Want to Be Less Racist? Move to Hawaii

[SummerMadness]

Want to Be Less Racist? Move to Hawaii

Kristin Pauker still remembers her uncle’s warning about Dartmouth. “It’s a white institution,” he said. “You’re going to feel out of place.”
Applying to colleges, she was keen to leave Hawaii for the East Coast, eager to see something new and different. But almost immediately after she arrived on campus in 1998, she understood what her uncle had meant.

She encountered a barrage of questions from fellow students. What was her ethnicity? Where was she from? Was she Native Hawaiian?The questions seemed innocent on the surface, but she sensed that the students were really asking what box to put her in. And that categorization would determine how they treated her. “It opened my eyes to the fact that not everyone sees race the same way,” she told me.

She found that between ages 4 and 11, upper-middle-class children from mostly white neighborhoods around Boston increasingly viewed race as a permanent condition and expressed stereotypes about other racial groups: that blacks were aggressive or, on the flip side, good at basketball; that Asians were submissive and good at math. These children came from public schools in liberal areas. They probably weren’t deliberately taught these stereotypes at home. But they absorbed them from the American ether nonetheless.

Would children in Hawaii express the same views? Dr. Pauker repeated the study with middle- and upper-middle-class grade-school students in and around Honolulu, and was not entirely surprised to find that in Hawaii, the children, including those who were white, tended not to express the same essentialist ideas about race. They were not race-blind. They recognized skin color, hair texture and other features commonly associated with race. But they did not attribute to race the inherent qualities — aggression or book smarts — that their mainland brethren did. “They didn’t believe that race was biological,” Dr. Pauker told me.

 

[Hammster]

Want to be not racist? Repent and believe the gospel. Then it doesn’t matter where you live.

 

[Brightmoon]

Race is a social institution in humans because all populations are fully interbreeding but other animals do have races

 

[Always in His Presence]

Want to be not racist? Repent and believe the gospel. Then it doesn’t matter where you live.

Stands up applauding

 

[jardiniere]

Lived in Hawaii for ten years. I believe the underlying cause is that there is no majority population race in Hawaii. Whites, blacks, Asians (in Hawaii, broken into Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and others), Polynesians, none hold a population majority. And a great deal are multi-ethnic, as well.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Much of what is deemed racism in America is really just preference.

Regarding blacks and basketball, in my state a couple of black high schools dominated the state basketball tournaments for a couple of years, but in the recent past that have not even made it to the regionals. All the competing teams have been mainly white, with a few black players on those teams of course. But the all-black schools are notably absent from the competition. During their decline they were also beaten by all white teams.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Amos 3:3
Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

 

[Always in His Presence]

The Netherlands doesn’t have very much in the way of racism either. Come to think of it, Ethiopia doesn’t have that much racism either.

Of course you will not find great diversity either. Same with Hawaii

 

[Brightmoon]

Much of what is deemed racism in America is really just preference.

Regarding blacks and basketball, in my state a couple of black high schools dominated the state basketball tournaments for a couple of years, but in the recent past that have not even made it to the regionals. All the competing teams have been mainly white, with a few black players on those teams of course. But the all-black schools are notably absent from the competition. During their decline they were also beaten by all white teams.

I had a run in with my son’s guidance councelor at school when he was in middle school. That creep told me that my son should be playing basketball even though he was a complete science nerd . I sat there with my mouth open, too stunned to say anything for a few seconds then decided to be polite , not curse him out , and told him that not all Black males like basketball . I asked my son if he liked basketball. He said, yeah it was fun but he wasn’t really that interested in it. Within weeks the creep was taking him out of his classes telling me that he couldn’t do them . I stormed up to his office after asking the teachers why they thought he couldn’t do middle school work . They were just as puzzled as I was. Turned out the creep had given him an IQ test on a day that he knew he was very ill. My son didn’t want to take the test , told him that he didn’t feel well and just marked random answers just to get him to leave him alone. I protested no one is going to think that’s a valid test because you knew he was sick. According to this rigged test my son had an IQ of about 99 . His real IQ is about 170. That creep treated my son like he had an IQ of 99 til he graduated. My son would cry because he had to put up with this emotional abuse every day. The last year of middle school they had a program where they would allow some kids to take college classes. My son marched into the principals office told him point blank that if he didn’t let him take those classes he was gonna drop out that day. He took a college level chemistry class and got an A . He wasn’t allowed to take chemistry in middle school but I had had him in a summer program that taught him high school Regents chemistry , biology and math when he was 10. He didn’t even tell me that he’d signed up for the college program. he just forged my signature because he didn’t want to give the creep time to out manoeuvre him

A lot of racism isn’t just preference, it’s deliberate and it’s malicious

 

[Brightmoon]

This was deeply shocking to me because I’d never bumped into that type of deliberate racist malice before . And it was done to a child. My son now has 2 degrees - biology and chemistry

 

[Strathos]

No thanks. Not particularly fond of tsunamis and volcanoes.

 

[jayem]

While still a minority, interracial marriages have risen steadily over the last several decades.. This is from Pew Research:

And correspondingly, the number multiracial children has also risen:

If these trends continue (and I see no reason why they would not,) in several centuries, most of the US population could be mixed race. I know traditionalists will deplore the idea of increasing racial/ethnic homogenization. But it's probably inevitable.

OTOH, Homo sapiens is an instinctively tribalistic species. Even if all people in the future are of mixed race, we will just find other reasons to despise and distrust each other.

 

[Pommer]

Even if all people in the future are of mixed race, we will just find other reasons to despise and distrust each other.

Well, we got religion, for that!

 

[Brightmoon]

I’m mixed like that- one great great grandmother was white she married an American Indian. Her daughter married what was probably a man who had Black , Indian and white ancestry . Some of my cousins have very dark skin and straight hair and some have very light skin and curly hair. Some of us have blue eyes and blond hair. If you’re as mixed as we are,you’ll get all types of skin shade and hair shades and textures.

I’m very frequently asked what race am I . If I feel like being snarky I say human

 

[Pommer]

Much of what is deemed racism in America is really just preference.

How one “chooses” one’s “preferences”, though, I think, is key.
If it is an unconscious, automatic “choice”, it could very well come from the culture in which one is immersed.

The societal culture in America is largely racist in nature.
Maybe ones “preferences” need better underpinnings than “what feels comfortable”?

 

[OldWiseGuy]

How one “chooses” one’s “preferences”, though, I think, is key.
If it is an unconscious, automatic “choice”, it could very well come from the culture in which one is immersed.

Or from their experience, and personal honesty.

I don't think it wise to dictate what another's preferences should be, especially if it flies in the face of their own experiences.

The societal culture in America is largely racist in nature.
Maybe ones “preferences” need better underpinnings than “what feels comfortable”?

I think it's largely homogeneous.

I have often said (in regard to reducing the use of fossils fuels for the good of the planet) that "I didn't work all my life to be cold in my own home."

That's my preference.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Want to be not racist? Repent and believe the gospel. Then it doesn’t matter where you live.

Doesn't matter to who?

 

[SavedByGrace3]

I live in a mixed neighborhood. The ratio is about 50 50. We get along fine. I have black families on either side of me... we have excellent relationships and there are no problems at all. We do normal neighbor type things with each other. We have been in their homes and they in ours. Sometimes when I mow my yard I go ahead and mow one of their's also. If we are out of town they will pick up our mail, and we will take in their trash cans if they are away. Normal good neighbor things. We share meals with each other and God has blessed us.
I grew up in the 50s and 60s and remember seeing racism. REAL racism. Lynchings, church burnings, riots, children being denied entrance into schools. Etc etc. So when I hear people say this nation is racist, I immediately go to the news and look for KKK rallies and marches and cross burnings. I find none. I look for where little girls have been killed and churches burned. I cannot find any. I look for where black children are being denied entrance into schools and blacks being denied service in eating places. Nope.
So when I hear people today talk about racism being the worst they have ever seen...I have to wonder what they are talking about. It seems to me... and this is my opinion based on observation... that there are people who want to be seen and treated as victims. I am not saying that racism does not exist. Of course it does. But not anything like we saw when I was young. And there are political forces at work that want to see a real resurgence of racism for their own purposes.
Lastly, when I was in the service back in the early 70s, we had race relations classes. One thing they taught, and I agree with, is that humans are, well, human. They have natural, human faults and failures. One of these normal, natural faults is the tendency to be suspicious of people who look different or have different culture as your own. Everyone has degree of racism. The way to not be racist is first, do not deny it. Admit it and face it. Deal with it. The cure to racism is in the individual. It cannot be eliminated by laws, or threats, or programs. You have to acknowledge that it is a bad thing that may crop up within yourself. You decide.. You choose to not give way to it. You make a choice not to act or even think in accordance with those tendencies. And if you are serious, you go out of your way to combat it in your own life. You go out of your way to be kind, generous, and not demand your own way all the time. Most of all, you give people the benefit of the doubt. You think the best until there is reason to not.
One more thing. I am highly suspicious of people who claim they are free from what I consider a universal tendency in all men. It is like saying you have never looked on a person of the opposite sex and had normal human desires pop up. It is like saying you never get peeved at someone who cuts you off on the highway or steals that parking place you were waiting for. There are pharisees in every area of life. They want you to feel badly or guilty for just being human. They want to lord it over you and manipulate you. Some want to do this for their benefit and cause.
Do not fall for it. Do your best to love your neighbor regardless of what their race, gender, or color.
That is the solution. It is not to make pretend you are not affected by these things. It is to acknowledge that they are there... but you are not going to let them control you. You are going to love your neighbor as your self and treat others the way you want to be treated.
Thank you.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Most of all, you give people the benefit of the doubt. You think the best until there is reason to not.

I like this part.

 

[Semper-Fi]

When I was in Hawaii,
there was locals, tourists,
then there was haoles.

Back then haoles where not much
welcome on the local side of the island .