Haole (, ; ) is a Hawaiian term for individuals who are not native Hawaiian, and is applied to people primarily of white European ancestry. The term was generally given to people of European descent; however, as more distinct terms began to be applied to individual European cultures and other non-European nations, the word haole began to refer mostly to Americans, including American black people (who were referred to as haole ʻele ʻele, i.e., "black haole"). Its connotations range from positive, neutral, and descriptive to invective, depending on the context in which it is used. Of the Polynesian race, Robert Louis Stevenson said: "God's best—at least God's sweetest works" and then wrote of the "beastly haoles". In correspondence to a friend, he stated, "What is a haole? You are one; and so, I am sorry to say, am I". Albert J. Schütz, former professor of linguistics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, believes that there is no documentation this ha-ole etymology is accurate and, based on that, states: "Thus, as far as we know, the word haole cannot be separated into shorter words".

Use of the word

Among Hawaiian residents who have descended from various ethnic groups who worked on the plantations (often known as "locals"), "haole" is a term used to describe people of European ancestry. The term itself can be merely descriptive, but it can be used in a way that is pejorative or discriminatory. Haole is only one of several words commonly used in Hawaii to describe various ethnicities. Technically, haole means someone who is foreign, as opposed to someone who is local. Haole has come to be a term for those of European ancestry. Also, it is associated with peoples who exhibit traditions, accents, and habits of the continental United States, as opposed to those which are prevalent in the Hawaiian islands. For example, if someone goes to the continental US and returns speaking with an accent typical of that area, people might say this person has become "haole-fied." Certain foods typical of the continental United States could be called "haole food," and if someone does something in a way that is not typical of what is done in Hawaii, that could be called "haole style."

Some native Hawaiians use the word "haole" as an insult or as part of a racial pejorative in incidents of harassment and physical assault towards white people in Hawaii. Hawaiian nationalists and language advocates, including Haunani-Kay Trask, have claimed that the word cannot be understood apart from the history of racial oppression in Hawaii, with Trask saying, "It's not pejorative—it's descriptive."

See also

  • Europeans in Oceania
  • Greeks in Hawaii
  • Kamaʻāina
  • List of ethnic slurs
  • Palagi, a term in Samoan sometimes used to describe foreigners
  • Portuguese immigration to Hawaii
  • Pākehā, the equivalent term in the Māori language primarily for European New Zealanders
  • Spanish immigration to Hawaii
  • Kill Haole Day

References

Further reading

  • Elvi Whittaker (1986). The Mainland Haole: The White Experience in Hawaii. New York: Columbia University Press.