HIF is helping individuals of mixed heritage find new niche

By Michaele Turnage
Daily Bruin Reporter

Though the word “Hapa” was once a derogatory term,
it has since become a positive description of Asian Pacific
Islanders of multiracial heritage.

“These groups appropriated the word to have a positive
connotation so that they could have a language with which to talk
about being a multiracial (person),” said Brandy Worrall, a
second-year master’s student in Asian American studies who is
writing her thesis on Hapa authors.

The term “Hapa” originally comes from the Hawaiian
word “hapa haole” (pronounced ha’pa
how’lee) meaning “half” according to Merriam
Webster’s dictionary. Hawaiians used the word to refer to
anyone who had one parent who was native Hawaiian and another
non-Hawaiian heritage.

But according to Hapa Issues Forum club members, Issei and
Nissei ““ first- and second-generation Japanese Americans
respectively ““ used the term in a derogatory way to describe
people of mixed Japanese and white heritage.

“Now the term Hapa has become so inclusive that it refers
to anyone that is partial or mixed Asian American heritage along
with being white or Latino or African-American,” said Karen
Runde, who is organizing to establish a HIF chapter at UCLA.
“Anything that is non-Asian and Asian is considered
Hapa.”

The HIF club at UCLA will soon join similar groups at UC
Berkeley, Irvine and Stanford as an official student chapter of
HIF, a non-profit organization in San Francisco. The club was
recognized as an official UCLA student group earlier this year.

“HIF exists to help provide a space for Asian Pacific
Islanders of mixed heritage to socialize and dialogue about being a
mixed race within various Asian American communities and also
within the larger mixed race community,” said Anthony Yuen,
associate director of the San Francisco-based organization.

Runde and Greg Tse traveled to the Bay area last summer to meet
with founders of the Berkeley chapter of HIF and begin establishing
the chapter.

According to members, people have been coming to their table on
Bruin Walk to tell them that “we’ve been waiting for
this for years.”

HIF provides a space for students to deconstruct stereotypes and
address challenges specific to the Hapa community.

“There’s the stereotype of the American G.I. and the
Asian American prostitute and I know that people think of that when
they see me,” said Worrall.

In addition to assumptions about where the Hapa community
originated, Hapas must face assertions that they are making the
race impure or have no culture.

“We’re not diluting culture ““ we’re
uniting cultures,” said Runde. “We can be seen as
having the best of both worlds.”

In order to combat these and other misperceptions, HIF
administers multiracial diversity training for community
organizations so that they can assess how they can handle issues of
multiraciality, Yuen said.

Discussion on how people are often pigeon-holed to fit a
one-dimensional racial identity and other issues attracts many
non-Hapa students to HIF.

“A lot of times you feel constrained when you have to
submit yourself to a particular racial identity,” said Greg
Tse, a second-year electrical engineering student.

People of multiracial heritage are often asked to define
themselves with one racial identity. These pressures sometimes lead
multiracial people to negate a part of who they are or cause an
identity crisis.

“I’ve always kind of felt like it was hard to find
my niche,” said Runde, who added that many Hapa find it hard
to choose whether they should associate with a non-Asian crowd or
identify themselves with the Asian crowd in their social scene.

The government didn’t account for the existence of a
multiracial population in its 210-year-old census until Census
2000.

“As long as the construct of race has existed, there has
been mixed-race people. They haven’t been recognized,”
Yuen said, a first-year graduate student an Asian American
studies.

After questionnaires were updated so that respondents could
identify as more than one race, Census 2000 reported that 14
percent of Asian respondents identified as more than one race and
67 percent of Hawaiian native or Pacific Islander respondents
identified as more than one race. But almost 98 percent of all
respondents identified as one race only.

“Today, you do see more mainstream exposure to multiracial
people like Tiger Woods,” Yuen said. “I think in
everyday interaction, a lot of issues still need to be worked
out.”