Would you move back to Hawaii?

[Tiger Beer]

Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?

This is really interesting.

I'm not sure what to think on all of this. I've lived quite a bit abroad in various places now.. mostly South Korea (and I'm white).. but also Brazil.. and just travelled a lot. Also lived in New York City which is about as non-white and multicultural and mixed as you can imagine - and lots of weird dynamics just being the white guy and going different places around the city.

But, moreso living in Seoul (as I've been here a good 5-6 years and living here now).. the mass majority of non-Koreans living here talk almost incessently about racism against them in every manner and way impossible. Some of it valid, but a lot of it so incredibly out there. Sometimes I get irritated with how the 'minorities' speak of the 'majorities' as if they can't do anything right and inherently evil (not just Korea.. but could be mainland America or anywhere really).

I also think back when I was living on the mainland.. and if you are just some white guy doing your thing.. everyone is accusing the majority person of being inherently 'evil' and 'racist' and whatever else.

Anyways.. its quite interesting reading the Hawaii threads.. the 'haoles' (and I'm one too).. complain most about racism and the locals and everything else (which reminds me of black/white or mexican/white back on the mainland in the opposite way). Not all the time of course - but its not below the surface to arise from time to time.

On the mainland.. usually as a white person there.. you just sympathize with your non-white friends who speak of it.. even though you don't really see it yourself.. and Hawaii seems to have that same element in the opposite way.

The toughest thing about 'racism-oriented discussions' in some way or another someone is going to say something that will piss someone off someway or another. Here in Korea, if I say something good about Koreans.. other non-korean foreigners could label me an 'apologist' meaning I'm one of those who make excuses for Korean's supposed racist behaviors.. you just can't win if you are Korean here in the racist-oriented dicussions, and on and on (as they are the majority). Same with the mainland.. same with Hawaii so it seems as well.

Maybe all of what I say is invalid.. as I don't have a long-term Hawaii experience yet as a haole.. but thats how I feel about being one in Korea, NYC, Brazil, etc. - and others of the same skin color would have a very different experience than mine in every place as well.

[Island2Island]

Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?

^Always good to hear perspectives from other lands, Mahalo!!

yes, my friends who went to Korea also told me about the racism there, particularly against Japanese and Filipino's.


as I said in my previous post, racism is EVERYWHERE.

[kaneohegirl]

Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?

go back to live......

• with current market values for homes
• the state of the school system
• job market
• cost of living
• and personal lung problems

no .... as much as I love and miss family, food, and the beach.
I cant...

• homes cost too much
• schools are some of the worst in the nation ranked 42nd out of 50
• for the jobs me and the hubby have it would = much less pay
• groceries for a week for 3 kids would kill me not to mention the cost of gas.
• as a child I had bronchitis/pneumonia repeatedly. (which went away after I moved to CA.) Even when I visit I cant stay more than 10 days otherwise I get very sick.

so while there are many things that I miss and would love to have at the corner market or ppl at family gatherings or swimming in water you can see threw. the good dont outweigh the bad....

[sinjin]

Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?

Haunani Trask is to Hawaiian Culture what Rap Music is to Black Culture.

I think a better analogy would be: Haunani Trask is to Hawaiian culture what Huey Newton was to black American culture. Have you read any of her writing?

[SusieMisajon]

Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?

I remember this kid, Ricky De La Cruz, 6th grade, Waialua Elementary School, circa 1968. Hissing, "Frickin' Haole!", at me, alla time. The teacher was one of those mainland Haoles, and she didn't have a clue.

Yeah, okay...I was one Haole girl. My Mom was a German girl, who had married into the Waialua Filipino family. No sweat...I had a brother and a sister who looked alot more local than me, and, at that point, I didn't know that Mr. Misajon wasn't my biological Dad...I thought that I just had taken after my Mom's side of the family. It REALLY bugged me that this Ricky kid didn't understand....after all, Misajon was a well known Waialua Plantation family.

What finally happened, was that my Mom (Dad was in Vietnam, at the time) went and talked to Nito Lavarias, who worked at the plantation, who went to talk to Ricky's Dad...and I guess that Ricky got his ass whupped, cause he came to school one day, and said, "Sorry, eh!", and never hissed at me, again.

I had to admire Ricky, for apologizing like that. I might not have done the same. And I had to chuckle, years later, when I found out that I actually WAS Haole. In the end, it taught me alot about being a minority, which I hadn't been, up to then, as we'd been travelling the US and Europe, and mostly living on post, or with my German Oma.

The incident with Ricky De La Cruz has stood me well in my life now, too, as I am a minority in a xenophobic small French town. I can see where it comes from, no matter who or where you are. And I have to thank Ricky, for helping me to see that it's not a personal thing, just a human, cultural thing.

Having said all that...Hawaii is the only place that does integration as fully as possible. The differences are nothing, compared to some places I've seen...sure, there's jokes, and some cultural differences, but mostly locals know how to laugh at themselves, and get down to the job of living in a workable society. That's not the case, in many places.

I'd move back home to Hawaii, in a heartbeat, if I could.

I don't know whatever happened to Ricky De La Cruz. He's about 50, now, and who knows...maybe still living in the Waialua/Haleiwa area. I wonder, sometimes, about who he married, or who his children married, and if he ever thinks about what happened. If he ever regrets his actions, or not.

[Pomai]

Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?

Susie, your story sort of reminds me of the movie FLATLINERS with Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon and Julia Roberts. Especially Kevin Bacon's role in it.

If you can find that movie in France, check it out. Great flick.

[haole_pupule]

Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?

To answer your questions, I have lived in 5 different states and three different countries. I have travelled all over the world, none of which had anything to do with the military. This is truly the hardest place to fit in. I also come from a family that was poorer than most of you. My Great grandparents were poor WW I immigrants, but no one seems to care about any of that. The only thing you are interested in is telling me to get of your island because I don't like being racially profiled into one of your gross generalizations about white people.

I truly loved your responses to the white looking hawaiian: "Oh, sorry you can stay. We didn't realize you were Hawaiian. We just want all the other white people to leave." I love how people have to justify there reasons for being here just so you will leave them alone.

I give as much respect as I receive to everyone I meet. I shouldn't have to feel like I have to kiss someones rearend just because I am not the same color. No one should. When ever I surf, I always have respect for everyone around me. If anything I have more respect and etiquette because I know someone will try to pick the smallest thing I might do wrong as justification for them trying to make me leave.

Ignorance and racism is a bad thing no matter where you are.

By the way, you should take a look at some of the other threads in here. I am definitely not the only one that has this problem. You just somehow assume that because I have had a problem fitting in that I am just this ugly jerk that treats everyone like crap. I am nice to everybody I meet, and I always go out of my way to help people. But, for people like you none of that seems to matter the only thing you care about is the color of my skin.

I have every right to upset that you can't look past color into the individual.

[Lalalinder]

Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?

Fighting racism = whining.

Got it.

good point.

as a native of Seattle, I heard constant whining about the rain, so, naturally, I would invite the whiners to "leave if you don't like it", but somehow I think that racism is just a wee bit more sinister than a little weather.

[SusieMisajon]

Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?

Susie, your story sort of reminds me of the movie FLATLINERS with Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon and Julia Roberts. Especially Kevin Bacon's role in it.

If you can find that movie in France, check it out. Great flick.

Thanks.....

[Menehune Man]

Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?

Prelude: I didn't read this whole thread, just the title and...

Yes since long ago I moved away and then came home.

[LocoBoy]

Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?

by pupule haole

I also come from a family that was poorer than most of you.My Great grandparents were poor WW I immigrants, but no one seems to care about any of that.

I am nice to everybody I meet

Uh, define "poorer" & I'm not sure how you know what kind of financial/living situation anyone here is in. In regards to your grandparents, seems off subject and again you assume that we dont care? Reading your responces here, you dont strike me as being that nice.

[SusieMisajon]

Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?

Anybody want poor? Try living where I do. You guys is spoiled for choice. Poor means that you are NON CONSUMERS.

[haole_pupule]

Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?

Loco,

All living things absorb energy and retransmit to some extent at the same frequency of that which the received the energy. Don't be nice to me and I won't be nice to you.

There seems to be a lot of built up animosity that white people came and stole Hawaii, so now, all white people are classified into this group. Hawaii was annexed by the US in 1898. My people didn't arrive here until around 1915. Therefore, my story about my grandparents has some relevance. Or you could be one of these people that says, "Stop coming here and taking our jobs and our land. This land belongs to Hawaiians. I got here first!" Which would then make you no better than all those stupid patriot idiots that sit in lawn chairs at the border in Arizona looking for latinos.

Either way this thread is getting really negative, and as you can tell it is a sensative subject for me. I would like to say though that there are good people here and that not everyone is racist. I have just experienced a lot of it since I have been here.

Like I said in the other thread. No matter who it is or where it is, racism sucks.

"Can't we all just get a long." - Rodney King

This is my last post to this thread.

[makani mcleod]

Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?

Hey Rodney
Those are some wise words, I am a Metis, part north american indian and white from Canada......I look white but my cultural roots are not. My soul is different tho, and I feel it...perhaps that is why when I am in Hawaii I feel like I fit in; I feel as tho I innately understand the Hawaiians. There lies the irony because to them perhaps I am just another white person........

We are all part of the planet, and thru love and caring we can make a difference......when I lived in Hawaii last year for 6 months I did alot of kokua with the homeless, personally I prefer to call them houseless.....I cannot tell you how much I learned from this.

Aloha Makani

[LocoBoy]

Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?

by pupule Haole

This is my last post to this thread.

Mahalo Nui Loa