Tweet
Re: Would you move back to Hawaii?
I would move back but I'm too poor for Hawaii. Which means I'm middle class pretty much everywhere else in America. If there is still such a thing as middle class anymore.
We all are racists to some degree. Only the truly ignorant act on those racist beliefs. Most with half a brain know that in all honesty we should look past that and judge people as individuals not the way they look.
Sure the Public school's in Hawaii are brutal for haole kids. But anyone can feel left out even locals. Just ask any Highschool kid in Hawaii or anywhere else its hard to fit in regardless of where you are from. If you are different you are going to be picked on period. Sad but true. But you know what? They are just ignorant kids who probably learned it from ignorant parents.
What we need to do is start putting education first. I'm not talking about cultural education just plain old hitting the books. The more your children know the more they will be able to make up their own minds about how the world works and how wrong are some of the stuff they have learned from dumb friends and family. Most of the least racist people I knew growing up were the smart kids.
Also PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE we need to keep the kids from hanging out at the Highschool bathrooms sheesh there is more stuff going on in there then most crack houses, fight clubs, and casinos!
I'm part Hawaiian from Hawaii though my Pak'e from my Dad's side shines through. I live in Utah now but some of my asian friends still have to deal with racism here also. It's universal. To say Hawaii is anymore racist then say being black in some of those red-neck states where they got their gun racks and still fly the Confederate flags on their pick-ups is kinda unrealistic.
Does the native Hawaiian have a right to animostiy towards the caucasian race? There are points that would argue either way like my Tutu for instance. She's 80+ but still remembers that she was not allowed to speak her native tongue in school. Does she hate haole's? No ways well maybe the dumb ones! Most of the people that imposed crap like that in Hawaii Nei are all dead and gone. The actual population fo pure/part Hawaiians is shrinking. Many don't even live in Hawaii due to the high cost of living and the fact that on a whole economic life and education is better in the mainland.
Like it or not little by little we are going to need people of all races to help keep our culture alive. Another example my wife is from Japan she is pure blood Japanese but you know what? She has more of a love of my culture than I do. She loves to learn hula but with my work schedule and our new son it makes it hard for her to go to the Halau and learn. She loves the ukulele and would love to learn more (ok I know the ukulele is a portugese instrument but it's still part of Hawaiian culture to me.) plus she can eat more Hawaiian food than me (mostly because I hate seafood.) Me? I was raised on Pepsi the WWF and MacDonalds. Even though while I was drinking those Pepsi's my Tutu was teaching Keiki hula right past the screen door in the garage.Yes I'm a sad Hawaiian but i know there are alot of us out there. But I am not a stupid Hawaiian either and I know right from wrong. I know it's gonna take more than us Hawaiian's to keep our culture alive so kokua the foreigner and teach our kids not just tollerance but why we need tollerance and why the Hawaiian culture is so great.
We Hawaiians were never a stupid race to begin with. We had one of the first printing press west of the Rockies, we had one of the first buildings completely lighted by electricity. We are people who had leaders who knew inovation when they saw it. Because of the paradise we live in we attracted the brightest and the best. Thomas Edison, Charles Lindberg, Mark Twain, Jim Neighbors (joke! Though he had a great singing voice and Gomer Pyle is still some of the funniest stuff on TV.) to name a few. Hawaii is still one of the most dreamed about vacation locations worldwide.
We should take advantage of all the opportunites it gives us being from a much sought after location to not only learn but to teach or culture and respect for the aina.
'Aloha' may be a Hawaiian word but it's roots are international. The Spirit of Aloha, the Spirit of Love.
Ok nuff preaching. I'm going back to the Kaukau forum where its safe..
I would move back but I'm too poor for Hawaii. Which means I'm middle class pretty much everywhere else in America. If there is still such a thing as middle class anymore.
We all are racists to some degree. Only the truly ignorant act on those racist beliefs. Most with half a brain know that in all honesty we should look past that and judge people as individuals not the way they look.
Sure the Public school's in Hawaii are brutal for haole kids. But anyone can feel left out even locals. Just ask any Highschool kid in Hawaii or anywhere else its hard to fit in regardless of where you are from. If you are different you are going to be picked on period. Sad but true. But you know what? They are just ignorant kids who probably learned it from ignorant parents.
What we need to do is start putting education first. I'm not talking about cultural education just plain old hitting the books. The more your children know the more they will be able to make up their own minds about how the world works and how wrong are some of the stuff they have learned from dumb friends and family. Most of the least racist people I knew growing up were the smart kids.
Also PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE we need to keep the kids from hanging out at the Highschool bathrooms sheesh there is more stuff going on in there then most crack houses, fight clubs, and casinos!
I'm part Hawaiian from Hawaii though my Pak'e from my Dad's side shines through. I live in Utah now but some of my asian friends still have to deal with racism here also. It's universal. To say Hawaii is anymore racist then say being black in some of those red-neck states where they got their gun racks and still fly the Confederate flags on their pick-ups is kinda unrealistic.
Does the native Hawaiian have a right to animostiy towards the caucasian race? There are points that would argue either way like my Tutu for instance. She's 80+ but still remembers that she was not allowed to speak her native tongue in school. Does she hate haole's? No ways well maybe the dumb ones! Most of the people that imposed crap like that in Hawaii Nei are all dead and gone. The actual population fo pure/part Hawaiians is shrinking. Many don't even live in Hawaii due to the high cost of living and the fact that on a whole economic life and education is better in the mainland.
Like it or not little by little we are going to need people of all races to help keep our culture alive. Another example my wife is from Japan she is pure blood Japanese but you know what? She has more of a love of my culture than I do. She loves to learn hula but with my work schedule and our new son it makes it hard for her to go to the Halau and learn. She loves the ukulele and would love to learn more (ok I know the ukulele is a portugese instrument but it's still part of Hawaiian culture to me.) plus she can eat more Hawaiian food than me (mostly because I hate seafood.) Me? I was raised on Pepsi the WWF and MacDonalds. Even though while I was drinking those Pepsi's my Tutu was teaching Keiki hula right past the screen door in the garage.Yes I'm a sad Hawaiian but i know there are alot of us out there. But I am not a stupid Hawaiian either and I know right from wrong. I know it's gonna take more than us Hawaiian's to keep our culture alive so kokua the foreigner and teach our kids not just tollerance but why we need tollerance and why the Hawaiian culture is so great.
We Hawaiians were never a stupid race to begin with. We had one of the first printing press west of the Rockies, we had one of the first buildings completely lighted by electricity. We are people who had leaders who knew inovation when they saw it. Because of the paradise we live in we attracted the brightest and the best. Thomas Edison, Charles Lindberg, Mark Twain, Jim Neighbors (joke! Though he had a great singing voice and Gomer Pyle is still some of the funniest stuff on TV.) to name a few. Hawaii is still one of the most dreamed about vacation locations worldwide.
We should take advantage of all the opportunites it gives us being from a much sought after location to not only learn but to teach or culture and respect for the aina.
'Aloha' may be a Hawaiian word but it's roots are international. The Spirit of Aloha, the Spirit of Love.
Ok nuff preaching. I'm going back to the Kaukau forum where its safe..
... I never experienced the slightest amount of racism. I have no Hawaiian blood running through my veins, do not look the slightest bit Asian, and don't really looked like mixed blood. People might recognize mostly for the Portuguese, though my skin is not dark. And I am local to the core.
Comment