Gathering Places
Gathering Places
DRIVING TO WORK one recent morning, I passed a woman driving her children to school and not paying attention. Apparently she wanted to come into my lane and, at the last minute seeing that I was there, swerved back into her own lane. Stand up to
racism no matter what
color you areThis apparent "oops" of a typical commute was turned into something hideous and evil when she shouted at me, "Go back to the mainland!"
I kept on going, but at the next light, I couldn't hold my tongue. I come from a family of mixed Irish and Haitian origin, and growing up in Boston, my mixed family was subjected to racial comments not worth repeating. When I was old enough to defend my family, I did.
Ever since, I have always stood up to racism and the ignorance upon which it is based. By telling me to go back to the mainland, this woman revealed both her bigotry and ignorance. If I had looked "local" -- whatever that is -- I would not have received the same treatment.
Because I am white, a "haole," I received the brunt of her racist-driven frustrations. I told the woman what I thought of her remark, and she yelled this-and-that at me, never realizing that what was wrong between us was much more serious than a traffic dispute. I also told her that Martin Luther King Jr. died because of the very racism she had demonstrated.
This made me think of all the evil that has been perpetrated upon the world and its citizens in the name of race. Millions of Jewish people have died, wars have been fought, millions more sacrificed -- people enslaved. All for a ridiculous and primitive notion that "I" am better than "you" because I am of a particular color, culture or locality.
It saddens me to see humans treating humans this way. Notions or ideologies which advocate the removal of "outsiders" are as evil as Adolf Hitler or Slobodan Milosevic.
Sadly, Hawaii is becoming just such a place, and its people do this to their own detriment. Telling haoles (a word that is equivalent to calling a black person the n-word) to go home, or that "they" stole "our" land is tantamount to advocating ethnic cleansing. Isn't it bad enough that people around the world are wasting lives and energies on hatred based on nothing?
Hawaii and its citizens of all races, colors and creeds are part of the same planet, part of the same family of life. I told that sadly misled woman that this is my planet too, my home. I stood up for what is right, and good. I'll do it every time I encounter people such as this.
I hope that by reading about my experience, more people will not only realize the folly of their ways, but also teach others and stand up to the wretched face of racism when they see it.
Finally, and most sadly, a man in a car in front of her offered this, "Local style, brah," to which I replied, "Local style is wrong."
Just because Caucasians and off-islanders have always been regarded as different or thieves or persons to be either tolerated for the tourist money they bring in or just plain gotten rid of, doesn't make it right.
Maikeli Geyer is a school teacher who lives on Oahu.