Tobias Powell
December 9, 2013
Modern Hist. of Hawaii
Period 1
Racism In Hawaii Nei

Unity is something that is appreciated by every individual on this planet as it is help to those from different cultures, religion and race to overcome their differences and to work side by side with understanding and devotion. Acceptance plays an enormous role but as soon as an individual is tolerant to these differences, a great amount of possibilities is opened for him. But what if someone is unable to withstand or accept these changes? This is where the more serious issues rise. ‘Racism is the incapability to accept others for who they are’, which leads to some serious consequences such as prejudice, hate crimes, and could end in assault leading to death. Racism is a worldwide issue in today’s society and most people are trying to fight against it. My essay is composed of racism in Hawaii to which I believe to a certain extent there is.
As human beings we are all entitles with the basic rights of living which includes food, shelter, clothing, health care, education and freedom of socializing. Racism in the United States has been a major issue since the slave era and most of our country’s founding fathers have tried to work against it. Hawaii is known for its Aloha spirit to which basically means to love one another as if you were family but what nobody realizes is the amount of hate some people have towards other races on the Hawaiian Islands. ‘Stupid Haole’ is a term used by many locals here in Hawaii Nei which means “no breath”. White families are judged as soon as they step off that plane and begin to live here. This leads all the way back to ancient Hawaiian history of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy.
Since 1840 the Hawaiian Islands have been an escape to a tropical paradise for millions of tourists. People all over the world encounter alluring exotic animals, beautiful beaches, crystal clear water, and gorgeous women. This is the Hawai'i that the tourists know. However, this Hawai'i is only but a state of mind. What people fail to realize is that most of the locals that inhabit these islands are mad; mad at the foreigners for destroying their islands. When the foreigners came to colonize the islands, they brought diseases which Hawaiians had no vaccines for, they brought crime which lead to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy. ‘Haoles’ get treated poorly here in Hawaii for this reason and the fact that they are taking all of the jobs which the locals go jobless and leads to homeless.
In August of 2013, a teenage local boy by the name of Kollin Elderts was shot dead by a man named Christopher Deedy after a scuffle at Waikiki Beach. Questions arose about this being a hate crime like George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin of Sanford Florida. In Deedy’s testimony, he said he shot Elderts in the act of self defense which could be true. From me being a resident of Hawaii for going on six years I can tell you that Waikiki bech is home to the local boys who want to fight due to your race or for money et al. Deedy said Elderts wanted to fight him, it lead to a scuffle to which he felt in danger and killed the unarmed kid. It was wrong for Deedy to kill the boy but to a certain extent it was an eye opener for the rest of the teenagers who starts random fights and send people to the hospital.
Hawaii is not a state known for murder due to the Aloha Spirit I stated before but instead of guns we take our anger out with our fists. Fighting is a norm here, but most of it is white vs black or local vs white et al. I remember in Seventh Grade seeing the white military kids get beat up just because of their race.
Hawaii is racist to some extent starting with overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy which lead to more jobs given to the ‘Haoles’ and none left for the locals. The racism here in Hawaii isn’t life threatening such Alabama where I lived before Hawaii. The people of Hawaii must learn to accept and not criticize others due to their race or religion and instead take the time to learn more about that person instead of judging them based off of their skin color and what their ancestors did to their ancestors. It will take time to completely wipe off racism from Hawaii Nei, but if everyone works together as one and stands up for each other than the day is not far away when racism will be almost completely wiped off.