I think it has to with the fact that the people who are usually co-opting the word are not just mixed people in general, but mixed Asian people. At a point which I can’t pinpoint, I think hapa entered the Asian American lexicon, it probably has to do with Asian immigration to Hawaii and the period of time in which Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were encouraged to group themselves together under racial and ethnic categorizations (regardless of the truth to this statement).
The use of hapa by mixed Asians has a very particular history, and like most histories of colonization, it has been done great disservice by the education system which leads many mixed Asians into believing that hapa is a word that carries no connotations and no baggage (unlike many of the words used to describe mixed Asians in our home countries, which are usually slurs). I also think the colonization of the word hapa by mixed Asians has a lot to do with the fragmentation of the Asian American movement, which despite is name is made up of many different groups with many different goals and beliefs which makes coalition among Asian Americans difficult to say the least and thus co-option of hapa by mixed Asians may also constitute a wish for greater solidarity and connection in the Asian diasporic community.
Regardless of the reasoning, it is important that we as mixed (and often diasporic) Asians unlearn behaviours and attitudes that directly affect Indigenous people and remember that we too are culpable in Western settler colonial violence.
– Melody
Thoughts from others with more knowledge on the matter?
It did indeed happen during the time Japanese people were brought to work on the plantations. However, that’s not the only word in Hawaiian history that has lost its agency because of Asian settler colonialism. Before I go on, I do want to highlight the concept of “agency”. Agency is when an individual or group of people have choices that can affect the outcome of a situation. Bearing that in mind, many indigenous people have lost both agency and autonomy with their own language, culture, and identity.
Hapa is a word where agency was taken from us. It does absolutely only apply when a person is part Hawaiian (not just half). If people want to argue that it explicitly means “half” when referring to heritage, they don’t know our language as well as they think they do – and unless they are Hawaiian it is not their place to debate it.
Is there a particular reason why mixed white and Asian folks have a hard time (in my experience talking about this as a mixed Asian) understanding that it’s problematic to use the term Hapa? Is it just internalised racism? Tbh I have only ever seen half white people who are half Asian use Hapa…
Beauty of Oceania 