I am a proud Hapa! I am Irish, Hawaiian and African American. My father is Black and Hawaiian and my mother is Irish.
I found it very difficult in my childhood to be mixed race. I didn’t fit in with black people or white people and being mixed in the south, where racism is rampant, isn’t easy. I even wrote a blog post about all the dumb things people have said to me about my race. Most of it is laughable, the rest is just ignorance.
Living in California was easier as a teen because most everyone I knew was mixed! As I grew and learned more about my ancestry, I embraced the cultures of all of them and now share that with our three kids. Their father’s ancestry is Welsh.
We are moving to Hawaii soon to expose our children to more of their ancestral culture. We’ve learned about their Welsh background and our African American and Irish heritage. They enjoy learning about it and I’m glad they don’t have to deal with as much racism as I did. Live love, live aloha!
Hapa Voice 