Just who are "we" anyway?

[coastal]

i'm white, gay, want to be married to my partner of 13+ years, and male. having grown up in the san francisco bay area, california is my background. parents never mentioned anything about our heritage, and we had no cultural traditions that we practiced other than the typical US holidays. i love my new home, it's very diverse. there are straight people, gay people, trans people, and pretty much every color of the rainbow can be found here.

[csgray]

Sorry if I sounded preachy, I didn't mean to. I've been super busy lately and I think all my posts and emails are sounding a little brusquer than I intend. I didn't take the question as racist, although who we are is far more than just our ethnicity. Coastal's answer shows all the different things that can make us who we are.

For me:
I am a woman who has passed the half century mark, married for the last 25 years to my best friend and favorite companion. I am an educator who used to be a professional textile artist on the I-5 corridor crafts circuit while I raised my daughters. Dog owner who would love to have a driving team but probably won't. Love the oacean but don't get into it enough because I work too much. My family on my mother's side were a German speaking religious minority originating in the Alsace-Lorraine who under the Hungarian Prussion Empire were forced refugees bouncing around Eastern Europe for about 100 years before they escaped to St. Louis through Ellis Island between the world wars. Their history is why I am a little sensitive about emphasis on national heritage, it can turn into blind nationalism that leads to persecution of minorities pretty quick under the right circumstances. My father's family were your garden variety Scots/English/Irish/Dutch Americans and who knows what else, like 25% of all US citizen's somebody in the family came on the Mayflower way back when. On the census form this rich history all falls under the label of white. Most of this has been mentioned in bits and pieces in past posts, just not all at once. That is one of the fun things about Punaweb, putting together the pieces, like I know Carey is from Chicago and worked at the aquarium there.

Reading between all the lines my guess is most punawebbers are married or have been, or will when Hawaii makes it legal to be, many are raising families or already did so, we seem to be a little more educated than the island as a whole in terms of college education, and many of us are retired and came here after finishing careers elsewhere. I think a lot of transplants and would be transplants come to punaweb for advice that people who grew up here don't need, a lot of transplants may also be seeking connections to others since they don't know many people here yet, that applies to pre-transplants too, but those factors may skew our population towards the older, whiter, richer end of the Puna spectrum, not that you have to be all that rich to be at the richer end of that gamut. And, oh my, are we ever opinionated!

Carol

[Peter Easterling]

Carol, you are great. Thanks so much for your gracious, thoughtful post. I fully concur with your observations. You hit the bull's eye with "My father's family were your garden variety Scots/English/Irish/Dutch Americans." Like my wife says "-ish." My wife and I both feel so lucky we found Puna, a place so deeply reminiscent of our childhood in Hawaii. Aside: Mahalo to my brother Patrick for getting us off Oahu. Back to Carol: Your analysis of Punawebbers seems right on. While we may never meet (except at Malama Uncle Roberts, and Maku'u Farmers Market), you exemplify why we are here.

[terracore]

As a possible slave descendant, I don't like to be categorized by the color of my skin. Of all the forms that ask me to choose race, I've never seen "human" listed. I frequently see "White/Caucasian" as an option. Who writes these things? Caucasus is the region in Europe between the Black and Caspian seas. Therefore, I am not a Caucasian being that I am not from Caucasus. Also I am not "white" being that I do not blend in with white paint, or white paper. I prefer to think that I have some amount pigmentation in my skin. I am a European-American.

[Justin]

I am white on the outside - albeit with a pretty good tan - but have always felt a tie to Hawaii on the inside. I remember one holiday to Maui in 2004 where I was sick as a dog, staying on the north shore, in an area where I didn't know where anything was. I remember driving the rental car to Kihei, where I was more familiar, and as I headed south on the highway, past Pukalani and Kahului towards Kihei, this intense feeling of being "home" came over me, something I had never felt anywhere on the mainland, including California, where I lived my entire life. My wife and I visited the Big Island in 2005, and when we next came back in 2010, it was for the specific purpose of purchasing a home in Puna. We bought in January 2011 and have loved it.

[MarkP]

White.

[Lupie]

Ha! ^^^^.

Age, race, sexual orientation, or religion matter about as much as my hair color.
Though I understand the curiosity.
So the answer is...
Swedish
Bohemian
English
And ? (My Grandfather was adopted)

[ericlp]

White but interracial marriage. Moved to Oahu from Oregon when I was 10. But been on and off the island and even island hopping lived on Maui for a few years but mostly Honolulu, Pearl City and Waianae. Graduated from Local highschool and did college in PCC / LCC... Now going UH. Did hawaii Army National Guard for 10 years. And was a corrections officer for 5 on Maui... Does that make me a local....... Eh Brah???? Probably spent at least 1/2-3/4 of my life in Hawaii.

[unknownjulie]

I think it is a more common question here, than in some other places. I think it may just be that there are so many different mixes here, that it is interesting to ask. I usually just say "mix of northern european" if someone asks. Then I have to explain where all those places are to the kids usually, because they often are taking lots of polynesian and asian geography lessons in school and aren't even sure. I was asked the other day, "Are you Hawaiian?". So, I don't think this is a racist question, just a curiosity question- more like, "Do you have kids?" or "Are you married?" etc.

[EightFingers]

German, English with some Native American thrown in.