This week’s book and general topic of Hawaii have been very enlightening to me. As a child I was taught that life in Hawaii is very similar in many ways to life in Alaska. There are even whole books about the connections between the two state’s political, economic and cultural struggles that I have been assigned to read in my college classes on Alaskan history. What I did not know was how the AAPIA components of Hawaiian life fit in. In all honesty, I had not considered the way that even in Hawaii’s melting pot culture, issues such as race, gender identity, language, and class are still things that can create separations.
In the assigned reading, as well as the two films of the week, these issues that are used to divide people in mainstream American culture take on a new light. The Hawaiian traditions of using differences to make their society stronger stand out in stark contrast to the American tradition of xenophobia and segregation. In Hawaii, people of different races intermix throughout all levels of society, in spite of efforts by Americans to change this. While this is now not as unique, for many years it was a unique quality of Hawaii, that scared Americans. Native Hawaiian cultures use of non-binary gender identity is something unique, that American’s are scared of. Hawaiian Pidgin is something unique, that American’s are scared of. Hawaii’s tradition of accepting that poor people are real humans who are unique individuals that have dreams, a since of morals, and even pride- scares Americans as it breaks down the traditions of classism which make up key components of American society.
Hawaii is a place were the dishonesty of what are presented as the American ideals becomes very obvious. Because if Americans really did support the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then the Hawaiian way would fit right in and there would be no need for the US to try to systematically wipe out key components of Hawaiian culture. Sadly, however this is not the case and much of Hawaii’s history is the evidence of this contradiction. Understanding the lengths that US efforts to make Hawaii “fit in” went to and comparing these efforts to the history of Alaska that I have learned makes even more sense out of these connections.
References
“Kumu Hina”, 2014. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/80038909trackId=14277281&tctx=0%2
C0%2Cbf35a0fd-a47a-4912-8d18-bb8c1730032c-16865
“Pidgin: The Voice of Hawai‘i”, 2009. Kanopy, https://evergreen.kanopystreaming.com/video/pidgen- voices-hawaii.
Yamanaka, Lois-Ann. Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers. New York:Picador,1996