When Nich and I started talking seriously about having children, one of my first thoughts was that I didn't want to raise them here. I have dealt with so much hateful ignorance while subbing in various schools in the area that I can't imagine trusting my biracial children to that system.
I came across Kip Fulbeck's The Hapa Project this past year.
ha•pa (hä’pä) adj. 1. Slang. of mixed ethnic heritage with partial roots in Asian and/or Pacific Islander ancestry. n. 2. Slang. a person of such ancestry. [der./Hawaiian: hapa haole. (half white)]
According to Fulbeck's website, "Once a derogatory label derived from the Hawaiian word for “half,” Hapa has since been embraced as a term of pride by many whose mixed racial heritage includes Asian or Pacific Island descent. Kip Fulbeck began The Hapa Project as a forum for Hapas to answer the question 'What are you?'"
When we were dating, Nich told me how his Asian friends in the military would call him "round eye." It didn't bother him; he thought it was funny. He also told me how they would refer to one another in terms that, had an "other" used them, would be considered racist. It reminded me of how black people refer to one another using a word that the rest of us would never fathom using. It also reminded me of how much I hated it when Cameroonians would call out "ching chong" and make donkey noises (their version of what Chinese people sounded like) at me when I was growing up.
I want our children to grow up knowing that they are beautiful - inside and out - because they are created in the image of a majestic Creator. I don't want other people's idiocy and narrow-mindedness to scar their perceptions of themselves. I want them to be proud of their heritage. And I want Nich and me to have enough wisdom, love, and humility to raise them to be confident, godly people, secure in who they are in Christ.
Lord, have mercy.
I came across Kip Fulbeck's The Hapa Project this past year.
ha•pa (hä’pä) adj. 1. Slang. of mixed ethnic heritage with partial roots in Asian and/or Pacific Islander ancestry. n. 2. Slang. a person of such ancestry. [der./Hawaiian: hapa haole. (half white)]
According to Fulbeck's website, "Once a derogatory label derived from the Hawaiian word for “half,” Hapa has since been embraced as a term of pride by many whose mixed racial heritage includes Asian or Pacific Island descent. Kip Fulbeck began The Hapa Project as a forum for Hapas to answer the question 'What are you?'"
When we were dating, Nich told me how his Asian friends in the military would call him "round eye." It didn't bother him; he thought it was funny. He also told me how they would refer to one another in terms that, had an "other" used them, would be considered racist. It reminded me of how black people refer to one another using a word that the rest of us would never fathom using. It also reminded me of how much I hated it when Cameroonians would call out "ching chong" and make donkey noises (their version of what Chinese people sounded like) at me when I was growing up.
I want our children to grow up knowing that they are beautiful - inside and out - because they are created in the image of a majestic Creator. I don't want other people's idiocy and narrow-mindedness to scar their perceptions of themselves. I want them to be proud of their heritage. And I want Nich and me to have enough wisdom, love, and humility to raise them to be confident, godly people, secure in who they are in Christ.
Lord, have mercy.
