Hapa Kepani

I feel like I should explain the title of my blog.  Hapa kepani means half Japanese in Hawaiian, and it is my ethnic/cultural identity.  The reason I use Hawaiian words to identify myself is because I spent nearly half my life in Hawaiʻi and its culture played a huge role in shaping my identity.  As for the rest, I am half Japanese (25% Japanese, 25% Okinawan if you want to get technical, as I often do because I am proud of my Okinawan roots) and half white (mostly German with a dash of Polish).  I used to call myself Gerjapokapolaneseanish or Japagerpol, but those are both quite a mouthful and they miss the Hawaiian aspect of my identity.  Now that I go to college on the mainland, I have realized just how much my island roots mean to me.  I do not like to think in racial terms, and I like to think that I'm colorblind when it comes to seeing other people, but I also feel that my ethnic and cultural identity gives me roots.  I want to understand how other people's ethnic roots have shaped them as well.  As colorblind as we want to be, we cannot ignore the fact that these things have an impact on us, and I am proud of my culture.