ahh, see, there you go.
March 16, 2008 | 08:46 AM

the strange thing about hawaii is that pretty much unlike everywhere else in the union, the locals identify much more closely with their state than with the country as a whole. mind you, this isn't a bad thing - it makes the place unique. but it can sound a bit jarring to people who haven't been immersed in it.

part of this too, particularly for maui, i think may derive from it being a Touristy Place - there has to be some way of distinguishing Touristy from Not Touristy. this is by no means endemic to maui, it happens in any place popular with visitors (especially smaller places).

and oh yes racist jerks are everywhere. europeans can be surprisingly racist. not even america has a patent on that. at least in hawaii, everyone's ethnicity gets made fun of. if that isn't racial integration, i don't know what is. :)

sluggysan