Description

Challenging the dominant view of HawaiOCOi as a OC melting pot paradiseOCOOCoa place of ethnic tolerance and equalityOCoJonathan Okamura examines how ethnic inequality is structured and maintained in island society. He finds that ethnicity, not race or class, signifies difference for HawaiiOCOs people and therefore structures their social relations. In HawaiOCOi, residents attribute greater social significance to the presumed cultural differences between ethnicities than to more obvious physical differences, such as skin color.

According to Okamura, ethnicity regulates disparities in access to resources, rewards, and privileges among ethnic groups, as he demonstrates in his analysis of socioeconomic and educational inequalities in the state. He shows that socially and economically dominant ethnic groupsOCoChinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and WhitesOCohave stigmatized and subjugated the islandsOCO other ethnic groupsOCoespecially Native Hawaiians, Filipino Americans, and Samoans. He demonstrates how ethnic stereotypes have been deployed against ethnic minorities and how these groups have contested their subordinate political and economic status by articulating new identities for themselves. "