Hapa Issues Forum Celebrates 10th Anniversary

By Ethen Lieser
AsianWeek Staff Writer

It was at a playground near her grade school in Berkeley when Joemy Ito-Gates first realized that she was different. “One of my classmates called me a chink,” she said. “From that moment, I started questioning my identity. Then I went through phases of wanting to be full Japanese and wanting to be white.”

Ito-Gates, who is half Japanese and half white, took part in Hapa Issues Forum’s (HIF) 10th anniversary conference, held at San Francisco State University (SFSU) last weekend. For three days, Ito-Gates and hundreds of other hapas (multiracial Asian Pacific Americans) celebrated, learned and shared their respective cultures and identities through music, art, film festivals, writing and activism workshops, among other activities.

Joemy Ito-Gates.

Wei Ming Dariotis, an assistant professor of Asian American studies at SFSU and co-founder of the San Francisco chapter of HIF, has faced similar obstacles. Dariotis is part Chinese, Greek, Scottish, English, Swedish, German and Pennsylvania Dutch. Most people don’t know how to identify her.

“People asked me, what are you?” she said. “Sometimes, people would tell me I was none of those things and that I must be from some kind of exotic planet.”

Since its conception 10 years ago at the University of California, Berkeley, the hapa movement has become stronger each year, partly because of the growing multiracial landscape in America. But there is still room for growth, says Dariotis. She points out that the hapa movement is still a relatively new phenomenon.

“We have really come together as a movement,” Dariotis said. “Ten years ago, I didn’t know the word hapa, and I didn’t have an identity to call myself.”

Currently, there are community-based HIF chapters in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and student chapters at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC San Diego and UC Los Angeles.

According to the 2000 census, over one in 10 APAs in California are multiracial, which equals to more than 500,000. APAs are also proportionately more multiracial than African American, Latino and white communities.

“The word hapa has become an identity,” Dariotis said.

The 2000 census was the first time in which multiracial data was collected. Respondents in 1990 could only report one racial or ethnic background, but the 2000 census allowed participants to report as many backgrounds as necessary. Over 6.8 million people, comprising 2.4 percent of the population, checked more than one box for race. Hapas made up one of the largest multiracial groups.

“These data not only provide more accurate information on race, but help us challenge our invisibility in the APA community,” said Sheila Chung, executive director of HIF.

Curtis Takada Rooks (left) and Wei Ming Dariotis.

Labeled by some at the conference as the “Racial Ignorance Initiative,” it is slated to be on the March 2004 ballot.

“We see race, it is not hidden,” said Curtis Takada Rooks, a cultural anthropologist at San Jose State University. “Without empirical data … it will further the misconceptions we already possess.”

Maria Blanco, national senior counsel for the Sacramento office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, says the initiative would end studies on racial profiling, hate crimes, work discrimination and education equity.

“It gives ways for whites to hold onto the past and ignore the new California,” she said. “It bans all information that is useful.”

The health field could be affected as well. Jan Liu, policy analyst for the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, says the initiative would have “serious national impact.” He says APAs have higher rates for certain diseases and social problems. For example, Liu points out Vietnamese American women have a faster rate of cervical cancer and Chinese Americans have higher rates of breast cancer.

“[The initiative] will make us ignorant, and we know what ignorance has done for this country,” said Rooks, who is half black and half Japanese. “This initiative will take away your choice, my choice, our choice.”