White Female Walking

This article appeared in our school newspaper on Monday. Let me just give you the gist of it. Here are a few excerpts:

"The white liberals take it too far when they start becoming "down" with the colored folks. I'm talking about those with dreadlocked hair and adopting an "urban" accent. I'm talking about upper class whites who dress in thrift shop clothing just because it's "cool to be poor." The ones who date people of color to make a political statement, and go to underground hip hop concerts yelling "down with the police!" I'm talking about white people who travel to third world countries to help the poor and needy to make themselves feel like better citizens.

I don't have a problem with white people who want to make a real change in this racist society, but I can't stand it when they forget who they are and what they always will be: white."

If you read the article, you can understand why just about anybody would be offended by it. I also suggest you read the responses because they give insight into how it really is.

What you don't understand because you don't live in Hawaii is that the racial relationships here are very different. My school is 80% Asian/Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. Yes, I am a minority. I don't complain about that part because I enjoy learning about other people's culture. I complain about the fact that white people are always assumed to be tourists and treated like we are stupid. Also, we are assumed to be haole and try to stay inside on "kill haole day".

Most of this is because many locals have never left the island or the state of Hawaii. If they have left the state for a long period of time, they have a different attitude than the others who live here. One girl in my English class wrote in her paper that Georgia was a city and it was mostly populated by black people. It wasn't that she was being racist, she was just stupid. I told her how it really was and what she should change, and she was receptive to my ideas.

On the article itself:

A) Her statements about white people with urban accents, shopping at thrift stores, and interracial dating are completely ignorant. In saying this she implies people do not pick up the accents from where the grew up, white people can't be poor, non-white people are always poor, and interracial dating is always about making a statement, not about liking a person.

B) "I don't have a problem with white people who want to make a real change in this racist society, but I can't stand it when they forget who they are and what they always will be: white"

Umm.... I think she displays her ignorance enough here, I don't need to restate it.

C) She also has statements of white people not experiencing racism. THIS IS TOTALLY NOT TRUE!! Two *true* senerios:

1) Rae is my *white* friend from Maui. She has a Hawaiian last name I can't spell or pronounce, she has lived in Hawaii all her life, and she is more local than local. She told me about when she got shit in high school because she was white the many times at gas stations or clubs when she presented her ID and people would tell her she "married him for his last name". She is not married and it is HER last name. She told me that people will always give you shit because you are white, and not to let it bother you. Just keep it in your head that you are better than that and you will be better than them.

2) Roomie (who is Mexican, but very pale) and I were waiting at the bus stop. We saw our bus come, stood at the sign, money in hand, waiting for the bus. The driver pulled beside us, slowed almost to a stop, the just kept on going. One of the ladies I work with in Rotaract said it has happened to her before, too.

3) This is an ongoing thing. If you are white and walking in Waikiki late at night, it is very probable that you will get raped/beat up/hassled/robbed by samoans/tongans/locals who hate white people. It is just that simple.

4) Police and store clerks will give you shit is you are white. You can get away with a lot of stuff, however, if you are local-looking. My friend pretty much told the police she was drunk while she couldn't stand up. She's local, and they let her just walk away.

So, I think this chick's article is a bunch of shit. I would LOVE to hear everybody else's opinions.