hi, well first, I am not recounting my isolated experiences, or even particularly MY experiences. I am an observer, a listener, a reader, and I try to do so, at this age of my life, with open eyes and ears.
Many years ago, when I was an idealistic flower child, I moved to New Mexico and experienced racism towards myself and all the newcomers. That was a first. Later, during the 70's, I knew many people who visited and moved to Hawai'i, and told me about the racism, as PART of the picture, not the whole picture by any means.
It is neither the entire experience, nor made up. It is real.
I posted my concerns because of the PUBLIC schools. Have you not heard of the current middle school case where one girl bashed another girl's head against the wall, repeatedly, and called her an f*ing haole? Well, it is not the case that chills me so much as the "comments" from the public in response to the incident.
If you don't have kids, the likelihood is that you'll never experience a problem. Especially if you don't come here looking for a job.
Let me be clear that I don't experience racism against myself. But I listen, I listed to people telling me about this haole lady or that haole guy -- and say things like, some haoles are all right ... statements from nice people, that show a racism that isn't even examined.
When I was growing up, my parents taught me never to look at a person's skin color, and I tried to live that way. However, when you come among people who have been oppressed for their race, you will often find that race matters. People here were oppressed by "haoles" for a long time, and in turn they resent them for being here, and they generalize. They think of your race as a big part of your identity, and they were raised to do so.
Unlike myself, who was raised to be colorblind. Maybe not a realistic upbringing, but I wouldn't trade it in.
Local kids here are territorial. My friend who brought her hapa-Hawaiian son over to Hilo told him he couldn't go down to the pavilion unless he had his Hilo friends with him, so he wouldn't get beaten up as a Kona boy in Hilo. And this boy is brown, Hawaiian, but simply from the other side of the island.
After moving here, I've realized that it takes a long long time to be deeply accepted by people here. Superficial acceptance and pleasant interaction is easy. But eventually, I realized that the separation doesn't really go away. It's not MY energy. I came here openhearted.
Part of it is small town. I experienced similar energy when I moved to a small community in the 70's. (Hippie community). Everyone was obsessed with who got their first, as if that made you more or less of a community member. Oldsters didn't mingle with newbies. It was just silly. Eventually I moved down to a more urban area, Berkeley, where it wasn't like that at all, where I had friends of every persuasion, sexuality, ethnic, age, background -- so many friends.
I guess I do feel it stifling to be back in the environment where people care how long you've been here, whether you were born here, whether your grandparents were born here. It is not all coming from a bad space, a lot of it comes from pride of belonging to a place. It is just rather hard on people who are new. Luckily there are plenty of people who are new to become friends with.
The anger I hear of in the schools, the domestic violence I know of, the sexual abuse I know of, the addiction to heavy drugs -- these things weigh on me. I am an idealist, but this is not a utopia, no matter how much you desire utopia. Don't we all?
Well, therein lies a problem. We are coming and people are being pushed out, having a hard time, and they resent the newcomers. How unsurprising, really.
I'm not a negative person, but unlike some of you I have been involved with idealistic communities for many years, different communities, and there is a dark side to everything. I get tired of the word "paradise." I do not believe in earthly paradise. This is the tropics. To people who live in the temperate zone the steady temps seem like paradise, but to the people who are born here, that's not enough to make them happy, you know. The tropics have their own set of challenges.
That said, I really hate being cold!!! [
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I'm not making the school problems up. Just follow the local news. If you want to read a book that chronicles the dark side, read "murder in Paradise" about the Dana Ireland case. The case is incredibly disturbing, but only one incident. What is more disturbing is when you read all the interviews, and you get a look into how some people think and live, people who you may end up sharing a subdivision with. Some scary folks there, and to throw an unprepared 8th grader into the mix, yeah, I was concerned.
Now you can go back to the hot tub and margarita.
Will you be a nurse at the hospital? If so, you will see the dark side. I have been in the Hilo ER ... it is kind of like a cross with a psych ward at night. Scary stuff AND some very nice people. I didn't say there was no bright side, just it isn't ALL bright.
