March 9, 2007

Interracial Marriage & Hawaii

Back in the mid-1950s, interracial marriage rates were running at about 30% in Hawaii, so teens in Hawaii today are often the grandchildren of those interracial pioneers. It has not made Hawaii as laid-back about race as you'd expect, however.

Of course, racial violence in Hawaii isn't very lethal. The traditional "Kill Haole Day" on the last day of school was not taken literally -- whites were only beaten up, not killed.


Racial tensions are simmering in Hawaii's melting pot
By Martin Kasindorf, USA TODAY

HONOLULU — A violent road-rage altercation between Native Hawaiians and a white couple near Pearl Harbor two weeks ago is provoking questions about whether Hawaii's harmonious "aloha" spirit is real or just a greeting for tourists. The Feb. 19 attack, in which a Hawaiian father and son were arrested and charged with beating a soldier and his wife unconscious, was unusual here for its brutality. It sparked a public debate over race relations that is filling blogs and newspaper websites with impassioned comments along stark ethnic lines.

These divisive exchanges come as the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress are being asked to tackle another inflammatory racial issue in a state where no race is a majority: special benefits for Native Hawaiians, ranging from preference at an elite private school to free houses on government land. One side says the long-established perks compensate Hawaiians for past wrongs and preserve their valuable culture for the islands. The other side says the benefits discriminate against other racial groups.


Something I hadn't realized was:


"To compensate for the U.S. role in the royal overthrow, Congress in 1920 authorized free houses for 99 years to people who can prove they have at least 50% Hawaiian blood. The state manages the program on 200,000 acres of government land; 8,000 families occupy houses, with 20,000 on a waiting list."


So, I can't see the validity of suing to overthrow these racial privileges before their 99 year life expires in 2019 -- a deal's a deal. But, the approach of 2019 is probably stirring much of the ethnic turmoil in Hawaii. That, and of course, the hopes of Native Hawaiians to get an Indian-style casino. Gambling isn't allowed in Hawaii, but the hopes of luring in gambling-crazed Chinese zillionaire tourists means a Native Hawaiian-owned casino in Honolulu could be one of the most lucrative in the world.


My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gambling isn't allowed in Hawaii, but the hopes of luring in gambling-crazed Chinese zillionaire tourists means a Native Hawaiian-owned casino in Honolulu could be one of the most lucrative in the world.

Anyone who's been to Vegas recently has seen that the Chinese appear to be disproportionately eager gamblers. So a casino combined with the appeal of Hawaii's natural beauty could indeed be a money faucet.

Anonymous said...

Kill Haole day is like cow tipping. It's just something you tell Haoles that just moved there. As a Hoale who moved there in middle school, I heard about it all the time, but this mysterious day never appeared.

Anonymous said...

Anyone who's been to Vegas recently has seen that the Chinese appear to be disproportionately eager gamblers. So a casino combined with the appeal of Hawaii's natural beauty could indeed be a money faucet.

Macau has recently passed Las Vegas to become the world's largest gambling center as measured by amounts wagered.

Peter
Iron Rails & Iron Weights

TabooTruth said...

The similar dynamic happens in Thailand (I lived there for a few months). The people put on a friendly air for tourists, but there's increasing resentment towards the more successful westerners. Thai men resent western men taking away "their women," violence towards foreigners is still low, but rising.

If the Hawains aren't able to economically succeed in the post-free housing era (low average IQ), will they be able to claim "oppression?"

That fact on Macau is probably a harbinger of the change in the world's economic hierarchy, no?

Anonymous said...

A Japanese-American friend of mine used to spend his childhood summers with his (Japanese) Hawaiian cousins, and would describe how his cousins taught their two year old brother a game called "hit the Haole." They'd stand him in front of the television and whenever a white face appeared on screen, they'd slap his chubby little hand against the screen. Good times, man.

Anonymous said...

They'd stand him in front of the television and whenever a white face appeared on screen, they'd slap his chubby little hand against the screen. Good times, man.
3/09/2007 8:27 AM

Hah, let them try that with a modern large screen HDTV. The wonders of modern technology.

Anonymous said...

but the hopes of luring in gambling-crazed Chinese zillionaire tourists

That's probably looking further ahead than they are. I think those who want gambling have their eye on the Japanese.

Jim O said...

I was there in the Army there in the mid seventies, when a military haircut was more of a dead giveaway than it is today. The only nice thing about it for guys like me was the weather. Oahu is crawling with military, and they are bitterly resented by the locals, or at least the non-white locals. Assuming things are pretty much the same today,the story underemphasised that aspect of the beating incident.

Anonymous said...

"Interracial marriage at 30% in the 50's." Uhm,among who,zackly? Whites marrying Hawaiian natives? Japanese immigrants w/Hawaiians? White/Japanese,etc. Are Hawaiians among ther lower IQ Asians? There must be a contingent of Afro-Americans from the military,what are they creating? The comment about 'military hair cut' rang true-I felt it serving in N. Carolina,let alone Hawaii! In Okinawa,the hair didnt matter-my being a white guy was a dead giveaway! :)

Anonymous said...

The 99 year thing is the lease to the tenants of the land, it is not the length of the whole deal.

Since those 200,000 acres were Hawaiian land before they became government land it is easy to see how frustrating it must be to Hawaiians to see that after 90 years, only 8,000 families have been able to get lots. Families remain on the waiting list for generations.

Also, the special preferences at the "elite private school" were built into the charter of the school when it was founded over 100 years ago by some of the last Hawaiian royalty and supported by their land holdings.

Anonymous said...


The 99 year thing is the lease to the tenants of the land, it is not the length of the whole deal.

Since those 200,000 acres were Hawaiian land before they became government land it is easy to see how frustrating it must be to Hawaiians to see that after 90 years, only 8,000 families have been able to get lots. Families remain on the waiting list for generations.

Also, the special preferences at the "elite private school" were built into the charter of the school when it was founded over 100 years ago by some of the last Hawaiian royalty and supported by their land holdings.


That's the thing, see. People forget the history and only see what things are like today.

Look at Fiji. Indians have been there for over 100 years, but are still forbidden from owning land, if I recall correctly.

Why is that, and since they make up close to a majority, how bitter it must be, given that they seem to be the economic leaders in Fiji?

Lysander Spooner said...

So Hawaii, in effect, is Brazil without the gun violence; both countries' populations comprising racially diverse peoples who--surprise--still find reasons to dislike one another.

Thankfully, Hawaii's geographic location, that being smack dab in the Pacific ocean, away from the contiguous lower 48, likely ameliorates gun crime by attenuating the flow of illegal firearms to the islands.

Gun Crime Statistics by State

Slightly out of date statistics, I know, but still instructive.

(Though I'm sure someone has tried to make the argument that Hawaii has low gun crime statistics precisely BECAUSE its population is majority non-white. That said, what the hell is going on in Alaska, a non-lower 48 state?)

In my view, the real question is: Why the hell did we want to annex Hawaii in the first place?

Though I guess we could just chalk it as being another one of the interesting "feats of strength" performed by President McKinley, a man who apparently never met an imperial adventure he didn't like.

Anonymous said...

Its important to realize that they have bitterness torwards haoles because hawaii was once a sovereign kingdom that was integrated into the western world(largely christian and traded with America) until it was annexed by America and incorporated into the United States. Haoles represent the loss of hawaiian independence.

Anonymous said...

I'm curious as to how much support a secession movement in Hawaii could drum up. Whipping up anti-white sentiment in Hawaii probably wouldn't be terribly hard but it's my understanding most of the secessionists want an apartheid state with the Native Hawaiians lording it over everyone else. That couldn't be too appealing to the whites, Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos and other ethnicities in Hawaii.
As for lysander wondering why Alaskans are so trigger happy, I'm not really sure. I've never been to Alaska.
But I do hear it's quite boring up there in that cold, which leaves people with little to do but drink and fight.

Anonymous said...

Look at Fiji. Indians have been there for over 100 years, but are still forbidden from owning land, if I recall correctly.
Why is that, and since they make up close to a majority, how bitter it must be, given that they seem to be the economic leaders in Fiji?


As a matter of fact, there's been a lot of trouble in Fiji in the past decade or so, much of it ethnically-based. In fact there was a coup last December.

Peter
Iron Rails & Iron Weights

Anonymous said...


I'm curious as to how much support a secession movement in Hawaii could drum up.


Isn't the US Pacific Fleet based in Hawaii?

Anonymous said...

It's worth noting that Hawaii has a white Governor right now, and from 2002 to 2006 both seats in the U.S. House were held by whites.

Anonymous said...

Kill Haole Day? My Hawaiian friends tell me it's real. And that whites have always been resented.

Why did McKinley want Hawaii?

1. Keep the UK or French or Germans or Japanese from seizing it.

2. Critical refueling station in the mid-Pacific.

Alaska vs. Hawaii?

Alaska is filled with large, dangerous critters (particularly Moose, Iditarod's Susan Butcher lost half her team to a pissed off Moose). Hence the need for large caliber revolvers. It's also non-Urbanized, meaning police could be days away at worst. Finally it is filled with tribal peoples who don't handle alcohol well, and long long nights and very short days in the winter.

Yes anti-White sentiment is easy to whip up in Hawaii (until recently the Nisei made up many if not most of the state's political leadership) but secession would place all non "Native Hawaiians" at a huge disadvantage and of course lose US tourism.

Anonymous said...

There's politician tensions along ethnic lines in Trinidad as well.

It's probably easier to list multi-ethnic states which don't exhibit such problems.

Anonymous said...

If I had my way about it, and was dictator of the USA, I'd expel Hawaii from the union.

As for the Pacific Fleet... well, Cuba is not only independent, but hostile to the U.S., yet we manage to have a naval base there at Gitmo.

Anonymous said...

Lysander Spooner writes:
"Though I'm sure someone has tried to make the argument that Hawaii has low gun crime statistics precisely BECAUSE its population is majority non-white."

Lots of east asians might be a good reason. Also, Steves point about most of the african americans in hawii being ones that made it through the military screening process is another good reason.