Big Island Buyer's Brokers

Here in Hawaii we know a thing or two about race. No … make that just one thing.

Race is meaningless. Seriously, it really is absolutely meaningless. It has no significance whatsoever … none, zilch, nada.

Hawaii has always been known as a melting pot, and the Polynesians who identified with this Island paradise rapidly and happily inter-married with the many other races that found their way here as the Polynesians had hundreds of years before. Perhaps it was because Island people understand that they must rely on each other and have only each other to rely upon. Living on and Island is like living in a boat. Look around you and you can see who you have to help you and who has you to help them. It is clear and right, even if it may be a bit scary.

At the moment the folks up on the mainland are making a big deal about how they should be allowed to talk about Mr. Obama’s racial heritage. Nothing could be more pathetic in the eyes of Hawai’i people … real Hawai’i people, that is. Nothing could be more meaningless in the eyes of God, for that matter.

Racism requires ignorance and cannot exist without it. Unfortunately, many people confuse race with culture. For instance, if a purple family comes to live in your neighborhood and makes a practice of eating cats, because that is what their culture has taught them to do, you may think they are bad people doing bad things, since you think of cats as pets rather than food. You may then teach your children that purple people are bad people, since you have not seen the problem as a cultural one, versus a racial one.

If a purple orphan is adopted by a family from London and is raised with the English culture, that purple person will not exhibit any of the cultural traits associated with the original purple culture. He or she will act and be British. Period. It has been proven millions of times. It is a fact, not a theory.

Going back to Mr. Obama, his culture to a large extend is modern Hawai’i. In other words, he is as far from being race-oriented as anyone on earth. We can’t do anything about changing the way our ancestors made us look. Even Michael Jackson with all his millions hasn’t been very successful with that. We should not insult our ancestors or even be trying! Mr. Obama is bound to look the way he does, just as you and I are bound to look the way we do.

If Mr. Obama ends up winning the presidency – something I doubt – he will not be the first black president, the first green president, or the first orange president. He would be the first president from Hawai’i, where people see people, not races.

Imua,

Bill Jardine

Filed under: Updates