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Hapa is a term for a person of mixed ethnic heritage. The term originates in Hawaii from the Hawaiian word for "half", "part", or "mixed". In Hawaii, the word refers to any person of mixed ethnic heritage, regardless of the specific mixture. In California, the term has recently been used for any person of part Asian Pacific American descent. Therefore, there are two concurrent usages.
Etymology and usage
The term hapa comes from a Hawaiian word that denotes a part or fragment of something, itself a loan from the English word half. When applied to people, this denotes that such people are of mixed descent.
Used without qualification, hapa is often taken to mean "part White" and is shorthand for hapa haole. The term can be used in conjunction with other Hawaiian racial and ethnic descriptors to specify a particular racial or ethnic mixture. Examples of this is hapa haole (part European/White).
Pukui states that the original meaning of the word haole was "foreigner". Therefore, all non-Hawaiians can be called haole. In practical terms, however, the term is used as a racial description for Caucasians (whites), with the specific exclusion of Portuguese. Portuguese were traditionally considered to be a separate race in Hawaii.
Some see the use of the term as a misappropriation of Hawaiian culture. Others take a stronger stand in discouraging its usage and misuse as they consider the term to be vulgar and racist. The term clearly had racist origins; it was used as a derogatory term equivalent to other similar terms such as "half-breed" and "mulatto." It was initially used to degrade mixed-race children of plantation guest workers in Hawaii from the Philippines, China, Japan and Korea in the early part of the 20th century.
Hapa-haole also is the name of a type of Hawaiian music in which the tune, styling, and/or subject matter is Hawaiian, but the lyrics are partly, mostly, or entirely in English. Many hapa-haole songs had their musical roots in the Western tradition, and the lyrics were in some combination of English and Hawaiian; these songs first gained popularity outside the Territory of Hawaii beginning in 1912–1915, and include titles such as "My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua" and "Sweet Leilani".
Hapa haole is also used for Hawaiian-language hula songs that are partly in English, thus disqualifying them as "authentic" Hawaiian hula in some venues such as the Merrie Monarch Festival.