Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
What didn't matter to Hawaii is what the rest of the country seemed fixated on: his
race. That Obama is of mixed-race parentage was barely worth mentioning.
Of course
he's mixed race - who in Hawaii isn't? One legacy of the plantation era is Hawaii's un-
selfconscious mixing of ethnicities; cultural differences are freely acknowledged, even
carefully maintained, but they don't normally divide people. For residents, the relaxed
lifestyle and inclusive cultural values are probably the most defining, best-loved aspects
of island life. Depending on your perspective, Honolulu is either America's most Asian
city or Polynesia's most American city.
Among the older generation of locals, plantation-era stereotypes still inform social
hierarchies and interactions. During plantation days, whites were the wealthy plantation
owners, and for years after minorities would joke about the privileges that came with be-
ing a haole
luna
(Caucasian boss). But in a growing generational divide, Hawaii's youth
often dismiss these distinctions even as they continue to speak pidgin. As intermarriage
increases, racial distinctions become even more blurred. It's not uncommon nowadays to
meet locals who can rattle off four or five different ethnicities in their ancestry - Hawaii-
an, Chinese, Portuguese, Filipino and Caucasian, for example.
Hawaii is as ethnically diverse as California, Texas or Florida - and more racially in-
termixed - but it's noticeably missing large African American and Latino populations
that help define those states and most multiculturalism on the mainland. Politically, the
majority of Hawaii residents are middle-of-the-road Democrats who vote along party, ra-
cial/ethnic, seniority and local/nonlocal lines. As more mainland transplants arrive, con-
servative Republican candidates - such as Hawaii's former governor Linda Lingle - have
stood a better chance.
Ethnic Tension
In Hawaii, tensions among ethnicities, while they exist, are more benign and rarely viol-
ent compared with racial strife on the mainland. Among locals, island stereotypes are the
subject of affectionate humor, eg talkative Portuguese, stingy Chinese, goody-goody
Japanese and know-it-all haoles. Hawaii's comedians often use such stereotypes to hilari-
ous comic effect. When racial conflict occurs, it's usually incidental to some other beef -
if a white surfer cuts off a Hawaiian on a wave, the Hawaiian might curse the ʻf'n haole.'
But rarely is anyone insulted or attacked merely
because
of their race.
Things shift when nonlocals enter the picture, since they aren't always sensitive to
Hawaii's colonial history and may not appreciate island ways. For instance, while the le-
gitimacy of Hawaiian pidgin as a language has many challengers, the loudest critics are
often mainlanders who don't speak it. In general, tourists and transplants are welcomed
in the islands but have to earn trust by being
pono
- respectful and proper.
