“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.”
In his own words, our first multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural president acknowledges his own transformation growing up under the scrutiny of the world. He also relates how some people have had difficulty taking him at face value, and as such they undergo a transformation of their own.
“When people who don’t know me well, black or white, discover my background and it is usually a discovery, for I ceased to advertise my mother’s race at the age of twelve or thirteen, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites), I see the split-second adjustments they have to make, the searching of my eyes for some telltale sign. They no longer know who I am.”
It seems like the broader society may need a better understanding of this--and themselves. I suggest that they should follow the lead of these fine Hapa students who took on the reins simply by talking about own their journey.
See related post, “Here’s to Hawaii’s 50th Anniversary: Okole maluna!”
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