I went shopping last night and was stopped by a gentleman manning the check out register at one of the stores. He apologized and said he just had to ask if I was "Whasian", he paused and added "you know, White-Asian". When I said yes, he offered up a high-five indicated that he was also of the Whasian persuasion. This was weird, but since he was not unattractive I paid it no mind.
I was thinking about the encounter today though and there are 2 things that bother me. First, for some reason the terms "Whasian" is not sitting well with me. Yes, it is just as generic a term as Hapa, but Whasian comes across as almost offensive to me and I can't pinpoint why. If someone asks me if I am Hapa, I happily reply yes! But if someone now asks me if I am Whasian, I will have to begrudgingly offer up a yeah, I guess so. Perhaps this is because in my mind the term Hapa infers a Hawaii connection? Curious...
The second thing that bothers me about the encounter is that this gentleman felt it necessary to define Whasian for me. What did he think I would mistake the term for? Welsh-Asian? Which I guess would still make me White-Asian. Wealthy-Asian? This was obviously not the case. Although, I was dressed in my best jeans and kicks. Wiccan-Asian? Sorry, but Hawaii's weather is not conducive to the darkly colored Wiccan garb, so I am prevented from subscribing to that particular theology. The movie The Craft was wicked cool though ;)
And just as a technicality, if I'm doing the whole Tiger Woods combine your ethnicity into a new term thing: I am Germaswedirijapanglish.
Germaswedirijapanglish. pride!
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3 comments:
I hear yah. Whasian does seem to have a oddly negative connotation to it. It kinda reminds me of the term Wigga. Not that Whasian in anyway should be compared in the sense of it's meaning but moreso the sound. But since Cauc-Asian-"squared" doesn't really work, I guess the options are limited. Plus Hapa just sounds cooler.
Too bad I'm just a Americasian who speaks Pidginglishanese ;)
Don't forget your Portugese ancestry ;)
And just remember, you are an AmeriCAN not an AmeriCAN'T.
Damn! Your octoracial! Once again I feel lame for just being white.
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