Group for Multiracial Solidarity Disbands
Nichi Bei Times Weekly, Posted: Aug 29, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO – A group that established chapters on several California campuses to celebrate the diverse heritage of those with multi-racial identity is disbanding writes Alec Yoshio MacDonald in the Nichi Bei Times Weekly. The Hapa Issues Forum (HIF) was begun at UC Berkeley fifteen years ago by three students of mixed parentage. One of the founders Greg Mayeda, now an Oakland attorney, said about the group, “My belief was that it was important to expand the definition and understanding of what it meant to be Japanese American.” HIF extended their sphere of interest to multi-racial issues in general. HIF lobbied successfully for a “check all that apply” option in the 2000 U.S. Census. Interest in the group has waned recently so a farewell event will be held on Saturday, Sept. 8 from 2-5 p.m. at the UC Berkeley Student Union.
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User Comments
Robert Chung on Aug 30, 2007 at 18:03:26 said:
There are perhaps more people today with an understanding or at least a desired will to express to others the "multiracial experience", if you will. However, there is no multiracial "movement". I only ever hear this phrase spouted off by half blacks who don't know in which direction they can go. Can we go this way; can we go that way; which way can we go; why is no one playing with me? As a Eurasian myself I find it ludicrous that I must always come to the defense of half blacks, or mullatoes, as they like to call themselves, who somehow think they must be coddled because OH GOD, "we're half black"! I don't understand that if Mister Byrd is so concerned about his social position in society then why not take it upon himself to form an organization for half blacks that caters to their needs instead of latching onto Hapas to whine and hiss and moan and blah blah blah.
Charles M. Byrd on Aug 30, 2007 at 06:55:18 said:
Greg Mayeda and Hapa Issues Forum were part of what I called the socialist wing of the multiracial movement. Their philosophy was and still is disposed to portraying mixedness merely as a subculture or as subsets of the so-called major races. Mayeda seems to confirm that with his “My belief was that it was important to expand the definition and understanding of what it meant to be Japanese American.”
-->I always believed that hapas never fully grasped the history and insidious nature of the one-drop rule, how it severely limited freedom of association, how it sought to impose ruthless restrictions on individual freewill. His group’s support of “check all that apply” instead of a separate multiracial category also expanded the definition and understanding of what it meant to be black – since federal agencies can collapse black and white respondents to the black category.
To say that Hapa Issues Forum promoted multiracial solidarity is a joke.