Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The People of Hawaii

When Captain James Cook arrived in Hawaii in 1778 that was a relatively easy question to answer. There were, depending on the various estimates available, between 300,000 and 400,000 native Hawaiians, the kanaka maoli.

Over the course of the next century the native Hawaiian population dropped between 80-90%. This decline was due, in large part, to the diseases introduced by contact with foreigners. These diseases included venereal disease, small pox, measles, whooping cough and influenza.

By 1878, the native population was estimated to be between 40,000 and 50,000 people. While drastically smaller than the population of just one hundred years previously, the native Hawaiians still comprised over 75% of the total population of Hawaii.

Over the last one hundred and twenty years, the numbers of pure Hawaiians, those with only Hawaiian blood, have continued to decline. The pure Hawaiian is a dying race. Today, there are less than 8,000 pure Hawaiians alive.
On the other hand, the number of those who are, at least, part Hawaiian and who consider themselves to be Hawaiian, has increased steadily since the turn of the century. Today, there are estimated to be between 225,000 and 250,000 people with Hawaiian blood living in Hawaii.
What can be said about the native Hawaiian population of today is that it is growing at a rate of about 6000 people per year, and at a higher rate than any other ethnic group in Hawaii.
The majority of the native Hawaiian people, however, have less than 50% pure Hawaiian blood. The majority live on the island of Oʻahu, have a median income of $45,486 and are predominately unmarried.

The native Hawaiians, however, are only a part of the answer to the question, "Who are the people of Hawaii?". Whether you accept the figures of the U.S. Census Bureau or those of the Health Surveillance Program of the Department of Health, native Hawaiians are a minority in their own land.

Then, who are the people of Hawaii? As of the 2000 U.S. Census, there were 1,211,537 people living in Hawaii.

Of those people, 24.3% were Caucasian, 16.7% were of Japanese descent, 14.1% were of Filipino descent, 6.6% were of Hawaiian descent and 4.7% were of Chinese descent. Interestingly, 21.4% of the population identified themselves as belonging to two or more races. Of those people who identify themselves as belonging totally of one race alone or in combination with one or more other races, 58.0% are in whole or partially Asian, 39.3% in whole or partially Caucasian and 23.3% in whole or partially Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander.

Estimates for the population of Hawaii in 2006 show a total population increase to 1,285,498.

Hawaii is clearly the most racially integrated state in the United States. It is also the only state where whites are not the majority but rather only a third of the population.

As diverse as Hawaii is racially, so are the large differences in the median household income between Honolulu County (the Island of Oʻahu) and the other counties of Hawaii:

Honolulu County - $ 54,714
Maui County - Lānaʻi, Maui, and Molokai - $49,065
Kauai County - $45,146
Hawaii County - The Big Island $ 42,043
For comparison purposes, the median household income in the United States as a whole is $44,344.
Hawaii's ethnic diversity makes for a very different society than is seen in the rest of the country. While Hawaii is in many ways a much more culturally, ethnically and racially blended society than the rest of the United States it is not, however, a society without its own racial and ethnic problems.

It is often said that there are two types of Hawaiians, those of Hawaiian blood and those who are Hawaiian-at-heart. There are also those who are citizens of the State of Hawaii and who also call this wonderful land their home.

(source: http://gohawaii.about.com/cs/culture/a/hawaiian_people.htm)

9 comments:

  1. this is such an incredible blog which reflects light and truth - having grown up [white] in the deep south in the 50s-60s i witnessed firsthand the many faces of racism and sadly tragically that same racism runs rampant even today in many ways - in any event, thank you for such a magnificent picture story of such a horrendous sin against the world - jenean

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  2. Inaccurate photos

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  3. THOSE PHOTOS ARE EXTREMELY ACCURATE. DO NO BE IN DENIAL

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  4. The fourth photo down is from Bau, Fiji.

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  5. That picture with the dark people arent Hawaiians there fijian

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  6. Not mad about it it's just they not Hawaiian people mix up pictures making people think were Africans or something no hat but I know some fullblooded Hawaiians and they look just like any other polynesian but we ain't black and we got different hair but no hate just letting you know

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  7. Yeah, as a Hawaiian, you want to find racism on the rampage? Go to Hawaii, Kill haole day. Meanwhile bunch of hippies claiming to have the heart of Hawaii taking the land and throwing everybody who belongs into ch 8 housing, handing out food stamps, but no real oppotunity. Slavery came by the donkeys running the state. This is why we have to move to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, those people are more like us.

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  8. Why do you say the Atlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration in world history with an accompanying photo of a woman wearing a hideous iron slave mask?
    Do you have no knowledge of the Population transfer in the Soviet Union or do you choose to ignore it?
    The forced migration of 12.5 million people of the Atlantic slave trade took place over approximately 400 years
    In contrast the forced migration of 20 million people in the Soviet Union took place over 32 years between 1920 and 1952.
    Fatalilities in both events were comparable.
    It is also worth mentioning African slavery to the Muslim world. There is a less reliable historical record but most contemporary historians assess the scale of it to be numerically greater than the Atlantic slave trade albeit it took place over a longer period of time.
    The truth of slavery is that it has been a feature of human life for thousands of years in many different cultures and peoples.
    The brutality of the Atlantic slave trade led directly to the formation of the abolitionist movement.
    The abolitionists correctly intellectualised the idea that slavery was intrinsically wrong and therefore could never be tolerated and this idea has spread around the world where it is largely accepted as a truth.

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