Why Locals Don't Like Outsiders Moving to Hawaii

so given recent events in Maui there's been a certain sentiment online that locals don't want Outsiders in Hawaii and this issue is not new locals have been talking about it for years however since a lot of eyes are on Hawaii these days I thought I'd Dive Right In and discuss three reasons why I as local think some locals don't like Outsiders moving to Hawaii yeah here we go oh so I want to try to do a few things with this video the first is to talk about this issue to help others outside of Hawaii maybe better understand the reasons why some locals feel that way by discussing this from the inside out as a local I feel like I've had access to a lot of shared experiences with those who believe people shouldn't move to Hawaii you know I kind of get where they're coming from because I grew up here and because of that I feel like I can explain and explore the reasoning for that position without all of that emotional outrage and anger that would often overtake this type of discourse or discussion the second reason is I just want to put it out there that not all locals in Hawaii are against people moving here I know it's a popular trend on social media to take this type of position and basically scold people for coming to Hawaii if you follow this channel for a while then you know my position when it comes to people wanting to move to Hawaii to summarize I'm personally okay with people moving to Hawaii as long as you can legally be here and are ready to be immersed in a completely different culture so shoots go for it and the third thing I'm hoping to get through with this video is to be able to share that even if some local people hold this sentiment now that they can change their minds now some native Hawaiians and locals will disagree with me and understandably so you know some are angered when people from the mainland move here or even visit here for that matter and so for those who feel that way I'm not here to change their minds I'm not here to say that they can't feel those things or that their position is wrong really there's nothing I could probably say to change their mind and I'm not really going to try to but maybe this video can help them see that you know maybe their position could change like mine did because to be transparent I probably shared that same position of not wanting people to move to Hawaii at some point in my life particularly before I went to college on the mainland but after that experience and some growing up I've really stepped away from that position and so with that here are three reasons why I think some locals don't want Outsiders to move to Hawaii so I think the first reason is historical Hawaii has a pretty conflict-filled history from colonization to different immigrant groups coming here to work on the plantations the history between the native Hawaiians and those first explorers and missionaries is kind of what you'd expect given the track record of Western colonization and interactions throughout history disease land grabs violence there's a lot of hurt that some people are still carrying today and Outsiders coming to Hawaii particularly from the mainland May stir up those emotions and so I think it's important to remember the historical context of how some people feel here this is something that those who are wanting to move here can't really change I mean there's nothing that they can do to correct any past injustices and so for me while others hold on to their historical hurt I can't find that reasoning to hold much ground and what was done in the past is history and it may set the historical backdrop for Hawaii today but it doesn't have to hold us back from moving forward now I'm not native Hawaiian so that hurt that native Hawaiians experience is not for me to carry or to completely understand or frankly to even explain however I am Japanese American and it wasn't that long ago that Japanese Americans were rounded up and put in internment camps here and on the mainland in fact I think my family was among those who lost their business during that time the government just came and took it away I mean was that unfair yeah I think so but even back then my family and many others courageously faced that issue heads on by serving in the military I mean the very government that was taking things away from them and locking them up they turned around and decided that they wanted to be a part of it they wanted to serve and to help and so bringing that all back to today well pushing Outsiders away from Hawaii change any of that if I hold on to the injustices of that time that happened to my family right will that change much I mean no not really I can't go back and change things but what I can do is honor and respect what they went through and hold on to the virtues that They Carried to help them through that time but not everyone thinks that way and I understand just know that there's a lot of historical baggage in Hawaii something that people still have to process and work through the second reason I think some locals don't like Outsiders is that they just don't like them because they don't know them and this is due to the limited interactions that we tend to have with Outsiders Hawaii is a very isolated Place built around this idea of small communities I mean if you live in a place long enough you start to recognize the aunties and uncles walking around and that's a wonderful thing that's what makes Hawaii very special and Community Driven but when it comes to interactions with Outsiders particularly from the mainland it's usually through the context of military and tourists now when I was younger growing up in elementary school my class was your typical mix of kids from different backgrounds mostly Asians and Pacific Islanders and any kids who are white or black or for military families and because military personnel are often in Hawaii for a short period of time due to moving around a lot it's hard to get to know them Hawaii is already a transient place and you'll find that friendships and relationships are often cut short because people move and so knowing that the assignment in Hawaii for them is going to be temporary it does impact how you treat them you know sometimes we put up these walls so we don't have to deal with the inevitable move and breaking of relationships there's also a lot of mistrust between military and some locals and some communities I won't go too much into that but again there's a lot of history there but I think most locals first impression of Outsiders is as tourists which is a pretty tough first impression you know tourists come from all over the world here to relax and vacation and some not all bring with them a certain attitude you know they're coming here for vacation and so they're in vacation though they act a certain way it doesn't mean that it's right it's just I can understand why they would think that way and the thing is I know that all tourists don't act that way and in fact I think most are respectful and are just sort of moving through the Hawaii tourism machine you know Diamond Head Waikiki Beach North Shore eat some garlic shrimp luau and then go home but there's always those Bad actors you know the ones that don't listen to the rules ones that drive recklessly in their convertibles or Jeeps or the ones who are just causing trouble and unfortunately those are the individuals that we remember interacting with the most because they stand out and that can lead to this false Judgment of Outsiders as a whole now are some of this racially driven perhaps Americans have a certain reputation around the world and in Hawaii we sort of experience that ourselves firsthand what it's like when Americans come here and how they act and As Americans ourselves it can be infuriating to be treated that way by others that doesn't make it right to be treated that way but it can help us to see how we may come across to others as well when we go up and vacation now when I went away to the mainland as a college kid I know that I carried with me a certain opinion of people on the mainland from the mainland you know it's just how living in Hawaii can shape your views on on life but any preconceptions I had about people from the mainland were quickly dropped in Colorado because now I was in a world full of tourists where I was the one who looked different where I couldn't Retreat to just hanging out with people who looked like me I had to talk and interact and befriend people from the mainland because that was a general population and through that experience I realized that they're just people they're kind and consider great generous and caring and that any stereotypes that I had formed based on my limited interactions with people from the mainland were false and I think for some white people this is too much to overcome I know that in college there are some students from Hawaii who just couldn't get past that bias they just didn't like people from the man I didn't like white people they didn't want to get to know them and the only friends that they had or that they kept were people from Hawaii which was too bad because they missed out on so many opportunities available that would have been available to them but also just the opportunity to give them a chance because I met some of the nicest people on the mainland am I living there for 10 years I was able to see for myself how these Outsiders are I mean they aren't perfect just like locals aren't perfect but just living there and interacting with people from the mainland really opened up my eyes and the third reason I think some locals don't like Outsiders is a fear of change I mean let's face it we all like homeostasis we like how things are or how they used to be because it's safe and it's familiar I mean we don't want someone from the outside coming in and changing everything right and people from the outside might just do that they do things differently they talk differently they have different values now I do know that some people come to Hawaii and they start questioning why is it like that or well you know where I'm from we did this you know now let me just let people don't generally like that here I think it shows that you think that you're somehow better than the people here which is not a good reputation to have in Hawaii but it also questions the way of life that we have and I get it because I did the same thing whenever I would come back to Hawaii I'd go away for some time and I was exposed to all these different things some very amazing opportunities and experiences and then I come back home and I wonder why that we do things the way that we do because it'd be so much more efficient or better if we just did them like how they did on the mainland and then of course I get the rolling of the eyes and you know the isn't the mainland you know type of response so understand the resistance or fear of the influence that Outsiders may have on Hawaii's culture but I think that we as locals have to remember that we're the host culture here if you want Hawaii to remain a certain way then we have to be the ones to maintain that in our daily lives I think that cultures can be fairly resilient especially ones as isolated as Hawaii but it takes a lot of work by its citizens to maintain that I mean if it's not okay to throw rubbish on the ground and we don't want other people to do that then we shouldn't be doing that ourselves I mean if we don't want certain things in Hawaii then we have to make sure that we're not letting those things into our families into our house but at the same time we also have to be welcoming to others and recognize a good idea when one comes along because I hate to break it to some people but not everything we do in Hawaii is great but how do you do that how do you navigate that keeping of the culture but also being open I think you can do that not writing ideas off or people off without conversation but actually talking and listening of course that takes time now after that discussion it may be found to be impractical that it just doesn't work in Hawaii and that's okay but at least we had the discussion at least they had a chance because not all change is bad not all new ideas or new people are bad in fact we're gonna need some new ideas if we're going to keep locals in Hawaii I've talked to a lot of people who want to move here or who have moved here and they want to come to Hawaii because they want to help they want to contribute they want to make Hawaii a better place but unfortunately they're often met with resistance because that's not how we do things in Hawaii and that must be so frustrating and so those good ideas and contributions are lost and struggle or Worse keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again now you may be wondering why I didn't mention housing because on the surface this seems to be what the big fight is about right Outsiders are buying up all the houses here and forcing the locals away I'm going to say that discussion for another video because it's going to take way too long but for now I just wanted to put this out there if we take a close and hard look at the housing situation in Hawaii I think we as locals are a lot more involved with this issue or should I say problem then we want to admit or realize for every condo or house that gets sold to an outsider who is the one who is selling it and when locals sell their property are they actively trying to sell it to a local family are they willing to take a lower bid or are they just trying to get the most that they can get and they'll sell to anyone because in my experience in hearing stories of locals selling their places sure they feel bad that they couldn't sell to a local family but they always seem to take the highest bid and it doesn't matter who they are if they're in China they're from the mainland wherever it doesn't matter they're willing to just take the top dollar and that's their right speaking for ourselves when we sell our place we have to get the top dollar the highest bid because we need that money to buy another place and so for me I'm just thinking how could I be against Outsiders buying homes here if I'm willing to take their money when it's time to sell my place it just doesn't seem very consistent and if I hated the idea of selling to Outsiders then I'd have to most likely be willing to take less than fair market value locals in general cannot afford fair market value is just too expensive and so could you do that on principle knowing you can get fifty to a hundred thousand dollars more if you sold to a Mainland family are you willing to take that loss just to sell to a local family so I just want to be very clear that I'm not telling people to move to Hawaii my channel doesn't glamorize how life in Hawaii is I'm not a realtor where I benefit from selling new homes or attracting potential clients in fact we're looking to buy a home ourselves and in theory are competing against the very people who I am saying it's okay to move here instead I try to talk about the realities of life in Hawaii from a local perspective I've always tried to do that and part of that reality is the acceptance of others on principle I cannot say stay out of Hawaii or you're not welcome here not only does that seem hypocritical given how Hawaii is made up of so many immigrant groups but that also does not seem consistent with the Aloha spirit that we pride ourselves in so much if we start gatekeeping others from Hawaii that means that our extension of Aloha is conditional that you only get shown Aloha if you do this and if you don't do this then no you don't get Aloha and then it becomes problematic because now we have to pick and choose who we show Aloha to and who we know but the beauty of Aloha at least to me and how I understand it is that it's unconditional kindness and Grace and acceptance nobody has to earn it and hopefully through that realization everyone is willing to give it away and demonstrate it towards others so thanks for watching and aloha hello hello [Music]

Channel: Hello From Hawaii

Views: 13,581

Keywords: living in hawaii, Life in hawaii, what is it like in Hawaii, Moving to hawaii, hello from hawaii, hawaii, oahu, honolulu, hawaii life, life on hawaii, hawaiian life, move to hawaii or not, okay to move to hawaii

Id: Bdx5yBzv8Nk

Length: 15min 5sec (905 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 21 2023