H-Schaefer-45503.qxd 2/18/2008 4:12 PM Page 581 Hapa———581 Native Hawaiian voice because it reduces indige- See also Colonialism; Hapa; Hawai‘i, Race in; Hawaiians; nous Hawaiians to be simply one of many other eth- Native Americans; Pacific Islanders; White Privilege nic groups in Hawai‘i. Further Readings Haole Today Fujikane, Candace and John Okamura, eds. 2000. “Asian Settler Colonialism in Hawaii.” Amerasia Journal 26(2). Haole, like the label of any ethnic group, masks the Kame‘eleihiwa, Lilikala-. 1992. Native Land and Foreign diversity of its membership. It is far too easy to stereo- Desire. Honolulu, HI: Bishop Museum Press. type all haole according to a prescriptive set of mark- Ohnuma, Keiko. 2002. “Local Haole—A Contradiction in ers and behavior. The more complicated reality is that Terms? The Dilemma of Being White, Born, and Raised haole is a socially constructed category based largely in Hawai‘i.” Cultural Values 6:273–285. on idealized and homogenized views of White foreign- McElrath, Ah Quon. 1999. “Race Relations and the Political ers. At the same time, framed by a particular chain of Economy in Hawaii.” Social Process in Hawaii 39:74–84. events, these perspectives remain in people’s minds Osorio, Jonathan. 2002. Dismembering Lahui. Honolulu: as a collective public history and discourse. Precisely University of Hawai‘i Press. because of this, haole are perceived as White wealthy Rohrer, Judy. 1997. “Haole Girl: Identity and White Privilege individuals who are set apart from Native Hawaiians in Hawaii.” Social Process in Hawaii 38:140–161. and locals due to their shallow roots in the islands and Rohrer, Judy. 2006. “‘Got Race?’ The Production of Haole perceived negative behaviors. and the Distortion of Indigeneity in the Rice Decision.” The arrival and ascendancy of haole, as a group, is Contemporary Pacific 18:1–3. comparatively small when measured against the dura- Silva, Noenoe K. 2004. Aloha Betrayed. Durham, NC: Duke tion of indigenous Hawaiian occupation and steward- University Press. ship of the land. Although a highly racialized ethnic Whittaker, Elvi. 1986. The Mainland Haole. New York: group, haole are also culturally conspicuous. The Columbia University Press. Hawaiian word, ho‘ohaole means to act like a haole and is applied to individuals who are perceived to be strange, uppity, ignorant, arrogant, or even conde- APA scending. Some scholars suggest that there are differ- H ent types of haole. In particular, it is argued that there is a difference between mainland haole and kama‘a-ina The term hapa is a Hawaiian word literally translating haole (sometimes referred to as local haole). The lat- to portion, mixed, or fragment with no racial infer- ter category refers to Whites who have lived on the ence. However, on the inclusion of Hawai‘i as a U.S. islands for generations, share a love for the land, and territory and the introduction of racial classification act in culturally appropriate ways. during the late 1800s, the term quickly took on racial Still, the term haole recalls the painful history of overtones as a way to identify people of mixed race. Hawai‘i and the role many prominent haole played in Early references to the term hapa referred to the forced transformation of Hawaiian society and Hawaiians of mixed Japanese European heritage, but culture. Modern-day implications of haole provoke its contemporary use extends to a variety of mixed- overlapping notions of race, class, and politics for race people in Hawai‘i and even beyond the island to island residents. Because haole were the primary include Afro-Asians, Latin Asians, Native Asians, and agents of past missionary activity and a race/ transracial adoptees. This entry describes the evolu- class-organized plantation economy, as well as expan- tion of the term and the conflict related to its adoption sive militarism and tourism, attitudes toward them run by mixed-race people outside of Hawai‘i. deep and continue to manifest in everyday life in Hawai‘i. Given this historical framework, there is Definition and Background often little attention paid to the positive value of haole in today’s politically charged climate where indige- Originally a pejorative term, hapa referred to the nous Hawaiians’ claim to the land is foregrounded. children of mixed Hawaiian Caucasian descent. Its pejorative use dates to the surge in White immigration Brandon C. Ledward to Hawai‘i that occurred during the 1880s and resulted H-Schaefer-45503.qxd 2/18/2008 4:12 PM Page 582 582———Hapa in intermarriage between the native and Caucasian of the other, and where considerable ink has been populations. The Native Hawaiian population’s disap- devoted to the problematic results and consequences proval of these mixed marriages (and, by extension, of of this practice for the multiracial population. the offspring of these unions) stemmed from the White population’s role in exploiting and colonizing Contested Terrain Hawai‘i. The term hapa was later expanded to include all Multiracial Hawaiians resent the adoption of the term children of mixed Asian heritage after a surge in Asian hapa by multiracial Asians on the U.S. mainland who immigration to the island that occurred during the have little knowledge of the historical struggles of mid-1880s through 1910 with the recruitment of Chinese, the peoples of Hawai‘i. From their perspective, the Japanese, Portuguese, Koreans, Puerto Ricans, and term’s use by multiracial Asians is a form of symbolic Filipinos to work as laborers and the mixed racial/ ethnicity—trendy and ephemeral with only a superfi- ethnic marriages that arose following this large-scale cial connection to, and little understanding of, the immigration. term’s meaning. Because of the long history of intermarriage in Part of the controversy is rooted in the history of Hawai‘i, the negative aspects associated with biracial Hawai‘i and stems from lingering resentment of or multiracial identification (and the designation of Hawaiian people over the forced and unlawful over- hapa) has largely disappeared. Once an adjective used throw of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893—an event by group insiders to describe an outsider, it is now a that was aided and abetted in large part by the United noun or subject (describing an insider); the designa- States (and an act that President Bill Clinton formally tion is a source of pride and a link to others in the apologized for in 1993). As a result, Western laws and same insider category. Furthermore, use of the term is customs were imposed, including the legal cate- no longer limited to those who are part Hawaiian but gorization of people by “blood” or heritage in 1900. rather has expanded to include all multiracial/ Hawaiians were “colorized” and quantified along a multiethnic Asians as well. Other terms such as range from indigenous to (non-White) others, to Eurasian, biracial, multiracial, Amerasian, mixed Whites. This strategy served to limit the number of Asian, blasian, hafu, and half Asian are also used to “native” Hawaiians; the designation was restricted to describe those of mixed Asian descent; however, the those who could legally prove their indigenous term hapa seems to have resonated most among mul- heritage—something extremely difficult to do in a tiethnic Asians and has been widely adopted. nation steeped in oral tradition as Hawai‘i was. Although it is used by multiethnic/multiracial Asians Consequently, indigenous Hawaiians were marginal- both in Hawai‘i and on the U.S. mainland, the term ized socioeconomically, and a decrease in their num- has different connotations in each place. bers was nearly ensured given the narrow racial Of all the states, Hawai‘i has both the highest per- definition that was imposed. centage of Asian and Pacific Islanders (41.6%) and This paved the way for land and asset appropriation the highest percentage of people who identify them- by the Western colonizers. Indigenous Hawaiians, or selves in categories of two or more races (21.4% vs. Kanaka Maoli, became minorities in their own home- 2.4% in the United States). The long history of land, taking on the characteristics of other racial/ethnic racial/ethnic intermixing in Hawai‘i has allowed its minorities in the United States, including high morbid- multiracial populations to inhabit multiple racial/ ity and mortality rates, poor educational outcomes, and ethnic categories simultaneously. In Hawai‘i, the term marginalized socioeconomic positions. hapa has been normalized to the extent that to be hapa The question of who has a valid claim to identity in is to be local because so many of the children are of Hawai‘i continues to be a highly contentious and mixed ancestry. The ambiguous hapa identity distin- politicized issue, as indicated by the Rice v. Cayetano guishes Hawaiian locals from more recent foreign decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000. This immigrants (nonlocals) to Hawai‘i. This is in marked decision invalidated the state’s limitation to Native contrast to the mainland United States, where race has Hawaiians (defined as descendants of those inhabiting historically been socially constructed along a single the Hawaiian Islands in 1778) the eligibility to vote in dimension, thereby forcing those of multiracial her- elections for the Board of Trustees of the Office of itage to elevate a single racial category at the expense Hawaiian Affairs. H-Schaefer-45503.qxd 2/18/2008 4:12 PM Page 583 Harlem———583 With these tensions serving as the backdrop, the Rohrer, Judy. 2006. “‘Got Race?’ The Production of Haole widespread adoption of the term hapa by multiethnic and the Distortion of Indigeneity in the Rice Decision.” Asians with little knowledge of the tumultuous history Contemporary Pacific 18(1):1–31. of Hawai‘i or of the continuing struggles for identity Watanabe, Teresa.