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{{Short description|Hawaiian term for non-native person}}
{{use mdy dates|date=May 2021}}
 
'''''Haole''''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|aʊ|l|i}}; {{IPA|haw|ˈhɐo̯.le|lang}})<ref name="Definition of Haole by Merriam-Webster 2018">{{cite web | title=Definition of HAOLE | website=Definition of Haole by Merriam-Webster | date=2018-10-29 | url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/haole | access-date=2018-10-31}}</ref> is a [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]] term for individuals who are not [[Native Hawaiians|Native Hawaiian]], and is applied to people primarily of [[White people in Hawaii|white European]] ancestry.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lind |first1=Andrew W. |title=Hawaii's people |date=1980 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=978-0-8248-0704-7 |hdl=10125/39974 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rohrer |first1=Judy |title=Haoles in Hawaii |date=22 July 2010 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=978-0-8248-6042-4 |page=59 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gYwBEAAAQBAJ |access-date=12 July 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Native Hawaiians Study Commission" />

==Background==
The origins of the word predate the 1778 arrival of Captain [[James Cook]], as recorded in several chants stemming from that time.<ref name="Native Hawaiians Study Commission" /><ref name="Judy Rohrer">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gYwBEAAAQBAJ&dq=etymology+haole&pg=PA59 |title=Haoles in Hawaii |first=Judy |last=Rohrer |date=2010 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |page=59 |isbn=978-0-8248-6042-4 |accessdate=2022-08-22}}</ref> 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|Blacks]] (who were referred to as ''haole ʻele ʻele'', i.e., "black haole").<ref name="Native Hawaiians Study Commission">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QxEqyt3uqkUC&dq=etymology+Haole+Captain+Cook&pg=PA216 |title=Native Hawaiians Study Commission: Report on the Culture, Needs, and Concners of Native Hawaiians |first1=Larry |last1=Kimura |first2=William H. |last2=Wilson |date=1983|publisher=United States Department of the Interior |page=216 |quote=Haole originally meant any foreigner, and is clearly an old precontact word, since it occurs in old chants. Marquesan has a cognate, Hao'e, with a similar meaning. Captain Cook and even early Chinese visitors were termed haole |accessdate=2022-08-21}}</ref> Its connotations range from positive, neutral, and descriptive to invective, depending on the context in which it is used.<ref name="Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YMUola6pDnkC&dq=Haole+etymology&pg=PT669 |title=Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society |isbn=978-1-4129-2694-2 |accessdate=2022-08-22|last1=Schaefer |first1=Richard T. |date=March 20, 2008}}</ref> 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".<ref name="Kenn" /><ref name="The Hawaii Book" />

===Etymology===
A newspaper challenge in 1929 offered one hundred dollars to anyone who could satisfactorily explain to Dr. Theodore Richards what the word meant. James K. Keola stated that he believed the term only referred to white foreigners, giving as his own references such figures as Stephen Desha and Joseph M. Poepoe. Mr. Keola also believed the origins of the word came from the name Howell, part of Vancouver's team; however, today the name would be pronounced ''ha-wela''.<ref name="Kenn" /><ref name="The Hawaii Book" /> John M. Bright also stated that the term meant white and was in use as early as 1736. He also defined the term to mean "without husk or waif". W. O. Smith stated that in his youth he was told the term came from a fish called ahole. [[Lorrin Andrews]] writes in his dictionary that the term only refers to white foreigners and that for Blacks the term ''haole eleele'' was used.<ref name="Kenn" /><ref name="The Hawaii Book" />

===="Without breath"====
[[File:Frederick William Kahapula Beckley (1874–1943).jpg|thumb|upright|Professor [[Frederick William Kahapula Beckley Jr.|Fred Beckley]]]]
A popular fable is that the word means "without breath". This meaning was attributed to Native Hawaiian Professor [[Frederick William Kahapula Beckley Jr.]] by [[Charles W. Kenn]], in his 1944 article in the publication "Paradise of the Pacific". According to that author, Beckley states: "The white people came to be known as ha-ole (without breath) because after they said their prayers, they did not breathe three times as was customary in ancient Hawaii."<ref name="VoicesOfEden">{{cite book |last1=Schütz |first1=Albert J. |title=The Voices of Eden: A History of Hawaiian Language Studies |date=1 January 1995 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=978-0-8248-1637-7 |page=213 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=niV4UZPzhzEC&dq=haole+without+breath&pg=PA213 |access-date=9 July 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Kenn" /><ref name="The Hawaii Book" />

Kenn wrote: "In the primary and esoteric meaning, haole indicates a race that has no relation to one's own; an outsider, one who does not conform to the mores of the group; one that is void of the life element because of inattention to natural laws which make for the goodness in man."<ref name="Kenn">{{Cite journal|title= What is a Haole? |first=Charles W. |last=Kenn |journal=Paradise of the Pacific |date=August 1944 |page=16}}</ref><ref name="The Hawaii Book">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PtUNAQAAIAAJ&q=The+late+St.+Chad+Piianaia+,+who+was+educated+in+England+,+defined+the+word+haole+as |title=The Hawaii Book: Story of Our Island Paradise – Google Books |work=What is a Haole?|first=Charles W.|last=Kenn|date=1961|publisher=J.G. Ferguson Publishing Company|page=136|quote=|accessdate=2022-08-23}}</ref> 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".<ref name="VoicesOfEden" />

====Kahiki====
According to Juri Mykkanen of the Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies in his book "Inventing Politics: A New Political Anthropology of the Hawaiian Kingdom", Hawaiians, in trying to understand and make sense of changing [[Aliʻi|alii]], projected an entire [[cosmology]] onto everything they did and then passed down this narration to descendants. Under this belief, the origins of the term come from ''Kahiki'', the ancestral lands of Hawaiians, stemming from the mele chant, "Kūkanaloa". In this chant a demi-god/hero from Kahiki is described as ''haole'', as referenced in [[Samuel Kamakau]]'s book ''Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii'' (1991), pages 114-115. As a symbol of origin, Kahiki had great significance to Hawaiians who saw themselves as descendants of a divine haole.<ref name="urlInventing Politics: A New Political Anthropology of the Hawaiian Kingdom – Juri Mykkanen – Google Books">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h-tNi3xClv0C&dq=haole+meaning&pg=PA34 |title=Inventing Politics: A New Political Anthropology of the Hawaiian Kingdom |first=Juri |last=Mykkanen |date=2003 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu |page=34 |isbn=978-0-8248-1486-1 |oclc=473477780 |accessdate=2022-08-23}}</ref>

== 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.<ref name="Honolulu Civil Beat 2020">{{cite web |title=Denby Fawcett: Can A White Person Ever Be 'Local' In Hawaii? |website=Honolulu Civil Beat |date=4 February 2020 |url=https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/02/denby-fawcett-can-a-white-person-ever-be-local-in-hawaii/ |access-date=28 February 2020}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Big Island Now 2016">{{cite web |title=Haole: Is it a Bad Word? |website=Big Island Now |date=10 June 2016 |url=https://bigislandnow.com/2016/06/10/haole-is-it-a-bad-word/ |access-date=17 May 2021}}</ref> 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."<ref name="Hawaiian English">{{cite web |title=Hawaiian English |website=Encyclopedia.com |date=15 April 2021 |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/hawaiian-english/ |access-date=17 May 2021}}</ref> Certain foods typical of the continental US 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.<ref name="Hawaii Suffering from Racial Prejudice">{{cite web |title=Hawaii Suffering from Racial Prejudice |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |date=30 August 2009 |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2009/hawaii-suffering-racial-prejudice |access-date=17 May 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rohrer |first1=Judy |title=Haoles in Hawaii |date=22 July 2010 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=978-0-8248-6042-4 |pages=73–74 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gYwBEAAAQBAJ |access-date=12 July 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=McAvoy |first1=Audrey |title=2 Hawaii men indicted in 2014 hate crime case on Maui |url=https://apnews.com/article/indictments-hawaii-crime-honolulu-hate-crimes-12b568548ca84a52b24cf9ccc24ea5a2 |agency=Associated Press |access-date=12 July 2021 |language=en |date=2 May 2021}}</ref> [[Hawaiian sovereignty movement|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."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ladao |first1=Mark |last2=Boylan |first2=Peter |title=Activist, retired University of Hawaii professor Haunani-Kay Trask fought for Hawaiian rights, causes |url=https://www.staradvertiser.com/2021/07/04/hawaii-news/activist-retired-university-of-hawaii-professor-haunani-kay-trask-fought-for-hawaiian-rights-causes/ |website=Honolulu Star-Advertiser |access-date=9 July 2021 |date=4 July 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Essoyan |first1=Susan |title=RACE RELATIONS: Aloha Spirit of Love Gives Way to 'Yankee Go Home': Professor's anti-whites stand sets off debate on racism in Hawaii. |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-11-28-mn-4936-story.html |website=Los Angeles Times |access-date=9 July 2021 |date=28 November 1990}}</ref><ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/0A9XkaUDQN8 Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20210327023955/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A9XkaUDQN8 Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A9XkaUDQN8 |title=Haunani-Kay Trask Interview: Haole and the Colonization of Hawaii |website=[[YouTube]] |date=December 2, 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Wiktionary}}

* [[Europeans in Oceania]]
* [[Greeks in Hawaii]]
* [[Kamaʻāina]]
* [[List of ethnic slurs]]
* [[Palagi]], a term in [[Samoan language|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==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Elvi Whittaker (1986). ''The Mainland Haole: The White Experience in Hawai{{okina}}i''. New York: [[Columbia University Press]].
* {{Cite journal| last=Ohnuma | first=Keiko | title=Local Haole - A Contradiction in Terms? The dilemma of being white, born and raised in Hawai'i | journal=Cultural Values | year=2002 | volume=6| issue=3 | pages=273–285 | doi=10.1080/1362517022000007211| s2cid=144729410 }}
* {{Cite journal| first=Judy | last=Rohrer | title=Haole Girl: Identity and White Privilege in Hawaiʻi | journal=Social Process in Hawaiʻi | year=1997 | volume=38 | pages=140–161}}
* {{Cite journal| first=Judy | last=Rohrer | title="Got Race?" The Production of Haole and the Distortion of Indigeneity in the Rice Decision | journal=The Contemporary Pacific | year=2006 | volume=18| issue=1 | pages=1–31 | doi=10.1353/cp.2005.0102| s2cid=143743704 | hdl=10125/13911 | hdl-access=free }}

{{Ethnic groups in Hawaii}}
{{Ethnic slurs}}
{{White people terms}}
{{Oceania topic |Europeans in }}

[[Category:Pejorative terms for strangers and foreigners]]
[[Category:Hawaiian words and phrases]]
[[Category:European American culture in Hawaii]]
[[Category:White American culture in Hawaii]]
[[Category:Pejorative terms for white people]]
[[Category:Pejorative terms for European people]]