In response to Alanna's post, I have also been subject to discriminating questions and assumptions made by others. Not only do I put up with generalizations about being Japanese; I also face the stereotypes made about people from Hawai`i. Once, I mentioned to someone that I do not care for sashimi (raw fish). His response: "What kind of Japanese are you?" Whether the person was Japanese or not, it does not matter. I felt somewhat attacked - who was he to decide what of my preferences make me Japanese? Another common misconception is that because I am brown-skinned and from Hawai`i, I must be "Hawaiian." While I respect and enjoy many aspects of the native Hawaiian culture, this does not make me ethnically Hawaiian. I always feel awkward explaining that when people in Hawai`i identify a person as "Hawaiian," it means that s/he has Hawaiian blood. The way people in the mainland label me as Hawaiian is the equivalent of me calling someone from say, Pasadena - regardless of his/her ethnic background - a "Californian."

I also wanted to discuss cultural appropriation, as it was one of the many issues in "The Upside-downness of the World as it Unfolds." The protagonist in Mootoo's short story becomes increasingly upset as she thinks about the non-native Indians in Canada practicing an Indian religion, and wearing what they have deemed to be authentically "Indian" clothes. The way the Hare Krishna followers are described makes me feel as if they are serious about the Indian culture they take part in; they do not make fun of it, or take it lightly - in fact, the protagonist notes that her friends share a genuine love of the culture and know more about it than she does. What is most upsetting is that they treat the few Indians in their sect differently, and have them serve food to the other devotees.

I feel that often times, native Hawaiian culture is taken lightly, flaunted or used without a desire to really understand it. On an episode of Friends I watched tonight, Rachel reminisces of a time she and her sorority girls wore coconut bras (no doubt to reveal their figures to fraternity boys) to a "lu`au." A lu`au is a Hawaiian cultural feast, not an opportunity for sexual encounters. Native Hawaiian women did not wear coconut bras to lu`aus - or ever - if I recall correctly. Furthermore, a lu`au is traditionally a feast in which the gods are honored, and thus reverence should be in order when talking about or participating in one.

Recently, there has been a kukui nut lei fad in California. I have seen fake, plastic "kukui nuts" sold in stores, and worn by girls who probably don't have the faintest idea what the nut was actually used for. Fake leis are also sold in marketplaces in Waikiki, the tourist district of O`ahu. Although here the vendors are from Hawai`i, they are appealing to consumerism to make a profit off of a commercialized version of the Hawaiian culture. Not many people care to know that the kukui nut was actually a very practical plant whose oils were used by ancient Hawaiians as fuel for light. The raw nut could be used as a purgative/laxative to treat poisonings, the flowers could be crushed to treat thrush, and the sap of the plant was an adhesive. I'm sure there were many other uses which I am not familiar with as well.

Cultural appropriation has caused controversy over the Disney movie Lilo and Stitch. One of the songs written for the soundtrack invokes the name of King David Kalakaua, one of the kings of the late Hawaiian monarchy. Mark Keali`i Ho`omalu, a songwriter of Hawaiian ancestry, wrote and sold this and other songs to Disney. He made a profit off of the Hawaiian culture, whose chants (such as those calling out the name of King Kalakaua) are considered the intellectual property of the Hawaiian people as a whole. Music is considered as such because before the missionaries came to Hawai`i in the 1800s, Hawaiian was not a written language. Chants were passed down orally from generation to generation and are not credited to any one person or group. When Ho`omalu decided to sell songs in his name, many Hawaiians became upset. Some feel he was taking credit for and profiting from what was not his; others disagree with the representation of their culture in a Disney animation and Ho`omalu's (and thus Hawai`i's) affiliation with them.

Admittedly, I am also guilty of appropriating culture. Just today, I was selling tickets to our Hawai`i Club's lu`au in Seal Court. Hoping to draw people over to the table and interest them in buying tickets, I brought my ukulele to play. In my defense, I love playing music, Hawaiian and otherwise, and would never play for the sole purpose of making money. However, when one girl asked me what the song I was singing meant, I replied that it was about seaweed. After she left, my boyfriend, who was singing with me, pointed out that I had laughed when I gave my friend my one-word summary of the song. He asked me to take it more seriously, and I agree that people don't need to be encouraged to view Hawaiian culture, as he put it, "flippantly." I also gave the lyrics and meaning of the song no justice when I said it was about seaweed - there is so much imagery and depth evoked in the translation of Hawaiian songs. In addition to the literal translation, lyrics are replete with kauna, or hidden meaning.

Sometimes, in sharing our culture, we tend to simplify explanations of things because we figure the person doesn't want to listen to an entire lecture. My boyfriend once sat down with someone for half an hour, trying to talk about Hawai`i in seriousness; however, the guy kept joking inappropriately about it. I applaud my boyfriend for his attempt, as not many people would have wanted to take the time, only to have their words fall on deaf ears. Because Hawaiian culture has been used so ignorantly in various places for decades, even locals find themselves condoning (or at least not trying to stop) inaccurate representations of their home. But if we keep acquiescing, we are supporting the eventual loss of our culture to globalization.