BY SYDNEY ROSS SINGER – Does the Aloha State actually have a bullying problem? If you are Caucasian and from the Mainland, you will certainly think so.
It doesn’t matter how long you live here, or if you were even born here. If you are white, locals will still call you a “haole”, a derogatory term that is Hawaii’s equivalent of using the “N-word”.
And the prejudice goes beyond name calling. White people are often treated with scorn. “Go back to where you came from”, seems to be the message. “You don’t belong here.” Sometimes it results in violence.
White children in our schools are harassed, intimidated, and physically abused. The last school day of the year in Hawaii, for example, is traditionally called “kill a haole day”.
Racism is as ugly in Hawaii as anywhere else, and is the cause of much of the bullying of school children and adults alike. Unless this underlying racist cause of bullying is addressed, efforts to stop bullying are doomed to fail.
To overcome racism we must be inclusive and tolerant of differences. The diversity of cultures and peoples must be embrace and celebrated to find synergy in our differences. We must realize that we are all “one”, with no group more important than any other.
Achieving this “melting pot” in Hawaii will be difficult. Language and cultural barriers are keeping people apart, making Hawaii more a patchwork of different cultures than an integrated whole.
If these different cultures were living together, say, in New York, then they would all be called New Yorkers. They would share an identity despite their differences. But you can’t do that in Hawaii, since no matter how long you live here you will never be a “Hawaiian”. That term is reserved for native Hawaiian people. Everyone else is just a “resident”.
Being native or not is an issue in Hawaii, and is a racial issue by definition. And while many native Hawaiians live with aloha, there are some who are resentful of what they see as foreign occupation of their islands.
If Hawaiians have first claim to these islands, then locals with Hawaiian blood have second claim, and immigrants, or aliens, have little or no claim. The stage is thus set for prejudice, racism, and bullying.
Of course, when alien people and cultures move in, they bring along alien plants and animals, too. Hawaii’s diversity of species from all around the world is a direct product of human immigration.
It is no surprise, then, that prejudice against immigrant cultures will result in prejudice against immigrant species.
The Hawaii government’s environmental policy gives preference to “native” species and has the agenda of “restoring native ecosystems”. While this native species supremacism is a national agenda, it has a powerful impact in Hawaii where it parallels political nativism and encourages racial prejudice.
According to this policy, species introduced to Hawaii after western contact are “alien”, and “don’t belong here”. Species introduced to Hawaii by native Hawaiians are “native”, and do belong here. The current focus of environmental management is to get rid of immigrant species to return the islands to their pre-contact “native” condition.
To those who desire and appreciate these immigrant species, this feels like environmental bullying.
Of course, this reinforces the racism problem. The more the government institutionalizes native supremacism in political and environmental agendas, the more it justifies and encourages a “we belong here and you don’t” attitude.
This is the recipe for hate, intolerance, and bullying.
For Hawaii to live up to its Aloha Spirit rhetoric, racial bullying must stop being tolerated. The school anti-bullying program must address racial prejudice. And there needs to be sensitivity classes to teach compassion and respect for others.
We must realize that what counts most about people is not where they are from, but what they have to offer. Remember, “Aloha” means compassion, love, peace, affection, and mercy.
Are you claiming that bullying is only done to white kids? Are you stereotyping all Hawaiians or darker skinned people to be bullies? The term ha`ole means “no breath”. Even though the Hawaiians were harassed and plagued with diseases when the white men first came to our shores, they were excepted and respected however, they lied and when they did, they got that name. Today we use the term in a derogatory way and jokingly for the same reason we make fun of Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiians, etc.. Our culture has always been excepting even though we have been given the short end of the deal all the time. Your mentality is very sad because you cannot tolerate people of all races, and cannot handle when people put you down. FYI I am caucasion and also Hawaiian and the caucasion side were the ones who tried to force the family to forget about our culture. I have no animosity towards that because it was the way it is. As a teacher of Ethnobotany, I have been around many and my haole friends joke about themselves being haole. I grew up with haole boys and we call one of them, “haole boy” to this day. I don’t hate him, he is like my brother we do not call him that in a derogatory manner. If you do “embrace the synergy of differences” why make this a big deal. The biggest bullies at the moment is all the politicians, and governmental agencies ripping off the people and lying (ha`ole) to the masses. As a teacher of Ethnobotany, I think you are mistaking plants for ethnicities and in order to categorize them, they define them in that way. I do not see ethnic racism in the labeling of plants as Native or non Native. At the moment, you don’t have to be ethnically Hawaiian to be called a “Native Hawaiian” and I disagree with that because it confuses people of who they are. As for you statement, “For Hawaii to live up to its Aloha Spirit rhetoric, racial bullying must stop being tolerated”, I think you feel like you can use the “aloha card” to get everything the way you want it. Our people have “always” accepted all races, it is the haole who cause the indifference and intolerance. I have seen my people treated like third world vagrants since 1893 when our queen was illegally jailed and forced at gunpoint to give up her rights as Queen. All by white men who then declared themselves as the provisional government and illegally manipulated the U.S. to absorb Hawaii under another illegal act. 80% of Kanaka maoli (ethnic Hawaiians and non ethnic Hawaiians) signed petitions “against” the annexation of Hawaii but the U.S. made an act and Hawaii was “never” annexed but absorbed all for a strategic position in wars. The biggest bullies are the U.S. which is comprised of many caucasions who are now waking up to what their government is doing. Therefore, your statement, “Unless this underlying racist cause of bullying is addressed, efforts to stop bullying are doomed to fail.” You should take a good look at your country and see who is really in denial.
Mahalo for allowing me to comment on this. Take care of the problem…”corruption and bullying by your country”.
Mahalo, Mo
I am of LIthuanian descent and have lived in Hawaii for over 25 years. I am not exactly “white” in as much as I have an olive tone to my Baltic skin. My father was driven out of his homeland of Lithuania during WW II. and was held prisoner in a concentration camp. Americans and the allied troops freed him. In 1949, he arrived in America, the only member of his extended family to escape to America. He was a medical doctor in the Midwestern United States. I was raised to treat all people, no matter what their heritage, with courtesy and respect. Bullying of haoles is a huge problem in Hawaii. I have experienced it firsthand as have my children who were born and raised in Hawaii.
See: https://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2009/Jan/20/ln/hawaii901200338.html
Also see: https://big09a.angelfire.com/USDOEOCRfindingsletterDec08.pdf
And see: https://big09a.angelfire.com/USDOEwHDOEsettlementagreementDec08.pdf
The beat goes on against haoles in Hawaii, literally. Like it or not. None-the-less, bullying, particularly race-based or ethnic-based, has no merit, in Hawaii, or anywhere. Period.
Oh for crying out loud. Local haoles, are by the way, STILL HAOLES, no matter when or where you are. Live with it. They are local, we are local, they are brown, I am white, or mostly anyway. It comes to RESPECT. If as a haole you don’t respect locals, local haoles aren’t going to respect you either. I had my share of bloody noses as a kid because I was “haole”, but my parents didn’t weep over how unfair it all was, thankfully. “You gotta learn to get along son…. or run faster, and learn to stick up for yourself.” My dad was a Luna, but went hunting with his workers. Respect.
Mainland haoles come to Hawaii with all the answers and no solutions.
I don’t feel at all discriminated against, my kids don’t feel discriminated against, and as a haole, 90% of my clients are “ethnic” locals. I wear a shirt and tie in my business. I’m the only one in my profession that seems to do so, yet, locals don’t see the shirt and tie, they see someone who respects them and is interested in their solutions to their problems. Try something sometime, stop looking at locals as the “enemy” or bully or whatever, look at them as if you have a stake in their well being.
Aloha…
Growing up in the 70s we had “kill Haole day” AND “Kill Jap Day”. In essence “local” students would step on the back of haole and Japanese students’ slippers on these days. Being hapa haole & Japanese I could have been targeted twice. When I asked one of my classmates why he never stepped on my slippers and he did step on another classmate’s slippers (and she was part Hawaiian) he said, “Cause you no act Haole or Japanese. You act more local.” He also called my friend “One stuck up Hawaiian” who acted more Haole. The lesson I’ve taken away from that incident 30 years ago is to try to treat everyone I meet/interact with respect. The “Aloha Spirit” is alive and well but it has to be earned. I’ve always believed that “Ha’ole” meant stranger not in a derogatory way. I’ve also learned that it originally meant “without ‘ha’ or breath/spirit” (if someone knows this is accurate or not please clarify) – a spirit that permeates all life here in the islands. If you don’t respect how destructive introduced species are to our special native life (all forms), then maybe you are “ha’ole” and will be treated as such until you learn to respect others first…
Growing up in Hawaii was hard as a haole. I feel in my spirit that I am part Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, a little Filipino, some Portuguese, and haole. The cultural influences were all that I knew and had to identify with, but sadly my name often was f—en haole. This particularly hurt, because I always loved the people of Hawaii that I was born and raised with. My brothers had to always fight after school, because that was the only way they got accepted. Yes, the “native species only” campaign does stir memories of racial rejection. Growing up in Hawaii has also meant memories and associations with non-native plant and animal species that have existed in the Islands for the last 100 years. This is all insult to injury, and feels very wrong.
Fact: Most of Hawaii (at least the non-natives) that came from mainland are great fun, in a higher tax bracket, and educated. And the ones that are wealthy (few, but these ones have moved on from most of the lower-tax-bracket natives, so with that comes a change in attitude). BUT just like ‘native American Indians’ have a stereotype of being drunks, which stereotypes do have a truth in them (2 out of 4 has been in AA), so do Hawaiians have a stereotype of ‘beating their wife’s’ (at least 2 in 4 households reported this year) and being very non-intelligent, selfish, and illiterate. I really hope that the Hawaiian racism changes. This seems to be a deep-seated disgusting attitude in their culture. I can’t say it’s a lack of education because look at thailand! Very friendly and accepting. But the ‘injustice’ stories natives tell their children. This fules hate. And the stories however the hawaiians choose to see them, will forever do this unless a) they choose to see it with ann optimistic lens i.e. Yes! White people have made our land more fun, rich, and brought attractive people here! And now I can live anywhere in the USA. I’m a lucky dog for this history. I wonder if I can find a attractive non-native boyfriend! Yep, hotties are all around! 🙂 or b) they can think of terror stories of ‘invasion’ etc… either way it’s a choice!!!! Same story different lens… But I’m afraid this ‘know-how’ is usually only known by more educated families and people virtually always from a ‘higher tax-bracket’ that’s why people from higher tax-brackets talk to their wives vs, beating them! Hawaiian’s are the #1 in the nation for domestic violence (beating their wives) too. Do you know what tax bracket that puts those Hawaiians in? The solid truth is, native Hawaiians in general are very much in the lowest tax bracket and social economic level in the USA. This follows predictable harmful attitudes and behaviors. This will continue to happen, because people are people and it’s very easy to get caught up in thoughts and beliefs of ‘injustice’ etc… this mindset causes faaaar more harm for the Hawaiians than any white person will ever have. Bully, beatings, and the like. The real person being hurt here is the Hawaiian person. Because after the bullying, I’m off forgiving and having fun. But they are always consumed and a prisoner of hate.
This article is completely ridiculous!
Hawaii was illegally taken by the United States government. That is basically what it comes down to.
In the 30 years since I first moved to Hawaii, I had my share of bullying here. I spent my grade school years being bullied by cowards who were bigger than me but that changed around 8th grade after I caught up in size. The only way to deal with a bully is to either take it, or stand up to them. The one thing that every bully knew when they picked on me was that while they may be able to kick my ass, they wouldn’t be getting away unscathed. Nothing will stop a bully in their tracks faster getting an old fashioned punch in the nose. Once a bully knows they will get hurt, even on a small scare, they will usually go after weaker prey.
You can tell by the tone in the voice what the person’s intent is when being called “haole”. On the few occasions when a local called me effinhaole to my face, I immediately asked them why they have to make it a racial thing. The look of surprise is priceless. They will rarely have an honest answer, deny being racist, or they will mumble under their breath. Only a few times has it led to full on beef.
If you don’t like me, fine. Call me what you want. Ahole, MF’r, whatever. It rolls off like water on a ducks back. But when someone makes it a racial thing, they have lost all credibility and have added another notch onto the perception of them and their race as ignorant.
When I call someone an Ahole , Mf’r or whatever, it has never been with a racial term connected to it. People aren’t Aholes and such because of race. It is because they are weak and conflicted with self doubt and fear, and being a bully is their way of creating a thin shield for themselves. That shield is easily cracked and shows the person for who they really are.
Hawaii by far is the most racist place I have ever lived and I have lived all over the world. The difference is that the racism is usually out and in the open. You always know where you stand with folks here. Something I prefer to the hidden, talk shit behind your back cowardice that permeates so many other places. Hawaii has it’s share of cowards to be sure, but they are self relegated to lives of misery and usually aren’t of any significance.
Being married to a native Hawaiian has been one of the greatest experiences I have had in my life. I can’t imagine being with anyone else, not because she is Hawaiian, but because she possesses the qualities I admire and respect in another person. She loves me unconditionally without judgement. The qualities she possesses are deeply rooted in her culture, but more importantly, they were instilled by her family and their love. The warmth, love, and caring that my spouse and her family have for me – and everyone around them is inspiring. The family name is old and respected, but they have experienced racism from all sides. Some of the horror stories from the plantation days and earlier are truly frightening. But most of those stories came at the hands of ethnic groups other than “haole”. The one thing that the family has drilled into the minds of each generation is the absolute importance of educating themselves and being productive people, to respect and learn from their culture as well as those of others.
Folks here love to use the haole as the focal point of everything that is supposedly wrong in Hawaii. But the reality is that the white folks don’t run the show here, and honestly, rarely have. Everyone has prejudices, we are human. But it is the way you carry yourself in times of conflict that define you as a person, and as a member of your ethnic background.
This is interesting. I googled this topic out of curiosity. I grew up on Oahu, my father worked for the city government. This was the mid 70s. I was a “haole.” Real fun. Got terrorized on a regular basis for being white. Let’s see… the usual routine in Niu Valley Intermediate back then was to get stopped in the hallways by local kids (usually more than one so the odds were in their favor) that we called “mokes” back then, and shaken down for your lunch money. “Eh, haole… like borrow one quarter, haole.” Of course you replied, taking pains to use as crappy grammar as possible lest you come across as uppity, that you didn’t have any money. “Search take, brah!” And the guys would proceed to pat you down for money and reach in your pockets to help themselves to whatever they could. You could fight back… that would get you encircled at the end of the school day by a larger group of local kids who would beat the crap out of you. I had a older foster sister in those days… she was haole too. She got her ass beat at Kaimuki High by a group of local girls just for kicks… I believe the girl version of “moke” was “titta” or something back then.
That’s just a short list of some of the hassles. I do recall getting cold-cocked by a 9th grader when I was a 7th grader because I got on the bus first after school. We used to race across the field to where the city busses were waiting when the bell rang. I got there first, but was soon shoved up agains the door to the bus by kids pushing and shoving and I couldn’t move. I heard a voice from behind me “F-ing Haole! Move!” “I can’t!” I replied. Finally the bus door opened, I fell into the stairwell… climbed up the stairs and paid my dime (that’s all it was back then) and then went and found a seat near the middle of the bus. I’m looking out the window and next thing I know I feel this jarring and there’s this local kid standing near me who just finished his follow through on a sucker punch to my face. Ahhh… yep… just loved the islands. Eventually due to the piss poor public educational system out there, my parents pulled me from public school to a private school. The public school had been such a coast that I was not prepared for the higher academic standards of the private school and it was terrible trying to catch up with the other kids, but I did eventually. It helped also not to live with fear throughout your school day.
Being a haole kid in public school in Hawaii was probably much like the black experience might have been in parts of the south. You learned that you better dumb down how you talked or be accused of thinking you’re “better.” I also learned how to avert my eyes and project a non-confrontational vibe, lest you get challenged with “What? Haole? You give me stink eye, haole? Like beef right now, haole?”
Funny thing is we had a black English teacher in private school that had just come out from the mainland. She was of course an adult and the adult experience in Hawaii is different, and we were discussing racial issues and what it is like to be hassled and terrorized for the color of your skin. She was incredulous as the haole kids slowly raised their hands (many of them refugees from public school violence) and told their stories and how they could identify with victims of racial hatred. Being from the mainland, this African-American woman didn’t believe us. She couldn’t grasp that there was a place in the United States where white people got beat up and hassled for being white or “haole.”
Funny thing is I have relatives out there, and I, like many other mainland haoles who grew up in Hawaii, find it highly amusing how Hawaii loves to lay claim to the notion that it is some sort of melting pot and paradise where all the races get along. It was anything but that when I grew up there.
I was stationed In Hawaii years ago when I was in the Marines. While some of the natives were friendly, many were not. I left there having zero respect for the Hawaiian people, or their culture. In many ways, the Hawaiian people transformed my way of thinking in regards to race. Race is real, and probably the single most important feature about a person. Aloha.
I agree with you a 100%. It's hard to respect people that have no respect for others
I think if the white man of the past set a good example then the white man of today would enjoy a welcome mat by many others.
How far back does the past go?
Oh good grief.
1. There is no such thing as "Kill a Haole Day" 2. An individual can be full of hate, capable of bullying, and being disrespectful but not a people or a culture.
Leave the Hawaiian culture alone. We are already struggling to recover what's left of it. It is not a matter of importance, who is better than who, but a matter of the survival of our culture, my culture. This is my home so please do not tell me or enforce upon me your policies that will discriminate being Hawaiian.
In the same way you've met good and bad Hawaiians, I've met both good and bad haole. However, I still have respect for them because whether you like or dislike me or my family, I know we are all equal. I'm in no place to make excuses for the attitudes and actions of other people that may have offended you, but I will stand up for my Hawaiian people and our nation.
Me ka ho'omaika'i a me ke Akua pu.
Eo!
Stumbled upon this the article while doing an assignment from school. Just had to say this comment is one of the few pieces of writing in the article or comments that makes any sense. This whole judging an entire culture/people based on the actions of a few is what perpetuates racism. It's individuals that are hateful, not cultures. Too many generalizations are made in this article and there are so many ignorant, hateful, and divisive comments on this thread.
This person writing this is a racist themselves. Did you miss the part where they called white people haoles?
Just like you, I'm doing an assignment for school and stumbled upon this article. I find it pretty interesting and will look further into it's credibility before using it as a source. There's a book you should try to get your hands on called Haoles in Hawaii by Judy Rohrer. It will clearly define haole and you will know that this person is in fact a racist.
This reply is late, but if anyone is still gathering facts about bullying here, PLEASE ignore any information from Equality Hawai'i Foundation.
Equality Hawaii Foundation envisions a Hawaii in which lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families can live full, productive lives
So any poll from them about bullying includes LGBTs. Totally biased.
their is no kill haole day in hawaii people are making up things remember you came to hawaii and overthrew us so stop with the fake facts and go with the truth
I went to Hawaii public schools from 2nd to 8th grades and "kill a Haole day" was real. No murders were committed but beatings and intimidation were very real. It may not have been real for you, but it was real enough for many of us.
YEP! VERY REAL! I believe the "term" was mostly used for intimidation.. and making us all fear the last day of school which I was never at. My parents pulled my brother and I out for that reason…. especially seeing several police cars in the field of KIS..that day… (67-68).
No such thing as 'kill Haole day"? I lived on Oahu for 12 years, from two years old to 13. I have experienced bullying from 4th grade up until I left for the mainland after 8th grade. My experiences came from the Kailua Elementary and intermediate schools. Almost daily I have been threatened with fights, hateful comments and treatment. On this mythalogical 'kill haole day', I was egged a few times as kids ran past me, 'tagging' a haole. I was followed to my bus stop, only to be held up off the ground by the abuser clutching my hair until the bus arrived. It was non stop. Yes, kill haole day exists. I lived it. The long term effects from those experiences have been devistating. I have had to live with low self esteem, depression, anxiety and a bout of anorexia when I was 17. I'm now 50 and still battle those feelings. Brah, you need to check in to reality. The root of the problem is attitudes formed by the parents and environment at home. I wish my dad had forsight before he moved his family to Hawaii in 1966. You are in denail cuz you are not haole.
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