

You're right that there are other terms, from multiracial to Amerasian to Eurasian, to describe various mixes. But frankly, the kinds of mixes we see are only going to get more and more complex (until we're all one happy, muddy grey!). "Hapa" has probably been seized upon, as well, for being so adaptive. Whether you're half this or a quarter that, you're "hapa."

Again, not "correct" use to some folks... but actually I think it's quite fitting that a Hawaiian word (that was an English word anyway) was so easily adopted to mean something diverse, tolerant, colorful. Just like we say we want everyone to be.

[kimo55]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

Something sad about taking a non-negative Hawaiian word like Hapa and attaching it to this self help identity crisis California therapy group.

something sad about warping the word's original status, too.

the article sez:

"Hapa — originally a derogatory Hawaiian word for half-breed — has been embraced as a term of pride."
In all my years in Hawaii NObody here has regarded the term "hapa" as derrogatory. This is simply an instance of a small minority whining about their plight and gimme some sympathy because after all, we have attached an innapropriate but exotic sounding label onto our sad sack heads and now we want attention cuz we think, as the headline sez, "perceptions of a multiracial group historically made to feel like outsiders." yes. WE are spey shull and those others MADE us FEEL something bad. boohoo.

[Paul]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

But for me Hapa means Hawaiian and Haole.

So Hawaiian and Japanese, Hawaiian and Filipino, or Hawaiian and any other non white ethnicity would not be Hapa? This could be true because I've never heard of a Hawaiian/Japanese or Hawaiian/black person refered to as Hapa. They are just called local or Hawaiian. I think some Haole features such as light colored skin need to present for the Hapa label to be applied. Very racist wouldn't you all say? This classification seems to put the mixed Hawaiian/Haole above the Hawaiian/X ethnicity. The former is given a special name while the later is just a generic Hawaiian.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

I know that no one here is the first to say it/hear it said. It has been around for a loooong time. It still rashes my ass...one day though I might not let it.

That's an understandable rash. As I noted earlier, I've heard it said to me (and about me), but that doesn't mean I'm comfortable with it - this is the first time I've brought it up, and that was only in the context of kimo55's posting (and I apologize for putting you in the "convert" category, kimo.)

When someone local says that to me, I generally shrug it off and move on to another topic - I don't want to get a big head over it, and I don't want someone to think I'm trying to pass myself off as "local," either. Yes, I do a lot with the Hawaiian community here, and in very public roles, but I try to be clear that I am a late-comer to learning about Island ways. I've learned a lot, I've absorbed a lot, I share a lot --- but the path ahead is much longer than the road travelled to date.

[kimo55]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

Very racist wouldn't you all say?

nope. using that label falls into the modern "everything gotta be pee see".

[damontucker]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

I liked it when Tiger Woods described his ethnicity on Oprah as:

"Cablinasian"

African American/Chinese/Native American/Thai/ and Caucasion

[Paul]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

nope. using that label falls into the modern "everything gotta be pee see".

I don't understand. pee? A Hawaiian who is part Haole get's to have the label and status of Hapa applied to them but a Hawaiian who is part Chinese is not a Hapa. Why do we make this distinction if not out of racism?

[kimo55]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

ya may as well have said:

" I don't understand. into? "

[kamuelakea]

Re: Hapa haole pride takes hold on Mainland

Very racist wouldn't you all say? This classification seems to put the mixed Hawaiian/Haole above the Hawaiian/X ethnicity. The former is given a special name while the later is just a generic Hawaiian.

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.