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No, that's feelgood BS that gets repeated on this forum a lot. You just have to get used to some people not liking you because you're a haole. Or you can be like some haole transplants and just be completely oblivious to it.
The reason to be polite and not arrogant is because that's the decent thing to do, not to save you from racism.
BTW, switch "haole" with "black", and change "Hawaii" to "a small town in the deep south". See how the question makes little sense?
Even in being black in hawaii, you may still encounter racism. While driving, a couple cut my wife off and almost hit her. So she blew her horn at them. As she past them by they called her a n****r. You just have to remember there are bad/unhappy people everywhere. I would say hawai'i has less than average, but they are still there.
Is this a fair statement regarding white mainlanders moving to Hawaii:
If you're kind, courteous and have a good head on your shoulders, you're polite, and aren't arrogant, you will not be the victim of racism in Hawaii.
I would disagree with that statement. Here is how I would frame it.
The common stereotype (in my experience) of a mainland haole (relative to "locals") is:
louder
more materialistic
feels entitled
acts high and mighty
more likely to be rude or impatient
You deal with this stereotype whether you fit the bill or not because as soon as someone sees you they will make assumptions (it is human nature). Being kind, courteous, polite, not arrogant, and having a good head on your shoulders will not reinforce this stereotype. Therefore it will likely reduce your chances of dealing with problems/racism but it certainly does not eliminate it. Being loud, rude, or arrogant increases your chances of having problems because it reinforces the stereotype and escalates a situation rapidly because of cultural predispositions about haoles. It is complicated. It is just different being a minority someplace and having a negative stereotype associated with your group. It is not something you understand fully until you experience it first hand.
If you look for it (Racism) it will be there. Just treat people decently and you'll be treated the same for the most part. They're exceptions, and get used to being a part of a minority which changes your perceptions. It's the same everywhere you move. Listen to the stories, get to know the history of the place, but live in the present.
Being black in Hawaii isn't going to get you out of the possibility of "racism" although it's a different racism than mainland racism. Black folks are pretty low in the pecking order, too, however most of it is from their point of origin (mainland) other than the color of their tan. It's all mutable as well and a lot of it is dependent on the particular people in the incidents. Basically, being a mainlander of any type is going to put you into a stereotyped group.
Folks from the mainland (or most anywhere else) = THEM
Folks from around here (especially those part of the community) = US
"Us" & "them" isn't based strictly on race although it's partly on race. A lot of it is based on attitude and being connected to the group.
Although if you aren't liked in your community around here, folks will claim you are from somewhere else even if it's just the next little village down the road. I was chatting with the neighbors and mentioned another neighbor and they said "oh, she's not from around here you know" (i.e. she's not part of our community) "she's from P____" (they named a village seven miles away). So basically, they were telling me the other neighbor was a trouble maker and not considered a valid part of the local community. Had she been a valued community member, she would have been considered part of our town even if she had been from a village fifty miles away.
Give your best estimates but what percentage of the racism towards Haole's actually involves violence towards them?
Not much, it is mostly subtle things like stink eye, poor service, or rude comments. Hawaii has a very low violent crime rate and I found the residents to be generally pleasant people. Racially motivated violence happens, but you are more likely to get hit by a car while crossing a street than randomly getting punched in the face because you are white. LOL. It is really not something to worry about under normal circumstances.
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