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I'm sure people are more tolerant of each other there than here on the mainland.
Can someone please explain to me what exactly "on the mainland" means? Is that like southern California? Chicago? NYC? Miami? Minneapolis? Detroit? or out in the sticks somewhere? I would be hard pressed to make a blanket statement like that given the various regional, state, and local subcultures that exist "on the mainland". Where I live, interracial couples make up a very large portion of the population and due to the military influence and universities in the area... we have people from all over the world here.
To answer the original question, blacks and hispanics do not make up a large portion of the population when compared to asians, caucasians, or polynesian/pacific islanders. Most brown-skinned hispanics will fit right in, people will probably think you are part filipino or something. For blacks, my experience was that you get a mixed-bag depending on how you act and where you go. Overall, the people are pretty nice. Not as nice as they think they are (locals will constantly talk about how they are the nicest people on earth), but pretty nice people.
While there is a tremendous amount of racial/ethnic diversity in Hawaii, the real divider is local vs non-local for the most part... that is what you have to look out for. A lot of people, who are 2nd, 3rd or 4th generation immigrants in Hawaii don't care for the 1st generation immigrants that come over there.
Hawaii is really a microcosm of America when you think about it. There is a small group of Native people left over that are trying to maintain what they can of their culture. There are a ton of people whose families immigrated there a few generations ago that now they now feel like they own the place. And there are the new immigrants that the older immigrants resent because of cultural differences and the fact that they are willing to work jobs that the locals can't or don't want to... LOL
Can someone please explain to me what exactly "on the mainland" means? Is that like southern California? Chicago? NYC? Miami? Minneapolis? Detroit? or out in the sticks somewhere? I would be hard pressed to make a blanket statement like that given the various regional, state, and local subcultures that exist "on the mainland". Where I live, interracial couples make up a very large portion of the population and due to the military influence and universities in the area... we have people from all over the world here.
To answer the original question, blacks and hispanics do not make up a large portion of the population when compared to asians, caucasians, or polynesian/pacific islanders. Most brown-skinned hispanics will fit right in, people will probably think you are part filipino or something. For blacks, my experience was that you get a mixed-bag depending on how you act and where you go. Overall, the people are pretty nice. Not as nice as they think they are (locals will constantly talk about how they are the nicest people on earth), but pretty nice people.
While there is a tremendous amount of racial/ethnic diversity in Hawaii, the real divider is local vs non-local for the most part... that is what you have to look out for. A lot of people, who are 2nd, 3rd or 4th generation immigrants in Hawaii don't care for the 1st generation immigrants that come over there.
Hawaii is really a microcosm of America when you think about it. There is a small group of Native people left over that are trying to maintain what they can of their culture. There are a ton of people whose families immigrated there a few generations ago that now they now feel like they own the place. And there are the new immigrants that the older immigrants resent because of cultural differences and the fact that they are willing to work jobs that the locals can't or don't want to... LOL
I would assume that it's the forty-eight contiguous states.
The only reason I think people would be more tolerant of each other in Hawaii is because of the high rate of interracial relationships. I know there are high rates of interracial relationships in some places here on the mainland, too, but what state (other than Hawaii) has a mixed-race population that makes up 20% of its population?
According to the 2006-2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 110,006 people of Hispanic or Latino ancestry in Hawaii, as opposed to 29,895 African Americans. Hispanics comprise 8.6% of Hawaii's population; blacks account for only 2.3% of the populace.
i know for sure on BI, as we had the hispanic/latino come over to help work and teach on ranches. how do you think we got paniolo
i dont know if i've ever seen a black family or person for that matter here who wasnt just visiting on vacation. mostly japanese, portuguese, chinese, filipino (most are descendants of cane/pineapple workers like my family is) hawaiian, white (mainland transplants) and as mentioned small percentage of hispanic/latino and even smaller amount of blacks. then obviously some of even the japanese/chinese etc are transplants too who dont necessarily have connections to those originally brought over
Can someone please explain to me what exactly "on the mainland" means? Is that like southern California? Chicago? NYC? Miami? Minneapolis? Detroit? or out in the sticks somewhere? I would be hard pressed to make a blanket statement like that given the various regional, state, and local subcultures that exist "on the mainland". Where I live, interracial couples make up a very large portion of the population and due to the military influence and universities in the area... we have people from all over the world here.
To answer the original question, blacks and hispanics do not make up a large portion of the population when compared to asians, caucasians, or polynesian/pacific islanders. Most brown-skinned hispanics will fit right in, people will probably think you are part filipino or something. For blacks, my experience was that you get a mixed-bag depending on how you act and where you go. Overall, the people are pretty nice. Not as nice as they think they are (locals will constantly talk about how they are the nicest people on earth), but pretty nice people.
While there is a tremendous amount of racial/ethnic diversity in Hawaii, the real divider is local vs non-local for the most part... that is what you have to look out for. A lot of people, who are 2nd, 3rd or 4th generation immigrants in Hawaii don't care for the 1st generation immigrants that come over there.
Hawaii is really a microcosm of America when you think about it. There is a small group of Native people left over that are trying to maintain what they can of their culture. There are a ton of people whose families immigrated there a few generations ago that now they now feel like they own the place. And there are the new immigrants that the older immigrants resent because of cultural differences and the fact that they are willing to work jobs that the locals can't or don't want to... LOL
mainland refers to just that the mainland or 48 cont US., though some count alaska too it all depends who you ask. youd find the same expression in other parts of the world where they use it to describe the larger area of a country, not including any islands etc that make it up as well as any territories etc.. ex, mainland china.
i think the biggest thing is as said being local or not. it is just like saying someone is japanese (from japans point of view), it makes up blood, culture, language and where you were actually born. for japanese in japan youre not really japanese unless you were born in japan, have japanese blood, can speak the language and understand/practice the culture. similar w/ hawaii and who accounts for locals, must've been born there/grew up there have heritage/ties there, can converse and understand pigin, know the culture etc. blood is the only aspect that has changed over time, it no longer goes for just being native hawaiian. i mean heck technically none of us are "native" to hawaii, hawaiians come from micronesia but they naturally are 'natives' as they've been here the longest, same w/ maori in new zealand and other natives on other pacific islands. hopefully this makes sense lol probably not but the whole idea is if you look the part and can speak the part etc. you could be considered a local, even if in actuality youre not. i have friends who look local but as soon as they speak you know they didnt grow up here. same thing w/ other parts of the US like in the south or on east coast. we all have an 'accent' that can help identify where we grew up, or for some where we went to school lol
i dont know if i've ever seen a black family or person for that matter here who wasnt just visiting on vacation. mostly japanese, portuguese, chinese, filipino (most are descendants of cane/pineapple workers like my family is) hawaiian, white (mainland transplants) and as mentioned small percentage of hispanic/latino and even smaller amount of blacks. then obviously some of even the japanese/chinese etc are transplants too who dont necessarily have connections to those originally brought over
One can find many African American folks on the Big Island, if you know where to look. Helene Hale, the long-serving former State Representative from Puna has lived in Hawai'i for decades.
My step-daughter, who is African-American from Texas, recently attended the University of Hawaii. She came there not knowing a soul and with her parents never having been to the islands. She was 19 and had never lived on her own. She LOVED it!
It's true that there are very very few Blacks of African descent anywhere except the military bases and those folks are pretty separated from the tourists at Waikaiki and other resort areas and academics in Manoa. However, she was very welcomed by the native Hawaians who I obviously knew she was an outsider from the mainland but she tells me they more-or-less made her an "honorary" Hawaian based on her very similar physical appearance and I suspect similary "outsider/oppressed" status in the greater USA dominated by Anglo whites.
I was educated while I visited there of the rather sordid history of disenfranchisement, bordering on outright theft of land, that the islanders suffered in the late 19th century. It's not the same of as the plantation-system true slavery afterwards, but in the sugar and pineapple plantations it was pretty close. The only difference is that the Hawaians often just flat refused to work them so they were replaced by Asian indentured servants.
Speaking of which, a big surprise my step-daughter found in Hawaii is that the Chinese and Japanese-ethnic girls bonded with her very well. In Houston she casually knew a few Asians (it's a significant % there) but never really got to be good friends with anyone, with things being a lot more clique-ish. On Oahu they seemed a lot more welcoming and less hung up on black stereotypes and less wary. She became such good friends with one Japanese-American girl that she took her home several weekends to her family on Maui. Both my step-daughter and wife (who's also black and visited there) loved it. I think both would live there permanently if they could get good enough jobs. However, I can make way more in Houston since I'm in the energy industry so I'm afraid they'll have to settle for Galveston Island, not the Hawaian Islands. Same thing anyway, right? :-) yeah right.
I would assume that it's the forty-eight contiguous states.
The only reason I think people would be more tolerant of each other in Hawaii is because of the high rate of interracial relationships. I know there are high rates of interracial relationships in some places here on the mainland, too, but what state (other than Hawaii) has a mixed-race population that makes up 20% of its population?
Probably not states, but there are definitely regions with populations as large as the state of Hawaii that do have comparable numbers like San Diego, NYC, Miami, San Antonio etc... Most hispanic people in this country are really multi-racial to begin with anyways if you think about it. A lot of it depends on how we choose to subdivide ourselves. What Hawaii does have is a large population of distinct ethnic groups that actively try to hold on to that ethnic identity while still forming a local culture that has pride in both where they come from and where they live. That aspect is pretty unique and very fun to be a part of.
Hawaii is very tolerant for the most part, however, I have also personally heard numerous hapa kids say "I hate my haole half... I wish I was just local" or things like that. There are also a lot of ethnic divides where local Japanese may not get along that well with local Koreans and the like. Overall I would say it is easier to be "brown" in Hawaii than most places but there are a lot of places in the "mainland" as well that are extremely diverse and tolerant.
And I know for a fact that the "interracial" and "part hawaiian" numbers are skewed by people claiming to be part hawaiian who probably are not (watch the Kamehameha song competition one day and tell me those kids aren't asian) as well as people who are of Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese ancestry (for example) checking the "multi-racial" box when in fact they should just be checking the asian box. I really don't care what your ancestry is personally, but if my friend who is of Irish, Russian, and Italian decent has to check "white/caucasian", I think it is only fair that a person of Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese decent check "asian".
Having lived in many different states and regions of the country, one of the things that bothered me the most in Hawaii was the way the mainland was referred to as this sort of abstact island somewhere that is cold, full of haoles, where people aren't nice, drive fast, don't take care of their families, and are racist towards minorities. I, and a lot of others from the mainland, were offended by this, especially considering most people from Hawaii have not been east of vegas and never lived anywhere else to really make such comments. Just my 2 cents.
I am black and Hispanic. I live on Oahu. I see way more of my black brothers and sisters than I do of my Latino brothers and sisters. However, it is easier to SEE that someone is black than it is to SEE that they are Latino. Before I moved here, I checked my school's website for the island's population percentages and it reported a higher percentage of blacks than Latinos, but both were pretty low. They were 3% and less. Because of this information, I was at first surprised by the number of Latino last names that locals have, but I learned that many of them have Portuguese and Filipino ancestry and there are a lot of actual Filipinos here.
Yes, Spaniards are Hispanic, but they're European, so they're white, too. "Hispanic" doesn't mean "non-white". It's a big misconception.
[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Hispanic_and_Latino_Americans"]White Hispanic and Latino Americans[/URL]
The link is just for some interesting info.
People from Spain are Spanish. People from Spanish speaking countries are Hispanic. Latinos and Latinas are people from countries that speak a language derived from Latin. Italians, Portuguese, Mexicans, Brazilians, Puerto Ricans are all Latinos.
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) hawaiian, white (mainland transplants) and as mentioned small percentage of hispanic/latino and even smaller amount of blacks. then obviously some of even the japanese/chinese etc are transplants too who dont necessarily have connections to those originally brought over
