Blue waters, miles of white sandy beaches, surfers, the Aloha spirit, sunny days and hula dancers are just a few things people think about when they hear about Hawaii. For many people, Hawaii is just a holiday destination, you come to paradise and leave all our worries behind most people think of Hawaii. It is easy to forget that for many, Hawaii is home. sWe tend to only see the good sides and the parts of Hawaii that are designed for money spending tourists. The well kept streets of Waikiki, the tourist friendly Luau, and the shopping Mecca of Ala Moana with its Gucci, Prada and Dior. So does everybody in Hawaii live a trouble free life, surfing the waves?
Chris Mckinney has written a book depicting the darker side of Oahu and has given the inmates of one of Hawaii’s prisons a voices. The characters of the book are from different parts of the Island, have different cultures and ethnicities. In many ways the characters represent the multicultural society Hawaii is and how different cultures have impact on the Island and its residents. The one thing the characters have in common is that they all are behind bars and now have to function together with each other as a small community.
Today about 1.3 million people call Hawaii home. Whites make up 30 percent, Asians 39 percent and native Hawaiian 9 percent just to mention a few. Some have been on the Island for several generations, and some have just arrived in hope of a better life. This diversity makes for a unique mix of new and old cultures in Hawaii.
In Mckinney’s book we get to meet Cal a white long time prisoner with no voice but a mean tattooing skill, and Ken Hideyoshi or Keji the main character, a third generation Japanese on Oahu. Ken tells Cal his story, while getting a large tattoo on his back called “kanji” witch means the “The book of the Void.” Every night Cal and Ken get to work on the tattoo with only the moon as light. Ken tells his story and we get to know his best friend Koa. Koa should have been a local Hawaiian prince if time hadn’t changed.
The first part of the book gives us an insight to Ken’s upbringing, his teen years with Koa, and his “run in” with the local police. Ken looses his mother at an early age and his father a Vietnam veteran has enough with himself. Ken Grandfather introduces Ken to the Japanese culture. Most importantly, the grandfather introduces Ken to the family heirloom. A sward the “katan” brought from Japan with Ken’s great-grand father. The History around the sword and why the family went to the US is important in understanding the beliefs and the attitudes the Hideyoshi family holds. The culture is highly important to Ken’s grandfather and he glorifies the “old country.” The grandfather tells Ken how son of Shogun Tokugawa Leyasu told the haoles to leave Japan and how this was the best Japan ever did, because according to the grand father; fifty years later Japan not only caught up to everybody but are now in one of the top four nations in the world. We get to understand how early on Ken is thought to dislike the haoles, the white man.
Ken tells us about his “brodder” Koa. Koa is a local boy living on the Windward side of the Island. The two boys form a bond; they become brothers and the get into trouble together all the way to graduation. Both boys dislike and hate the haoles. Koa has a deep and profound hate towards the Haoles, and Ken mentions in the book that he thinks Koa was born a racist. The two boys are acting towards white people the way they are raised, with hate. It is in their culture shared norms to hate haoles. They hunt out haoles around the island to start fights with or steal from. Kens father even agreed to their hatred towards white military and never corrected his son.
Chris Mckinney’s book “The Tattoo” is from 2000 but even so, the race and social class problem he is depicting in his book is evident to this day all over Oahu. Oahu is a tourist paradise with all its white beaches and massive Hilton Hotels, but as we get to understand in the book, the Island is also somebody’s home. Like another community it has it good districts and it bad districts, from the large house on Kahala Ave to the tent villages on West-side Oahu. White people came as the intruder to this island, even so they seem to have the economic power and higher-status of class. This has resulted in racism towards the white man. When you start to dig a little deeper underneath the social class and social powers on this Island you often find that “haoles” only seemingly have the power and are on top of the social structure.
As a white haole living in Hawaii I see the discrimination daily. I would actually go so far to call what I see and experience prejudice towards whites. This because the reason haoles get this negative treatment are so founded in emotions and prior history that the new generation can’t help following the old one’s attitude. As white I never have any problems as long as I stay in the “white” areas, like Waikiki or if I shop at expensive stores at Ala Moana. I’m treated like a tourist and get the same service and protection as the tourist. The minute I try to complain about something bought at Wal-Mart is it impossible for me to return the item. I take my dog to Waimanalo and get ordered to give my dog to some “local” boys. They want him and they see no reason for me not to hand him over to them to take home. You could say that these incidents are just random events and that it has nothing to do with my blonde hair and blue eyes. But whenever I take my boyfriend to Wal-Mart to return items they always get accepted, whenever we take our dog out for a walk we never encounter any problems. So what is the difference? Well he is African American with a local “look.” Still you could say that the prejudice and racism I think I feel are just imagination. My best friend colored her hair from blonde to dark, and now she is receiving different treatment in the stores and the people of Oahu are friendlier. In her own words, "they are for the first time genuinely smiling at me."
Chris Mckinney’s book is showing people where and how the prejudice is coming from and what this kind of hatred can do. Believe it or not Hawaii has a hard side and the irony with the racism you might feel as a haole is created by the white man himself. But even so it is time to move out of the history that keeps this beautiful place locked in its old ways.
whats a theme for this book
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