violence towards non-natives?

Hey
My girlfriend has been living in oahu for about two years now while i have been going to school in CO. Im going to be moving there in a few months and was wondering about some of the rumors i have heard about violence or discrimination toward non-natives. how worried about this should a future resident be?

Discrimination, of course but it isn't bad. Violence? That's usually directed to the locals. You get back what you give. Walk around with attitude and guess what happens. Walk around with a little aloha in you and you'll get that back.

I heard a lot about that too, in SoCal before moving here. I have not had that experience with "Hawaiians" at all. I know there are pockets where it is rough in school but that is because Hawaii has the highest private school population in the county. So....that would be more a function of low socioeconomic status than being any ethnicity. If by local you mean everybody else that has lived here..then I would say this. Oahu is largely an Asian culture and certain things are different. Many times, the "head on LA approach" is not appreciated. I had to learn that the hard way but it wasn't too bad. Violence? No. Our problem is petty theft. Your kids are safe, safe, safe, take the bus. Surfers can be very territorial at the breaks, just like Malibu.
It is a great place. Don't be in a hurry, people will look at you like you are on drugs.
Driving? Completely different. No horns, ever. That is comprable, here to giving the finger. When I go to Maui or Kona, it's like, wow, look at all the white folks!

What I have noticed is that any discrimination is spread out pretty evenly!

It's great!

Catherine

They are not native! They came here from someplace else just like the rest of us.

you reap what you sow

Ho cuz, no worry beef curry, get small kine discrimination (and not necessarily if you are haole) for da folks from da mainland. Even us Asians that talk like da haoles (you know speaking proper english), wen private skoo, and da kine mainland college get made fun of. But no let em boddah you. Get plenty of peepo dat goin show you da aloha spirit. Go dive with da guys wit dive oahu and they take care. NO worries about da guy eddie he is pretty kool, he small kine rough, but he is alright, and da chick leesa and da bruddah rogah, them is good kine folks, so no scared em go get em, Hawaii No Ka Oi (you think they will still give me my JD after seeing me talk like this, haha I am such a banana some times)

Okay- Melissa here (under Vince's acct). Let me give my opinion. I have seen plenty of problems with the locals and non locals. At Waimea Beach some kids kept throwing their football towards where we were at- yes trying to hit us. The ball hit Vince once and landed by me. When the kid came to retrieve his ball I told him if he hits us again I will throw his ball in the water. They continued to throw it next to us then an elderly lady (haole) was walking with a walker and some other people when we watched one of the kids point to the lady and his friend threw the ball right at her and knocked her down. She got up and started to go away when they let her walk by and then threw the ball at her again. One of the boys pointed right at her and the other guy threw it there. Definitely targeting her. My daughters school has plenty of racism also. Some of the kids in her class tell the teacher (also a local) they won't have a class party with the haole's and he lets the students have their own. HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN? I get called a ******in' haole all the time even if I am with a local friend or not. I am tired of being nice and getting treated like crap so I no longer try. I don't give the locals attitude unless they start with me first. I absolutely truly hate it here and can't wait until next April when we leave. We live on a military base and I still get called a ******in haole while on base. There is a saying that you either Love it or Hate it here. My neighbor goes to UofH and has problems with the locals and she is a Native American.

I lived in Hawaii for 9 years. Oahu and Kauai. I never got into any more fights with locals there than I did with the hillbillies (of which I am one...hey I can't help it. I was born there) I grew up around in Ohio. Take out the color and race aspect of it, and the hassles are about at the same level as anywhere.

Even here on Catalina there can be some hostility towards visitors. To some degree this behavior is probably biological in that xenophobia is expressed even in marine life like anemones (if you are not of the "right" genotype they try to beat one another to death with masses of nematocysts that develop on their tentacle tips).

I'm sure it was difficult for the early arrivals on the islands to see the changes that have occurred (I assume post WWII) when mainlanders started coming in larger numbers.

Of course this does not excuse any of the behavior described by Melissa. For kids to target an old woman with a walker is despicable.

wow, Bill, "Biological" roots. I never thought about that! I can see that.