Wow, I Have Never Been Able To Play the "Oppressed Minority" Card Before
I have been having a 6-month run in with a Hawaiian bank over a land loan. Today I finally yelled at a supervisor, without really thinking about what I was saying, that it seemed like their bank was systematically given their mainland customers the shaft. Lo and behold, in 20 seconds I had a complete resolution. What I have been missing all these years as a white male!
Doug:
You are just remembering "the squeaky wheel gets the grease".
November 13, 2009, 3:30 pmJohn Moore:
If you lived there, as a white male, you would discover that there is huge discrimination against you. Hawaii is the worst in the nation in that regard. "Native" Hawaiians, and there are many, have privileges and subsidies that boggle the imagination.
November 13, 2009, 8:32 pmpalm beach sugar daddy ken doll:
agreed. i've worked with a lot of hawaiians, and they're *easily* the most racist folks i've ever met or seen. (have heard the japanese are actually maybe a little more racist, but i'd have to see it to believe it.) they're *obsessed* with race and parentage and i promise you if you'd been having that "chat with a supervisor" in person, where he could *see* you're just a mere haole boy, you would not be writing about the resolution of your dispute. of course, they deny this vociferously. "oh, **no**, 'haole' isn't the hawaiian version of the n-word. heck no!" this is what is known in legal terms as "a lie". it doesn't get much pub, but i'd say hawaii is easily one of the top 8 most corrupt states out there - a democrat machine state, of course - and **nothing gets done and nobody gets hired** without money changing hands or family connections greasing the skids. just like louisiana, just like new jersey. i'd put the machinations of the bishop estate trustees up against pretty much anything tammany hall ever did - the only difference being one of scale. talk like this is also frowned upon, for some reason.
(also, they have this notion that - since they're hawaiian, and wear flip-flops and t-shirts and have a funny accent and do the 'hang loose' hand jive thing - that they're [literally] the coolest people on earth. they actually think that.)(this is of course ridiculous: Texans are.)
November 13, 2009, 10:30 pmargh:
it's not a card.
November 14, 2009, 4:08 amVal:
palm beach is absolutely correct. My wife and her brother grew up there, and both have blond hair. Very bad stories, and being beat up frequently and having hair pulled out are a big part. Oh - and this was expected and accepted by the authority figures.
November 14, 2009, 9:21 amanon:
So that's how you spell haole ("howlie"). Thanks, PBSDKD.
November 14, 2009, 1:58 pmjoe:
wait, this is the first time in your life someone with power over you has treated you badly because of things beyond your control (in this case your race / where you were born). must be nice
November 14, 2009, 2:33 pmMax:
Well, this isn't something new (though that it is state-sanctioned is worse than I thought). I mean, white people get racist comments from as many other "races" as the other way round. F.e. Mexicans and Black people think we are all skinny idiots who can't dance and have a wooden shaft up our a****. Then we have the Asians who really think that all white people are inferior. Then we have the Arabs who believe that we don't have the passion and honour to be equals.
Everywhere there are people having these prejudices. This is sustainable, as long as it doesn't end in violence (physical or state coercion). Of course, it is not good, but well, you can't change most people...
November 14, 2009, 3:03 pmNeo:
Ever since "Kill Haole Day" activities were designated as a possible "hate crime," Hawaiians have become a bit more sensitive to the idea of being charged as being racially biased or discriminatory.
November 15, 2009, 10:57 pmpalm beach sugar daddy ken doll:
LOL neo. i *knew* something was wrong all those years when they kept trying to tell me that "kill haole" was merely hawaiian for "honor our caucasian friends". "possible hate crime", huh? sorta like when the chief of the vaunted LAPD - this was back in the '40's - was talking to reporters about a corpse that had been found riddled with bullet holes and the head was 10 feet away from the rest of the body. the chief (i **wish** i could remember the name - it might have been parker) told the assembled throngs, "it's possible there was foul play involved here."
not speaking hawaiian and 'possibilities' .... they'll getcha every time.
November 16, 2009, 12:40 ambob:
I thought only white people could be racist.
November 16, 2009, 4:35 pmKurt Brouwer:
Aloha from Hawaii. I live in Hawaii and I thought a little perspective would be good. There are some cultural themes here that may irritate those who don't live here or don't take the time to understand them, but Hawai'i is a wonderful place. For example, my two boys just finished a great season of Pop Warner football. They were the only haole boys on a team of 22.
Hawai'i is culturally different from the mainland states, but that's not all bad. There are positives and negatives, but the negative outlook and scenarios I read here in the comments are not in line with my experiences living here.
November 23, 2009, 11:54 pmIrene:
The newest requirement for farm plans in non-farming residentail areas is the latest attack against Haoles. We bought our home in 2003, are trying to get a permit for a therapeutic pool and now are told that no permit will be approved without a farm plan for our unfarmable land. The wind blows so hard here that nothing will grow. The developer got his money and the long-time residents are now being told that properties that have been approved for the last thirty years are out of compliance without any grandfathering in of previous county law. We don't get the agriculture tax exemption. This is taxation without representation.
December 7, 2009, 6:32 pm