Aloha mai kākou!
Obviously, today's topic is about stereotypes. Honestly, I haven't a clue what sort of stereotypes are out there, or at least, what people outside of Hawaiʻi actually stereotype us as. I think I've only heard one or two in passing by exchange students. After a long while of thinking and googling about this, I put together a bit of a short list. Let me know if any of these matched what you thought or if I missed any stereotypes your cultures or regions may have!
We wear grass skirts, live in grass huts, and ride dolphins to school.
Okay, so correct me if I'm wrong, but this is actually something that we think people think of us. When I took a foreign language in high school and participated in a pen pal exchange, my language partner (and several others) asked about this. The last one isn't as common, but we definitely think that the first two are stereotypes that people (namely mainlanders) have of us. This is something that actually kinda irritates us, although we may laugh it off.
Sadly, I'll have to inform you guys that no, we do not wear grass skirts and live in grass huts, nor do we ride dolphins to school. I hope I didn't crush any dreams out there.
Apparently, we're a costume? Again, we do not look like this. Fun fact: This image is called "Hawaiian Hula Mini Natural Grass Skirt."
We don't have Internet connection.
True story, this one person I met was so shocked to discover that I had wifi connection. This is also something that we think other people have as a stereotype.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but we do, in fact, have Internet access.
We are crazy about spam.
Okay, yeah, I can't disagree with this one. We do love us some good spam. We love it so much, in fact, that we've got an annual Spam Jam. Our favorite spam dish? Spam musubi. The initiation process to become local includes eating a spam musubi and proclaiming your love for it. Honestly, though, we just love spam, and we still aren't over the fact that Andrew Zimmerman dissed spam. What a weenie.
We are always late.
Okay, this one may be our own fault because we have shirts and jokes about this. We actually use an excuse for when we show up late to class or something in high school. This kind of goes in line with another one, which is that we are lazy. Honestly, we're just a laid-back and relaxed bunch of people (except when we're stuck in traffic because goddamn). I guess this just translates to being late and lazy? This is totally false, of course. If we have meetings or important schedules, it's not like we show up three hours after we're supposed to.
I read recently that Bill O'Reilly (bleh) tried to assert that Hawaiians don't work, are lazy, stoned all the time (lol is this a stereotype), and depend on government help because we want everything given to us.
We don't like haoles (white people).
I've actually heard this said once by a haole. I'd like to inform you that this isn't true. Of course, we may have people that we don't like, but so does everyone else. I even saw on Google (someone else was asking about stereotypes of Hawaiʻi, go figure) that someone said we're racist towards haoles and don't like them. Again, totally false. We are not saints, and therefore, do not love every single person we meet. However, we do not hate against any specific race or ethnicity. I mean, how could we when we're such a racially and culturally diverse area (I almost typed nation, oops). Of course, there are times (namely in Hawaiian history) where we feel bitterness, anger, or even sadness over the events that had transpired, but by no means do we show hate towards people today for the actions of people in the past.
Wow, this got a bit serious. Let's end this with some spam!
Spam with a lovely spam musubi maker:
Spam Jam at night:
We also have Rice Fest cause we're equally thrilled about that rice life:
Tryna big giant spam musubis:
As always, if you have questions or would like to discuss, please let me know!
Mahalo nui loa!