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a retired doctor friend (white) just moved from hawaii to corpus christi, texas citing racism against whites as his main reason for doing so. very nice guy too . i was actually thinking of moving to hawaii, with my family, 2 young kids. yet i don't want to expose them to ignorant racist people. would mostly be moving there for the kitesurfing, regular surfing, and to raise kids.

any opinions here from white folks living on maui with first hand experience about that?

...well he moved to Texas...

Seriously... no

I have lived on Oahu for a while now...visited Maui several times..never had any problems..ofcourse if you have a disagreement with someone he will call you haole..but you can choose to take it in it's ancient sense:

(I would say most people are super friendly and nice..but ofcourse as in any place don't go where you're not wanted...).

In the islands of Hawaii, the word haole is occasionally used to annoy people whose skin is all white. In the past, it was a more broad label stuck on everyone who was not kanaka maoli, a true-person-from-here. But a very long time before that, words in the oldest Hawaiian language had much more special meanings, many to do with occult matters.

It was then that the word haole meant "who-do-not-breathe". In fact, it was used to describe the dead. Sometimes with the truly physical meaning, other times in a more subtle spiritual sense. Often, the two perspectives were mixed together, such as to describe a ghost, or a god.


The skin of the English was as white as the huge squares of bleached cloth tied to the masts of their ship. This was considered to be more proof that they were spirits, because only men who do not breathe could possibly be so pale. And so they were called haole.

alex

I lived and worked in Maui and my wife can pass for polynesian (she's actually mixed SE Asian) and teaches Hula and Tahitian. She also owns a Hawaiian/SouthSeaIsland Boutique and is very involved in the Hawaiian community here on the mainland.

From our friends (all Hawaiian natives that have moved to the mainland) said the biggest problems are the schools. So if you have kids that should be your first consideration. Even the private schools have allot of problems.

As far as racism, I experienced it over there, but they considered me Hapa (half/mixed) and so they never really messed with me. The only time I got called a Haole was by another Haole actually and I'm pretty sure he was drunk as he was trying to fight me in the water, outside at Hookipa because he said I cut him off, when actually he cut me off. The funniest part was it was just me and him surfing..we had the whole frikin place to ourselves.

I also lived for a while on the North Shore Haleiwa and there you sometimes see homes where the Hawaiian flag is hung upside down.

There is also tension between the Japanese Hawaiians (nisei), Philipeanos, Tongans, Samoans etc.....

Anywho....

The economy is very tuff and unforgiving and there is allot of deep seated resentment. Being white over there, you are guilty (of being a racist, stuckup, whatever...) until you prove otherwise, so you really have to go out of your way and put up with allot before you finally get accepted as being genuine, and some people will just never like you.
The bottom line is, you respect the locals and they respect you. Often that means putting up with some stink eye and not looking back at them and being extra extra polite. Once you start acting superior...game over

Anyway I hate to generalize, and it's just my (one persons) experience over there. I love Hawaii, but even if I won the lottery would not raise my kids there. Great place to visit though!

perhaps i should be more specific,,,,,

any INTELLIGENT opinions would be appreciated,,,that leaves you out from now on selassie

and since you know my friend so well,,,tell him i said hi.

papasmerf wrote:that leaves you out from now on selassie

No problem redneck, you wannbe a dick, you get no info whatsoever now.

papasmerf wrote:perhaps i should be more specific,,,,,

any INTELLIGENT opinions would be appreciated,,,that leaves you out from now on selassie

and since you know my friend so well,,,tell him i said hi.

LOL, and I hope his avatar is sarcasm...I really hope that..really...

a.

why did you remove your original remark salasei?

one additional question to my original post,,,,,,,,, this is directed at helpful, normal people,,

,are there a lot of people like salesie in hawaii?