A guest post by Jefe:
“Hapa” is a Hawaiian term meaning mixed race. It comes from Hawaiian Pidgin English, derived from the English word “half”.
There are at least three meanings in common use:
1. Original Hawaiian: Mixed with native Hawaiian.
In the 1800s Hawaiians considered all non-Hawaiians to be haole, or “foreigner”. Early migrants from Asia, the USA, other Pacific Islands and Europe (e.g., Portuguese) often came without families and married native Hawaiians. This led to the growth in the local hapa haole population, initially a term with derogatory overtones. There were different kinds of hapas, like:
- hapa pake – part Chinese (the most common)
- hapa popolo – part black
- hapa kepani – part Japanese
- hapa pilipino – part Filipino
- hapa pukiki (Portagee in Pidgin) – part Portuguese (differentiated from mainland whites)
Over time, the descendants of these early migrants, mixed or not, came to see themselves as “local” or “kama’aina” – children of the land. Whites from the Mainland USA tended to keep apart, and locals started to use haole to refer to them. By World War II, hapa haole tended to refer to Hapas who were part white.
2. Current Hawaiian: Any racial mixture.
As different Hawaiians started mixing with each other in ever more complicated combinations, any racial combination was called hapa. This is the common usage in Hawaii. President Obama would meet this definition but not the other two.
Unqualified, “Hapa” implies “Hapa Haole”, i.e., part “Asian/Pacific Islander”, part “white”.
3. Mainland USA: Partially, but not fully descendent of the peoples of East Asia, Southeast Asia, or the Pacific Islands (but usually excluding South Asia)
Starting with Asian war brides, accelerated by Hawaii statehood and the repeal of racist marriage and immigration laws in the 1960s, the multiracial population of the USA began to explode. By the 1980s, their numbers started to reach critical mass, particularly on the West Coast. Experiencing alienation from Asian communities, as well as from both whites and blacks, university students started to organize to develop ways to express and identify their experiences. They co-opted the term Hapa, especially in California.
The term Hapa is unique to the USA, and is distinguished from other terms, such as Amerasian, Eurasian and Blasian, as well as biracial black/white. Other countries use various other terms to denote their mixed race citizens, e.g., hafu.(Japan), luk khrueng (Thailand), mestiso/a (Philippines), halfie (part-Asian) or metis (part First Nations) (Canada), etc.
Unlike in Hawaii, where it is a mere descriptive term, “Hapa” has gained social and political significance on the mainland. Hapas spearheaded the multiracial activist movement in the 1990s, resisting the “One Drop Rule”, exoticization and the “tick the box” mentality and promoting the idea of selecting vocabulary to describe one’s own experience and identity. From this came the “two or more races” on the US Census in 2000.
Participants in “The Hapa Project”
Examples of #3:
Bruno Mars (Filipino, Puerto Rican, Jewish, Spanish)
Dwayne Johnson (Samoan, African, European)
Ann Curry (Japanese, French, German, Cherokee, Scottish, Irish)
Ne-Yo (African, Chinese, small amounts of European and Native American)
Bruce Lee (Chinese, German)
See also:
- The Hapa Project (kipfulbeck.com/the-hapa–project/) – Art Professor Kip Fulbeck of the University of California, Santa Barbara did a photo project asking over 1200 multiracial Americans the question, “What are you”?
- The term “Hispanic”
- The term “Asian”
- Kingdom of Hawaii
- Black men, Asian women
- Vietnamese Amerasians
- Half White, Half Asian
- biracial
- Obama in Hawaii
- One Drop Rule
- Hapas featured on this blog:
Abagond 
[…] Source: abagond.wordpress.com […]
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I’m missing my Hawaiian (and other Polynesian) peeps from Cali just reading this article, time to pay sum folks a visit asap!
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@Jefe: Good job insightful.
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@Kiwi
“Hapa” is hardly a specific racial group. Do you see the people highlighted in the examples and links above as belonging to the same or some specific racial group?
If anything, the common feature is lack of a specific racial group.
Multiracial part-African descended people were categorized as black for only a small portion of US history. Until the late 19th century, we had terms like
– Mulatto
– Quadroon and Octoroon
– Free People of Colour
– Creole
– Melungeons
– Wesorts
– Brass Ankles
– Maroons (some who were mixed with American Indian)
etc, etc, etc
But Jim Crow changed all that by imposing a binary race classification system determined by a one drop rule. People were forced to identify as white or black by the turn of the 20th century. The groups referring to mixed race people disappeared (or otherwise melted) into either the white or black populations (with a few exceptions).
The impetus of the multiracial activist movement was to change all that. So we see results like those in Mississippi. Relatively few Mississippians are the direct offspring of an interracial marriage, yet the state had the largest growth in the “two or more races” category between 2000-2010, which includes a large number of people who are part black.
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@@¡
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All this time I thought Bruno Mars was black.
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@solesearch
Many Puerto Ricans are or are in part black.
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@solesearch and @resw77
I don’t think Bruno Mars is part Black
With his half-Puerto Rican, half Jewish father
http://www.geni.com/people/Peter-Hernandez/6000000028773697120
His Puerto Rican grandfather
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As pointed out; Puerto Rican’s tend to have black in them.
Interestingly enough, so do Jews though at a much lower amount.
Bizarrely enough in my personal experience “Hapas” tended to be used for Half white/Half Asians.
And Jefe’s right; a lot of black people of mixed descendants nowadays if they have the option try to be qualified as something “other than black”.
I’m not black…..I’m Puerto Rican, Garifuna, creole etc…..
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I wonder if that offends the hawaiins; people who aren’t of their race or culture taking their language and using it as they please.
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@V-4 – just look at Bruno’s dad and grandfather. They both look like they are (at least mostly) white.
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@Bobby M
That’s the thing about phenotypical expression and all that. It can skip a generation.
Or more.
Friend of the family is a part native woman whose grand children look more native than she does, despite them being a couple generations halved each time.
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@Kiwi,
that is hardly specific at all. Anything but specific. Do Bruno Mars, Dwayne Johnson, Ann Curry and Patricia Ford all share the same specific racial grouping? Hardly.
Also, some mixed black Asian or mixed black Pacific Islander did join the multiracial activist movement, whether or not under the label Hapa. And certainly many, if not most, part Asian people do not feel necessarily comfortable with (or even aware of) the label Hapa.
Regardless, a cursory understanding of US race relations would easily explain why such a movement would start to take place after the post-60s generation came of age.
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@V-4
There has been some voicing of displeasure from Hawaii towards Mainland Americans co-opting “their” term for other purposes.
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@Kiwi,
That is hardly specific at all. It is a “meaning in use” not a “specific definition.” Anyhow, Hapa is not really a shared racial,ethnic or cultural identity. How can someone who is, say black and Korean and grew up in New Jersey share a racial, ethnic and cultural identity with someone who is Japanese, Hawaiian, Portuguese and Irish who was born in Hawaii, and grew up in Orange County, CA? You think that they share more racial, ethnic, cultural identity with each other, than say, with their monoracially identified relatives? That is a ridiculous idea.
The definition #3 is just a description of the typical popular use on the US mainland. It is not an official definition, will not be found on any government or school record or legal document. The only data that the census keeps is who identifies as “Two or more races”. Even then, there is no requirement for anyone to use that response. You will still find multiracial people who tick/check monoracial choices, or “other” or selective portions of their background. Siblings may tick different choices from each other.
It is hardly specific and could be interpreted differently by different people.
What is shared is a sense of alienation from Asian, Black, Latino and white communities and their family and relatives. What is shared is the experience of people telling them that they are a different race than their parents or even their own brothers and sisters. What is shared is people treating them like they are a different race unrelated to what their actual background is.
In the comments above, it looks like some thought Bruno Mars was black, yet neither of his parents identified as black – one of his grandparents was even a white Jewish person, but he has a Hispanic birth surname (Hernandez) and grew up in Hawaii to a Filipino mother. He might have some small amount of African (say, 1/8) but it is doubtful that it is more than that. Likewise, Kirk Acevedo has a Puerto Rican father and Chinese mother (ie, also Asian and Puerto Rican), but he often plays a white person in acting roles. I bet there were people who thought he was white. The problem is that most Americans think of race in binary terms, or at least in monoracial terms.
Regarding why a “Hapa” or “Multiracial” movement started in the first place, you have answered that many times already.
It certainly was not simply a “critical mass” of multiracials that created a Hapa movement. It would not have happened had there not been other things to contribute to it, ie,
– Asian war brides (whites demanding the right to marry non-whites)
– Hawaii statehood (which introduced the concept of “hapa” and a situation where mixed race individuals formed a plurality of the population)
– the repeal of Jim Crow (which invalidated official definitions of race which had required a binary racial classification system – this is probably the main reason why there could be no multiracial movement before the 1970s – you would have to wait for the post Loving generation to come of age)
– repeal of racist immigration laws (which created for more varieties of racial interaction on US soil)
– repeal of anti-miscegenation laws (which allowed more mixed racial persons to be born)
– the introduction of other races besides black and white (e.g., Asians)
As you had previously mentioned, the last point is very important. Asians also like to
adhere to a concept of a “One Drop Rule” or some idea of racial purity. If someone cannot pass as “pure”, then they are at best recognized as mixed, but often not acknowledged at all.
As Asians are sometimes accepted as honorary whites, a Eurasian hapa might have better chance accepted by whites than by Asians, But then again, maybe not. Some Asian women thought they almost identified as “white” when they married a white man, only to find that their kids experience problems being accepted in white groups.
I read that in Hong Kong, Bruce Lee was often reminded that he was “mixed” growing up and not pure Chinese (and thus somehow not authentically Chinese). Yet, in the USA, he was reminded that he was not white. He was TOO oriental to play even an Asian character. Chinese reclaimed him only after he became famous.
Blacks already acknowledge that most black Americans are mixed. To reject a mixed African black person would mean they would have to reject themselves. So, it is easier for blacks to accept Tiger Woods as black than for Asians to accept him as Asian, even though he has about twice as much Asian ancestry than African ancestry. Since his mom is from Thailand, some Thais will recognize that he is part Thai, but both his parents are part Chinese and he has about as much Chinese as African ancestry. But can you conceive any Chinese recognizing him as Chinese? It would be about as likely as a white person recognizing him as “white” as both his parents are part white.
So, add in all these factors together, and a critical mass of both “factors” and “numbers” and a concept of “Hapa” or multiracial activism is created.
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@V-4
Unqualified, “Hapa” is often presumed to mean someone with one white parent and one Asian parent, but that by no means captures the general use of “Hapa”. Kip Fullbeck is regarded as an authority on the subject, and “The Hapa Project” includes about 15-20% who are part black and others who are part Latino or Native American. Many are part Pacific Islander, which could even include Maori and Fijian.
Rarely, however, does it include people who are part Indian/Pakistani/ Sri Lankan and European, although they are still regarded as Eurasian. Central Asian people may also be regarded as Eurasian, but definitely not Hapa.
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..I have never had any confusion as to whether Bruno Mars had any African ancestry, as I have 20/20 vision so it’s clear as a bell to me. lbvs Anywho, for those who are still somehow not sure, here is an article about his background(s)..http://www.arogundade.com/ben-arogundade-biography-bio-author-and-e-book-publisher-arogundade-books.html
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@Jefe
Thank you for doing a post on this. You mention it a great deal and I admit I had no real idea what you were talking about. 🙂
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Some Hapa News:
Emma Stone playing a Hawaiian character with 1/4 Chinese ancestry in new movie.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7465730
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Kiwi,
Early up in the comments you said:
Later on you said
So it is unclear if you mean the “racial group” is specific or if the “definition” is specific.
Regardless of what you mean exactly, we can address each.
The racial group, as a racial group, is not very specific at all. In fact, as you can see, we looked at 3 different common uses of the word “Hapa”. There are more. As there is no consensus on what “Hapa” means exactly, it is impossible to say that the “racial group” (if you can even call it that) is something specific.
Finally, by providing 3 separate descriptions of how “Hapa” is used (and these are by no means all the possible meanings), it should be obvious that there is no “specific definition”, unlike, say, the term “Asian” or “Hispanic” which appears on US government documents and is defined in more specific terms. But even those terms are used differently by different people, so there is no universal agreement on what those terms mean either.
There is certainly no universally accepted definition of “Hapa”.
Again, they are by no means strict definitions, but descriptions of general usage. But the 3rd meaning, the one that is more common on the mainland, tends to imply that “Hapas” are part Asian or Pacific Islander. It is very rare that “Hapa” would be used on the US mainland to refer to a Biracial black/white person or a multiracial Hispanic who is not part Asian. But, I am sure you can find people who might (ie, apply meaning #2 instead of meaning #3).
I agree that the multiracial movement does involve many persons who are not part Asian or part Pacific Islander. My point was that it was after we had a critical mass of part Asian people following the repeal of Jim Crow that the multiracial movement could really take off. Had Jim Crow or racist immigration laws continued after the 1960s, we would not have seen the multiracial movement take off 20 years later (despite a history of miscegenation in the USA spanning centuries).
To address your other assertions:
No, hardly. In no way does it encompass the entire multiracial movement. But persons who fit Hapa #3 played a key role in leading the movement in the late 20th century, hence the word “spearheaded” was used. If you feel that word is misleading, we can consider replacing it.
No it does not. Meaning #2 definitely includes them, but Meaning #3 tends not to include, but not exclusively so.
No I did not. I said that it usually excludes part South Asians (who are not also part East Asian Southeast Asian or Pacific Islander), but it does not always exclude them. In some uses on the mainland they are included. It really depends.
So for persons of part South Asian descent (but not East Asian, Southeast Asian or Pacific Islander).
– Not included under Meaning #1
– Generally included under Meaning #2
– Sometimes may be included under meaning #3
Persons who are part South Asian, part European can certainly be called Eurasian (and sometimes maybe “Hapa”). Persons who are part Pacific Islander, part European are not Eurasian, but can certainly be called Hapa.
Dwayne Johnson would not be referred to as “Eurasian”, but few would object to calling him “Hapa”.
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@Sharina,
I think the discussion above about Bruno Mars addresses the typical issues faced by “Hapas”, ie,
– His father is from Brooklyn, NY and he has one paternal grandparent who was an Ashkenazi Jew with origins in Eastern Europe, one paternal grandparent from Puerto Rico (who is likely mostly white) and his mother is from the Philippines. He was born and raised in Hawaii and later moved to the US mainland.
– None of his grandparents identify as black, but there are people (including some of this blog’s readers) who assumed he was black. He probably frequently encounters people who assume his has a different racial and ethnic background unrelated to what his actual background is.
–> If anything, it would be more appropriate to call him Eurasian or Mestizo/Mestiso rather than black.
– He might not look that much like either parent or his grandparents or even his siblings. Or he might look very much like them, yet get assigned to a different racial category. His racial category assignment could change over the course of his life or in different circumstances and not match his family members.
– How he might actually identify might even be something else altogether. For example, growing up in Hawaii, he might have become interested in Hawaiian culture and their community. Or maybe many of his friends or his cousins were hapa popolo or hapa portagee — I have no idea really. He could simultaneously feel attachment to many different communities.
He attended Theodore Roosevelt High School in Hawaii, which is where many of my university schoolmates from Hawaii attended.
– How should one apply the “One Drop Rule” to him? What box should he check on forms?
This illustrates the “Hapa” experience, especially the version encountered on the US mainland.
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@Solesearch,
Your link said that the character to be played by Emma Stone is supposed to be 1/4 Chinese, 1/4 Hawaiian, and part European, and with a Chinese surname — that would be a commonly found Hawaiian Hapa – ie, the background of Don Ho or the father of Keanu Reeves.
But Emma Stone is of Swedish, German, Scottish, Irish descent who grew up in suburban white neighborhoods in the US mainland. I grant the right for a good actress to play any role she is qualified for, but somehow it does not feel right that the movie “Aloha” set in Hawaii to have a white cast, with whites playing the Hapa roles.
Hapas and other multiracial actors are almost always forced to play roles representing monoracial characters. That is how scripts are written. Yet in the rare instance when character is specifically multiracial, it is being played by a white person. Not only that, her love interest is played by Bradley Cooper, a quintessentially white man.
Here is at least one Eurasian Hapa NOT buying it.
(http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/29/im-not-buying-emma-stone-asian-american)
(A situation I understand only so well).
I recall “Love is a Many Splendored Thing” (1955) where the Eurasian protagonist with a Chinese name is played by a white woman, Jennifer Jones, in yellowface makeup frequently in Chinese dress, even though all of her family members are played by ethnic Chinese or other Asians. But her love interest is a white man, played by 1950s heartthrob William Holden, Hollywood could not allow interracial scenes to appear on the screen, even allowing a multiracial person to be romantic with a white man. Are we still stuck in the 1950s? We either have to have whites in yellowface or whitewash Asian/Pacific Islander characters in 2015?
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There’s almost no legitimate or definitive evidence that Bruce Lee was anything else other than Chinese.. You should focus on the different Chinese ethnicities to better understand Bruce Lee and other Asians in general.
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Nice post Jefe.
As I always said, in America, it’s tough being in the middle, everyone wants it nice and clean-cut.
Here is an interesting article about Hapa’s at the UC Berkeley.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/03/07_multiracial.shtml
I especially liked the story about Ai-Ling Malone (chinese, black American), who looks Chinese but identified as “black” in high school.
She and her siblings have encountered racism from both sides
“Ai-Ling and her siblings gravitated to leadership roles in their high school’s Black Student Union. “We picked that identity,” says Ai-Ling, but it also sounds as if it picked them. In high school, “Asians were more rejecting – they would say, ‘You don’t count,’ as if I wasn’t Asian enough.”
It wasn’t always smooth sailing among black high school students, either. While Ai-Ling felt accepted by her classmates, she remembers going to a Black Student Union conference at a different school and being in an elevator with several other attendees. One of them looked her up and down and said, “What are you doing here?” Although her friends jumped in to set the girl straight, Ai-Ling was stung.
Ai-Ling has worked hard to build community for mixed-race students at Berkeley. As a freshman, she joined the Hapa Issues Forum (HIF); she became president last year.”
It really comes down to phenotype because one of the half Asian/white students said he thought of himself as white and felt he has been treated as such because he looks white:
“You’re not going to find too many issues with me,” Josh says. “I always felt white, because I looked more white than Asian. I’ve heard Persian and Latino; most people think I’m Italian. It always amazes me when someone asks if I’m part Asian, because I just don’t see it.”
Another mixed student in the article, Amina, (white Dutch, black Costa Rican) stated that she did not enjoy her experience in the Hapa/Mixed Student association because it was dominated by kids who were mostly half white/half Asian:
She had hoped to find more of a community at Berkeley, but says that the original Hapa Issues Forum mission hadn’t seemed to include her, and that the “People of Mixed Racial Descent” class, which she took last year as a junior, was a disappointment.
Instead of the common experience she was hoping for, the class felt divided between those who were half white and other mixes. — “They were like, ‘Well, you obviously can’t pass, but I’ve never been discriminated against.’— I don’t know what I was looking for – maybe the rainbow coalition? – but I didn’t find it in that class.”
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@jefe; I like Emma Stone as an actress but she is pretty “white” I can see how you would be annoyed by that.
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@MB,
I don’t know – rarely can you see a fully white person pulling off portraying an Asian or part Asian character without it coming across as Yellowface. Can you think of any?
Maybe the most famous example (I can think of a couple others) was the role of Billy Kwan played by Linda Hunt in The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), where she even won an Academy Award for her performance.
But for me,
– the only major Asian or part Asian character in that movie was played by a white person
– the Asian character played by a white person is male, but played by a woman – a character with no love life and which sent off strong vibes of emasculation.
It worked well for Linda Hunt, but not for the image of Asian American males in Hollywood. Even a white woman can pretend to be an Asian male.
On the other hand, Hapas are nearly always forced to play monoracial roles – no roles are written for them. But, on the rare instance when there is a multiracial character, it is played by monoracially identified actors. Why is that?
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jefe; You raise many good points and your and Kiwi’s have valid concerns about the Asian males are portrayed in the media and love they are viewed in American society. It is problematic i see it.
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^They way Asian males are portrayed^^^^^
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@Linda,
Thank you for sharing the link.
I think the article brings up other points as well, eg,
* It is indeed possible to identify as both Chinese and (African-American) black simultaneously. It is not an either-or thing.
* Whites are not the only ones reinforcing racial stereotypes; blacks are just as guilty of this.
* Asians can be quite rejecting of mixed-race Asians. But so can whites and blacks.
* “After 1967, it became acceptable for the first time for interracial couples not only to exist, but also for the children to have contact with both sides of their family and be raised in both cultures,” he explains. “Mixed-race children before Loving tended not to be bi-cultural. A white wife or white husband would come into the black community, and the children would be raised as black.”
(I think this also addresses on Kiwi’s question why the concept of multiracial identity in the USA only started to take off in the 1980s).
* The One Drop Rule does not determine everything
*“In the end, you become a member of a race because of your heritage, not your appearance.”
* And some day, she (Amina, the woman you profiled above) hopes, the rest of the world will be more interested in knowing the answer to the question “Who are you?” than “What are you?”
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@Linda
I really believe that most Chinese would not think she looks Chinese (at best “mixed” and generally would not treat her or accept her as Chinese unless she was very culturally and socially Chinese.) I imagine she would mostly get “You don’t count” from Asians just like the article indicated.
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@King,
I am going to link your quote here.
(https://abagond.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/do-whites-have-a-culture/#comment-278069)
Some people do not understand why calling someone half-black, half-white or half-Asian can be problematic (and to some extent, disrespectful).
But, I also think it is not just genetics. It is also heritage.
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They are exceptions.
For every role where a hapa plays a hapa character, you will find 10,20 maybe more roles where they do not (ie, play a monoracial). Multiracial character roles are few and far between. When there is one, more often than not it will be played by a monoracial actor.
There are exceptions, like Brandon Lee. But he died before he could do many films.
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jefe
I will admit I always thought Bruno Mars was mixed with black. It is quite nice to truly get an idea of his background, but it really makes me wonder when will we move away from the one drop rule ideology.
It is very painfully obvious that people do not fit into that neat little box.
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The term “Hapa” is usually used by half-white/half Asians. I’ve never heard anyone on the East Coast use that term. I heard it a little bit in California, but mostly around suburban whites, Asians or “hapas”.
Half-white/half Asian hapas often have serious identity issues. Especially the males since they often carry all the negative stereotypes linked to Asian males based on the Asianness of their appearance many times. I can attest being half-white/half Asian myself. But look up the Hapa Reddit and it’s some seriously depressing stuff there. But once again, American “Eurasians” self-identify under the term “hapa” more than other half-Asian mixes. Other half-Asian mixes will tell you they are “mixed” unless they are from Hawaii or maybe some heavily Asian suburban locale on the West Coast.
The problem with many half-white/half-Asian people who identify as Hapa is the undying lust to be seen as white or Asian or both universally by everyone. You have Hapas who resent their Asianness like the world-famous mass murderer Elliot Rodger who felt his mixed race features with obvious Asian roots stopped him from attaining the blonde haired young white women he lusted for. Rodger felt superior to full-blooded Asians since he was half-white, but felt forever outcasted from being accepted by white people because a huge percentage of white Americans live by the one drop rule when it comes to biracial people and considered him to be Asian in race and that alone.
You have other half-white/half-Asian Hapas who wish to be considered as fully Asian only to be rejected by full-blooded Asians and labelled as “other”. If you are half-black/half-Asian and have visible black features, most black people will still claim you as being black especially if you self-identify as being black 100%. When black people assume I’m half-black/half Asian or half-black/half white, I usually get a positive reaction. This is because black people in America come from a diverse multigenerational multiracial stock because of the legacy of the one drop rule. But most Asian Americans hail from some of the most ethnically homogenous places on the planet, with the exception of places like the Phillipines. And being authentically white is an exclusive social club which requires one to have two biological parents who were white. This is why half-Asian/half-white hapas often have such a hard time forming a positive self-image, especially the males.
In order to be “Hapa”, biracial or whatever you want to call it, you need a thick skin. I find my niche thriving in more racially inclusive authentically colorblind circles where whites just happen to be a minority in the social group, yet they are cool enough to be that way.
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@Sharina
I think most multiracials who have adopted other names to call themselves (eg, Hapa, biracial, etc.) have already moved away from the one drop rule ideology, as well as all the people who checked “Two or more races” on the US census.
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@SanFranpsycho415
That’s what I have been trying to say for the past 3 years.
To select a name to refer to yourself that is not assigned to you by others is an act of defiance and courage. When Tigers Woods explained in 1997 that he had coined the term “Cablinasian” when he was 16, I found it very inspirational. I wish I had figured that out when I was 16.
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Just ran across this
Basically it is a guide to how to select your race on census forms.
2010 U.S. Census – Some Thoughts
2010 U.S. Census: You’ll Do Fine With Number 9, or “Who Do You Think We Think You Are?”
(http://www.mixedracestudies.org/?page_id=6079)
which is basically a response to this article
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marcia-alesan-dawkins/2010-census-stressed-out_b_492791.html
2010 Census: Stressed Out of the Box
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‘Aloha’ director apologizes for casting Emma Stone as Asian-American
http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/03/entertainment/cameron-crowe-emma-stone-aloha-apology-feat/index.html
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Thank you for the update on the Emma Stone casting in the movie “Aloha”.
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This is not what I said.
I did not say that monoracial Asians are similarly taking hapa roles. I said that roles for multiracial people are often taken by monoracial (specifically, monoracially identified) actors. They don’t have to be Asian. In fact, more often than not, it is white people who do multiracial roles.
And “Hapas” have to take “monoracial” roles, otherwise they would be out of work.
Also, it is not a contradiction.
Before addressing the rest of your argument, think for one second what is going through the minds of white people (not what Asians might imagine is going through the minds of whites). I really don’t think that whites consciously think of whether people cast into Asian roles are “full” Asian or “mixed” Asian. That decision was done way far in advance by the casting directors and producers.
To give food for thought, think about the TV series Empire for a second. People like Terence Howard (both of whose parents are biracial), Jussie Smollett (who has a white Jewish father and a mixed black, white and Native American mother – playing the middle son) and Grace Gealey, who is also of recent multiracial background – the roles they are playing are “black” roles, not “biracial” roles. Do whites really think that much about whether they are full black or not? Most of the others are not full black either for that matter.
When I saw Sonja Sohn on the Wire, I thought to myself, “Wow, a blasian playing a black role”. But do most viewers think that way? I doubt it.
Likewise, whites are not likely to think about which Asian roles are being played by monoracial Asians and which are mixed Asians. That might go through your mind, but not theirs.
What concerns me much much more is whether the role was written by a non-Asian and based on stereotypes. For example, I had no problem with Russell Wong being cast in the role of Ben Loy in “Eat a Bowl of Tea”, but less comfortable with the role in Vanishing Son, which was created and written by non-Asians. Also not feeling great about his role in The Joy Luck Club, as it was written by an Asian-American woman who obviously liked to bash Asian men. All of these have nothing to do with whether the monoracial Asian role was played by a multiracial man.
I’ll address the rest of the argument later.
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“Jefe @ I really believe that most Chinese would not think she looks Chinese (at best “mixed” and generally would not treat her or accept her as Chinese unless she was very culturally and socially Chinese.) I imagine she would mostly get “You don’t count” from Asians just like the article indicated.”
Linda says,
Hey Jefe, just saw your response.
According to the article, she went to “Chinese school on Friday nights followed by Chinese dance lessons”
As far as how she would be perceived by Chinese people — I hear you, but if Chinese people can detect any “black” in her based on that photo, then they are exceptionally talented.
I actually thought she was an Inuit boy when I first saw her.
I found another picture of her, which actually shows her mixture much better (and more attractive. that Berkeley picture was Not flattering at all)
This photo would have been better in the article because then her experience, as a Hapa would have made more sense (to me)
http://static.hwpi.harvard.edu/files/styles/profile_full/public/ali/files/malone_ailing.jpg?itok=yN9dfSpB
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@Linda,
I think 90% of Chinese (in Greater China, at least, possibly also in the USA) would detect her as non-Chinese, possibly black, unless she was VERY Chinese culturally (and I don’t mean just attending Chinese language Chinese dance classes) I find Chinese very scathing about their opinions on racial blood quantum, not unlike the Japanese.
But if she spoke flawless Chinese and acted like a Chinese, they might be able to forget that she was part black or not detect it. I could see that.
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Just ran across this on the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center web page.
The deadline to submit a story is August 18, so there are a few days left.
http://smithsonianapa.org/myhapastory
#myhapastory
Because identity can’t be summarized in just a sentence about race.
“Want to submit? Tell me your story in a short video, external blog post, or photo, and share it with me using the hashtag #myhapastory on Twitter, Instagram, Vine, or send a photo and under 250 words by email to MulliganR@si.edu, by August 18th, 2015. We are only accepting entries from individuals who are 18 years or older.”
What I did notice about the ones submitted so far is that most of them do not like to refer to themselves in terms of fractions, e.g., 1/2 this 1/4 that. No one sees themselves dissected like that.
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Bruno Mars is my dude he is my ear candy for this Summer loves his cute bad boy swagger and he is just so talented. I would like to think if my other favorite music artist Michael Jackson were alive he would be impressed with Bruno Mars. I love both albums Unorthodox Juke Box and Doo Woops & Hooligans. His music just makes me happy. These hot Summer days can’t stop listening to Locked Out Of Heaven and Treasure and the very funky and fun and soulful Uptown Funk. Talking To The Moon makes me cry. I also love When I was Your Man. Bruno is my dude and he is the business. I am a huge fan for sure.
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Bruno Mars’ Puerto-Rican heritage *could* imply some African. Afro-Boriqua aren’t that uncommon. IIRC, probably a larger proportion of the population than Afro-Americans in the USA.
Click to access loveman-muniz.pdf
“The gradual “whitening” of Puerto Rico over the course of the twentieth century is often noted in scholarly, journalistic, and popular descriptions of the island’s population. In 1899, a year after Puerto Rico came under U.S. dominion, the census reported that 62 percent of the population was white; by the year 2000, according to official census results, the white proportion of the Puerto Rican population reached 80 percent. Observers of Puerto Rican society have speculated about the sources of this trend, which is typically cited as evidence of the hold of “whitening ideology” on the island. To date, however, none of the hypothesized mechanisms of whitening have been subjected to empirical test. Using newly available public use samples of the 1910 and 1920 censuses of Puerto Rico, this paper explores three possible explanations for the growth in the white population according to official statistics: (1) demographic processes, (2) institutional bias of the Census Office, and (3) socio-cultural shifts in societal conceptions of race. We find little support for the first two hypotheses. The proportion of whites in the Puerto Rican population in 1920 is at least ten percent higher than would be expected due to natural rates of population growth. And it appears, somewhat surprisingly, that any institutional bias of the Puerto Rican Census Office worked to mitigate the magnitude of whitening in this period rather than contributing to it. We find that the statistical whitening of Puerto Rico between1910 and 1920 is primarily due to changes in the social definition of whiteness. The children of interracial unions, in particular, were much more likely to be classified as white in 1920 than in 1910.”
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From what i have read about Bruno Mars aka Peter Gene Hernandez that he was born in Hawaii and his mother was Puerto Rican and his father was Jewish and he was born in Hawaii. He is pretty soulful and he has an affinity for black culture. And he fathered a child with a black woman. He is just a great entertainer and his music just makes me happy.
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@Origin: Good information.
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No one is denying that Bruno Mars might have some relatively recent post-Colombian African ancestry. I very likely do too.
I bet Jerry Hough does too.
Let’s say Mars’s grandfather was 1/4-3/8 African (reasonable speculation). Then Bruno Mars might be 1/16-3/32 (6-10%) black.
But as none of his parents or grandparents identify as black, and he has considerably more European and Asian ancestry than African, it might be more accurate to say that he has a Eurasian Hapa background (esp given his Hawaiian upbringing) or Filipino Mestizo with a Spanish birth surname rather than speculate on his fraction of remote African ancestry. It wouldn’t be right to dismiss the entire rest of his background after discovering, say, he is 8% African.
And he isn’t the first Eurasian Hapa or Mestizo Filipino who is sometimes mistaken as being part Black.
Of course we can launch an argument as to how much African ancestry is prevalent in Puerto Rico and how many with some recent African ancestry choose to identify as white instead of black, esp. in the early 20th century. That is not a trivial argument. But I don’t think any of that argument determines whether or not Bruno Mars is black. In the context of this post, it is irrelevant.
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@MB
This is not correct.
His mother is from the Philippines. His Dad is from Brooklyn, NY. His paternal grandfather was from Puerto Rico and his paternal grandmother was Ashkenazi Jewish with roots in Ukraine and Hungary (ie, Eastern European).
He was included in the list that satisfied definition #3 in the post because his Mom is from SE Asia.
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@Mary
The Caribbean islands that are former Spanish colonies (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico) are a lot blacker, in terms of ancestry, than I think most Americans assume (and because of anti-blackness nobody will be in a hurry to come clean). Even the official censuses might not tell the full story for reasons similar to the above. People who’d be considered black in the USA might not identify as black there. Yet the African influence tends to be really strong in music, dialect, dance, religion (eg. Santeria) and skin colors.
Fidel Castro of Cuba
“We are not only a Latin American nation, we are an Afro-American nation also.”
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@jefe: You have this insatiable need to correct people whatever he is i like the man’s effing music. So what! You get on my nerves with that.
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@jefe
You sound rather defensive. My post was to clarify.
You can have a black parent and not identify as black (see passing). I’m not telling anyone what their identity should be. My point was that saying someone is part Puerto Rican does not rule out actual African ancestry (independent of identity labels). If someone thinks a person looks part African, that’s not an insult…unless one wishes to take it as such. The Lacey Schwartz article is a case in point. She actually was biracial even though none of her parents identified as non-white.
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@Origin: Thanks for the information.
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@Origin,
Your point was already well noted and well taken, even before you made it. No one suggested or implied that looking part African was an insult and no one suggested or implied that part Puerto Rican would rule out actual African ancestry. In fact, it was already suggested further upthread.
I may disagree, however, that this has anything to do with “passing” or being part black and not identifying as black. In fact, the point of this post was about feeling the need to express one’s identity without the obligation of “check the box” or the one-drop rule. One might look part African yet identify as a Hispanic Chinese, and this has nothing to do with “passing” as anything or not identifying with their alleged African heritage.
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@jefe
You didn’t understand my reference to “passing” the way I intended it. You mentioned that none of Mars’ parents identified as black and referred to the implications this would have for his own identity. However, I said I wasn’t talking about identity because people can even have black parents yet choose not to identify as black when they’re passing. I was talking about ancestry which is a strict function of heredity and is therefore less fluid. Ancestry can affect your appearance regardless of how you identify (see Lacey Schwartz).
Jefe wrote:
“I may disagree, however, that this has anything to do with “passing” or being part black and not identifying as black. In fact, the point of this post was about feeling the need to express one’s identity without the obligation of “check the box” or the one-drop rule. One might look part African yet identify as a Hispanic Chinese, and this has nothing to do with “passing” as anything or not identifying with their alleged African heritage.”
You wrote this under a misapprehension. Hopefully my first paragraph cleared that up. I don’t think rejection of the label “black” by multiracial people is tantamount to passing when they’re not claiming to be white. However, one-drop itself implies that being “black” does not indicate “purity” so one can black while having blood relatives who would not be considered black. What being black does imply is a position at the bottom of the racial hierarchly which exists under white supremacy. In that context, the establishment of higher intermediate classifications to belong to could be appealing.
I think I’ll do a genetic ancestry test after all.
Who thinks I’ll come out Cablinasian?
*smirk*
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@Origin,
If anything, the multiracial activist movement that was primarily spearheaded by “Hapas” rejected the one-drop rule. That is why the whole argument of whether Puerto Ricans are part black or not is altogether moot in the context of this post. That was closer to my point.
Are you perhaps implying that you may believe that a motivating force in the multiracial activist movement was to avoid or escape “black” classification or assignment to lower rungs in the racial social hierarchy?
I can see why it might appear to many black-identified people who see people applying multiracial labels to themselves as an attempt to escape black classification (and move up the “racial ladder”). It might be a factor for some people. But I really don’t think that is a main motivational factor in the movement. For example, in the Hapa Project above, one guy wrote that he is “100% Black and 100% Japanese”. He is not trying to escape being classified as black; however, he does not feel that calling him black adequately describes what he is. He also rejects being called “half black” or “half Japanese”. Most people do not like to have others divide them up into fractions.
What would be more ideal is if there was no such thing as “higher intermediate classifications” in the first place. But by imposing one-drop rules on those who use multiracial self-labels (of which “Hapa” could be an example of one of those), then that act itself is reinforcing the white supremacist racial hierarchy that we would like to see dismantled.
It may be good to have a separate post on the multiracial activist movement, and examine how its tenets mesh with, say, BLM as well as AIM (American Indian Movement).
BTW, I am almost certain that I am Cablinasian. A DNA test would only serve to confirm it.
@MB,
I like to watch and hear Bruno Mars perform too. I hope you understand I was not trying to detract from that point.
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@jefe
“If anything, the multiracial activist movement that was primarily spearheaded by “Hapas” rejected the one-drop rule. That is why the whole argument of whether Puerto Ricans are part black or not is altogether moot in the context of this post. That was closer to my point.”
The reason I mentioned Africanness as a part of Puerto Rican identity is because of how you wrote your post. You didn’t say NeYo was Chinese and American. You said African. Yet you said Bruno Mars was Puerto Rican among other things. I said he could very well have African too. That’s why I brought it up and I don’t think it was irrelevant at all. You’d have to explain to me why Puerto Rican is indivisible while American isn’t.
@jefe
“He is not trying to escape being classified as black; however, he does not feel that calling him black adequately describes what he is. He also rejects being called “half black” or “half Japanese”. Most people do not like to have others divide them up into fractions.”
That sound like he’s just saying he’s black and Japanese? Lacey Schartz probably sees herself as a black Jew. Obama is biracial and black. The singer Bob Marley (song: Black my Story) was also biracial. My point about the one-drop rule is that it does not imply that if you’re black you can’t be someting else as well. The one drop rule just gives you a black membership card under certain conditions. This is why it was a bit controversial for Tiger Woods to say he’s NOT black but Cablinasian (IIRC, I could be wrong that he said that). Nobody ever said he couldn’t be Cablinasian AND black. So it came off as a rejection. Of course, people are free to identify however they want but it carries implications for who identifies with you.
@jefe
“What would be more ideal is if there was no such thing as “higher intermediate classifications” in the first place. But by imposing one-drop rules on those who use multiracial self-labels (of which “Hapa” could be an example of one of those), then that act itself is reinforcing the white supremacist racial hierarchy that we would like to see dismantled. ”
Many things would be ideal. What I notice is that white people aren’t in a hurry to divide themselves into subcategories. Those who had the phenotypic qualifications to become white assimilated because it offered social advantages. What happened among people who didn’t have that ability was, for example, colorism. They jostled for position within their community by creating a hierarchy based on how black they’re not. Unable to become white, some aspired to be less black in order to acquire *some* privilege. I think there’s obviously some incentive to escape the “black” label even if you’d conventionally be black. Jostling for position according to the definitions of white supremacy is also not dismantling the hierarchy. It’s saying, “Those people are your ideal target not me”.
“BTW, I am almost certain that I am Cablinasian. A DNA test would only serve to confirm it.”
@jefe
I said it tongue-and-cheek but I could be too. My family has Jamaican background; my father has two mulatto parents even though you probably wouldn’t think so if you met him. Many African-Americans have some European and/or Native American DNA. It’s far more integrative for me to say I’m black than to use an identity that accounts for my genetic makeup in terms of continental populations. When I say I’m black nobody asks me about my genetic makeup so I never felt that I was being divided. That said, I understand the situation of people who have parents of very different ethnicities (I don’t) and want to feel like a part of both communities. However, if one has a black-identified parent and doesn’t want to appear to reject the black community, even while embracing others, it’s better to say you’re black and something rather than not black but (black and something)…if you get what I mean by that math.
That’s my opinion anyway.
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Maybe black Americans probably got so annoyed with Tiger Woods because he choose to identify with his mother’s Asian roots rather than his father’s African American side.
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Self-identification is definitely colored by the racial dynamics of the world in which we live. The whole concept of having to pick a race on *government* forms reinforces that. Even attempts to challenge the binary choice between “white” and “not white” by introducing multiple choices for the latter ultimately leave the former in tact. The power of that identity is the reason everyone else is scrambling.
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@Origin,
Your point about Ne-Yo is well taken. Maybe it would have been better to say he was part black instead of part African to be consistent with saying Bruno Mars has Puerto Rican background. Should we change the words then?
But, having said that, I am loathe to say that anyone is just part anything because I know many multiracials do not like it. Is Ne-yo then black and Chinese? I don’t want to label someone either so I don’t want to indicate what someone is, but what things they have in their background.
You would feel better if Tiger Woods said he was Cablinasian AND Black? But would it bother you if he said that and did not say he was Cablinasian and white, Cablinasian and Chinese, Cablinasian and Thai? Or does he need to keep that “Black” there and the other stuff he can leave out?
To be honest, I don’t think he feel he can call himself Cablinasian and Black — he doesn’t identify that way and I would not impose it on him. He doesn’t see himself as Black and XXXX.
That is how your experience is very different from the typical “Hapa” experience. The vast majority I have met and known feel that everyone is trying to dissect them into fractions and none of them like it.
When I said I might be Cablinasian, for me it is not tongue-in-cheek at all. I think it is quite likely, I just want to confirm. But I know for a fact that my niece’s son is definitely cablinasian, with white, black, Chinese and American Indian background all within the last 3-4 generations. I really have no idea how he is going to identify. I have a cousin whose grandson is about 3/8 black, 3/8 white and 1/4 chinese and my godmother’s grandson who is Filipino and Polish and married a woman who is biracial black/white. It seems that 2 generations down quite a few are triracial or quadriracial already and I am not sure they will identify as black.
@MB, I don’t think Tiger identifies that much more strongly with his Asian roots than he does his general American identity, but he is somewhat more connected to his Asian background for sure. I have met / spoken with his mother before (my Aunt used to work with her) and I know his Mom still identifies very strongly with her Thai homeland and her Asian roots. Tiger’s Dad is at most half black and apparently does not identify so strongly with it and it seems they tried to raise Tiger as somehow non-racial and not so connected to the black community. So he had to come up with a word for to describe himself.
I actually plaud him for that. I wish I had figured out something like that when I was young.
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This Eurasian professor of Asian Cultural studies at MIT has postulated why multiracial activism started gaining ground in the late 80s and reached a crescendo in the 1990s. It can largely be traced to Loving v. Virginia (1967).
The mixed fortunes of Eurasians: how Hong Kong, China and US viewed intermarriage
http://www.scmp.com/culture/article/2066738/mixed-fortunes-eurasians-how-hong-kong-china-and-us-viewed-intermarriage
I went to see her talk in HK about 4 months ago and asked her a question: If Eurasians in HK were able to find niches where they could exploit their position to their economic advantage, did we also find that in the USA?
She said no. With the combination of the Exclusion acts and one-drop rule ideology, most Eurasians were on par with Asians and were excluded from participation in civil society for the same reasons.
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