[Images: a tweet from user @WatkinsLondon that says: “This year I packed up my life into a tiny suitcase and moved to a little rock in the middle of the ocean. I fell in love with Hawaii, I fell in love with these people. But above all, I fell in love with being alive”.
This tweet is followed by a tweet thread from user @angelcurlsss that says:
“That stupid video of that haole girl who moved here for 4 months is just showing how fucking ignorant the general population is about Hawai'i and what has happened/is happening to Native Hawaiians.
1. HAWAI'I IS AN ILLEGALLY OCCUPIED SOVEREIGN NATION.
2. Native Hawaiians (Kānaka Maoli) used to make up 100% of the population. It’s estimated we make up about 20% of the state’s population now.
3. Hawai'i was once the most literate nation in the WORLD, about 91-95% of the kingdom by 1834.
4. ‘Olelo Hawai'i (native Hawaiian language) was illegal to teach in schools until 1978, but didn’t get taught again in schools until 1987. People don’t understand how recently they had their colonial policies forced on us. 1978… my mom was born in 1973. She could’ve been beat just for speaking her native tongue on her native land.
5. Despite making up less than a quarter of the state’s population, native Hawaiians make up about 60% of the prison population (mostly nonviolent crimes).
6. Native Hawaiians also make up most of the homeless population. Hawai'i has the largest population of homeless people per capita in the U.S.
7. As of 2018, the average price for a single family home in Hawai'i is $795K. There are no regulations for foreigners owning land.
Including (but not limited to) these facts and statistics, native Hawaiians are one of the most disenfranchised communities in Hawai'i. Our own ‘āina. When people treat our home as a playground for their own selfish needs, they change everything here except the price of living. Native Hawaiians and locals are leaving Hawai'i by the dozens. They recently estimated it to be 11 locals leaving PER DAY.
I don’t care if you want to come visit. Our home is beautiful and I don’t blame people for wanting to see it. But I do care when you poison our land, romanticize our lifestyle, fetishize our people, and cheapen our culture. Unless you’re coming to pour money into our communities and work for our betterment and sovereignty (I know you’re not) you bring nothing of value to Hawaiians. Please come and enjoy, but don’t forget when it’s time to leave.”
Timestamp of last tweet: December 26, 2018. 12:09 p.m.]
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