Hapa is a Hawaiian term used to describe a person of mixed Asian or Pacific Islander ethnic heritage and Caucasian. Recently, its popular usage has been broadening to Asian-Americans in general and other mixed racial/ethnic backgrounds. In this pod, Hapa students at Wesleyan University discuss how their identity shapes their view on the world.
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on Aug 19th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
interesting…i wonder if in the next generatio this will still be an issue…
on Aug 20th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Supposedly, in the last census, there were a significant increase in the amount of people listing themselves as mixed race yet the country does not really ever talk about this trend. Obama for instance is mixed race yet he is only referred to as the first African American president.
on Aug 21st, 2009 at 3:09 am
Until O, Bill was our first Black president. With O, we claim him as our first Asian president.
I believe this affectionate labeling is needed while we, as a society, still experience inequalities resulting from discrimination along color lines.
These classifications will evolve as demographics change, and political factors and research findings come into play. The American Experiment is sure to evolve, in part due to continual immigration which, despite the rancorous debate, is necessary to test, renew, and reaffirm the nation’s founding ideals.
Thanks for your always interesting and provocative posts on Shapeshift!
on Aug 21st, 2009 at 6:22 am
The new term being coined now, to describe mixed race, is double-blooded which is more positive than ‘half’ (-blooded). I go along with this. Despite the inter-cultural identity issues faced by people of mixed race, I don’t think just because they are half of only one culture they should be implied ‘less’. On the contrary, I think people of mixed race generally tend to have better exposure of the world around them, and greater insights into different cultures and therefore double is a more appropriate term.
on Aug 21st, 2009 at 10:20 am
Thanks for posting ‘Hapa’. Our own president wrote that in his younger years some people have had difficulty taking him at face value and how that impacts on their own transformation. http://bit.ly/gqnn4