Today in class, I found the reading of the Eye of the Coconut play quite fascinating. Coming from Hawaii, I could totally relate with the part about how many people can't tell the difference between Filipinos and actual native Hawaiians. Usually, when I first tell people that I'm Filipino, people exclaim statements like, "Really? But I thought you were from Hawaii", or my favorite, "You're joking right?". Apparent it's inconceivable for some people to believe that a brown person from Hawaii could not be Hawaiian. However, it really doesn't bother me when things like this occur. In fact, I actually find it pretty amusing.
When tourists first come to the Islands, they always marvel at all the authentic Hawaiian hula dancing and luaus, but in reality a majority the people putting on this Hawaiian show won't have drop of native Hawaiian blood in them. So Barroga's play pretty accurately describes incidences that still happen today, where people take advantage of all the popularity on Hawaiian culture to make a living. Although this idea of using Hawaiian culture to make money may seem kind of wrong, it is what propels Hawaii's economy. Tourism is Hawaii's top industry, and if this racialization of a group at the time helps bring jobs to those in need, then by all means racialize away.
Brad,
ReplyDeleteYeah, the tourism industry is interesting, how it is "necessary" and how it racializes most groups, or essentializes them, or stereotypes them.
I'm going to be honest, I was surprised.
ReplyDeleteBefore reading Takaki my knowledge of Asian Americans was extremely low to non existant. I knew nothing about Hawaii, I knew nothing about a very core part of America. I can blame our Eurocentric education system, I can blame growing up in Colorado where I think I saw an Asian American...once...maybe. I can blame are culture for building up a very different image of Hawaii then the one I've been reading about. But to be honest, the blame for ignorance falls on the ignorant.
It's really bizarre how little public education teaches on Asian American history, as well as Hawaiian history.
That is a really interesting idea, how white peoples ignorance can sometimes be an advantage.