100% HAPA.
Posted by colinresponse on November 19, 2007
Kip Fulbeck is a Professor of Art & Asian American Studies at UC Santa Barbara and is the author of “Paper Bullets,” one of my favorite books of all time. His latest “Half-Asian, 100% Hapa,” book project made it onto CNN and MTV, and explores the vast diversity and complexity of mixed race Asian Pacific Amerikans. If you aren’t a Hapa yourself, you probably know some Hapas, and if you do, you’ve probably crushed on at least one of them sexy bastards (don’t front blud).
His new book displays close-up shots of mixed race Asian Pacific Amerikans and a one page blurb of them answering the queston all us Hapas have heard 10,000 times: “What are you?”
EXAMPLE:
I am a Yonsei (4th generation Japanese-Amerikan), Scottish, Iriquois/Mohawk 80’s baby from Richmond, California who dies a little bit inside everytime you ask me that question, because it frightens me how important it is for you to know what box you should place me in. I am Asian & Anglo but I am also a product of the Richmond public schools and raised working class. Which of your streotypes will override the other, for you to pass judgement on me now that you have your answer?
Love us or hate us, mixed folks are the future. We can’t be stopped because different people are going to continue making babies with each other until everyone looks like Tiger Woods and Nicole Sherzinger (is that spelled right?), and that don’t sound too bad to me.
Word to Tyson Beckford and Keanu Reeves,
Senbeezy.
November 19, 2007 at 10:54 am
I am a Chinese Japanese Amerikan combinAsian 80s baby born and raised in glorious Oakland California. I am irritated by stereotypes, generalizations, and white people who spent thousands of dollars on privately tutored Mandarin lessons and thus think they are more Asian than I am because the only language I speak is perfect English with a hint of hyphy.
I’m all for mixin it up. The only thing I fear is that we will all become people of various shades of beige with the darker beige people still getting shafted more than the lighter beige people. Guess we’ll have to wait and see!
The bottom line is that if you look at the two largest populations in the world, Chinese and Indian (South Asian), you come to one conclusion: Sooner or later, a Chinese or Indian man is gonna hump you. So ladies of the world, next time you see that tall, Chinese Japanese man with the Bay Area swag that you kind of want to sleep with, go for it! Ahahahah jk. Sort of.
November 19, 2007 at 7:25 pm
DAAAHAHAHA!!! You are hella stoopid/funny for that one blud.
I’m very glad you brought up the point of racism in regards to not just ethnic heritage, but the amount of melanin you posess in general. It is a huge reality that historically in most ethnic groups, lighter skinned individuals receive privilege, being treated with more respect, not being seen as a source of fear, not having their intelligence questioned, etc.
My personal opinion is that in racism “whiteness,” is the enemy and that there is a difference between “whiteness,” and white people. The majority of Anglos carry “whiteness,” like a badge of honor (if they didn’t things wouldn’t look like this), while some work to destroy its supremacy. “Whiteness,” is not a culture, but a economic status that says if you are white, no matter how poor you are, you will always be fundamentally better than people of color. Because the majority of Amerika is poor/working class white people who have been given misinformation, these patterns persist continually.
What’s craziest is that patterns of “whiteness,” behavior can even exist in people of color sometimes (ex: Condi Rice, Michelle Malkin, etc.) because of internalized oppression. My hope is that when there are no more “white” (european-amerikan/anglo-saxon/protestant/absent of ethnic culture/who are not forced to think about race on a daily basis) people, individuals will be forced to further examine a system that has carried white supremacy like an olympic torch.
People having sex with eachother til we all look the same is far from a solution in any way. My personal belief however, is that this mixing will ultimately be the catalyst that begins a dialouge that truly questions white supremacy and the heirarchical categorization of human beings on the basis of race/ethnicity.
One thing we can both agree on is the fact that because of our ethnic backgrounds, most of our ancestors back home in our prospective motherlands would never accept us as authentic. Japanese folk would think we were half-breed amerikan weirdos, Chinese folk might resent your Nihonjin-ness, and I can tell you firsthand, they didn’t accept this “Mexican” kid as Scottish when I visited Edinburgh in the UK.
We have sooo far to go when it comes to talking about race & ethnicity in this country. I fully realize 100% that many people think that I am jaded, confused, privileged, falsely angry, etc. when it comes to mixed race issues, but I simply want the world to know that there is hidden struggle in a world where identity is blurred. Kip Fulbeck is trying to make that world less blurry with his Hapa Project and I hope to do the same someday for younger folks of mixed race (because there are more and more arriving in the world each and every day).
100% Hapa,
Senbei
p.s. I HAAAAAATE when Anglos think they are the sh*t because they know about Japanese culture, and feel a need to educate me:
Q: “You’ve never been to Japan?!?! Oh My God! Why not!??!?!”
A: “Because during WWII, my Jichan’s family’s wine vineyard had to be sold dirt-cheap to some white folks who now make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in Sonoma County, and I am broke living month to month on a teacher’s salary in the basement of my Bachan’s house.” (When keepin it real goes wrong.) LOL. “This racism is killin me inside…”