Kerrik of Roseville asked:

Is there social stratification between the tourists and locals and do the locals resent this?

Something has definitely changed in Hawaii. Local sentiment on tourists and the visitor industry has definitely changed toward the negative. Why is that?  I offer an explanation in this video and it’s probably not what you may think.

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Transcript

o hawaii locals resent tourists you
know ever since the shutdowns uh through
kobid
there’s been a change in the way that
hawaii islanders feel about visitors
and the change has not been positive so
i’m going to talk about what i think is
going on
why it’s occurring and it’s probably not
going to be what you expect
[Music]
aloha i’m peter k
i’ve been living in hawaii since the 80s
and i connect with other people that
want to live in hawaii so if that’s you
this is your channel get subscribed and
get the notifications we come up with
videos about every other week so why is
the attitudes
of hawaii islanders changing
towards
visitors some people think that it’s one
of these
resentment
of have versus have-nots and this came
from carrick of roseville who got us
thinking about this topic
is there social stratification between
the tourists and locals and do the
locals resent this the quick answer is
no i don’t think there is any in hawaii
see what’s going on is that carrick is
reflecting mainland thinking you know
where you’ve got this
resentment this class resentment of the
haves versus the have-nots right the
millionaires and billionaires right that
people are always railing against and
that’s just not the case with the
islanders that work in the visitor
industry you know in fact many in the
visitor industry are immigrants
they’re not seeing their life as as
stratification they’re here you know
living the american dream i mean making
money sending money back home to
wherever they came from maybe buying
property and you know
really advancing their their lot in life
and so it may seem to somebody from a
different you know social status that
that they’re they’re not as well off as
they are but in their perspective i know
plenty of immigrant families who are
super stoked to be here
by the way we are going through a really
cool drive here man we’re going through
this awesome jungle drive
so i hope you enjoy it i
one of the things i love about hawaii
and honolulu in particular is that
you know you could just just slightly
remove from the city you could be in
this place where you know
you’re in the jungle it’s totally cool
so as dylan has pointed out
hawaii thankfully does not have this
widespread class envy thing going on and
it’s certainly not against tourists but
there is definitely a vibe it has
definitely changed and it has definitely
changed for the negative
what is it i think it’s two things and
scott identified them you know we went
through a time period where where we all
reevaluated how we want to live our
lives and
first
you know we as islanders we’re in kind
of a state of shock because you know in
2020 when the colbit lockdowns first
started
you know
we had the island all to ourselves there
was nobody here and you know most of us
for the first time in our lives
had this completely unspoiled unfettered
hawaii look at it right over here like
this
you know
all to ourselves it was amazing
completely empty beaches beaches that
were mobbed were now empty so all we had
just the whole thing was to ourselves to
our friends and family all of us who
lived here it was all locals no visitors
all to ourselves that was amazing we
went through this calm period this
really quiet period and then tourism
opened up and bam now we’ve come back
roaring back
crowds are all back right the places
that were once ours and ours alone now
are mobbed traffic everywhere crowds
everywhere back to normal
back to normal back to what it used to
be in some ways it’s worse than what it
used to be
for a couple of reasons
uh because labor and covet shutdowns and
things like that there’s you know
there’s not as many uh like tables
available at a restaurant so the weight
is longer you got to get a reservation
now there’s more crowds there’s less
capacity longer wait times so in some
ways it’s worse but it’s not the crowds
that we’re complaining about that’s not
the problem it’s not that we it’s not
that we once had this to ourselves and
now we have to sure and we’re mad about
it it’s not that that’s not it look one
thing’s for sure if you live in hawaii
you know about the crowds crowds are
reality so it’s not the crowds so what
happened i think the straw that broke
the camel’s back
can be summarized in one word
disrespect for some reason
seems like
when all the visitors came back
there was this
increased level of disrespect
and then it gets compounded by a few few
people or a fair amount of people
handful of people that don’t respect
uh
the place and and the culture and and
how you need to behave yourself when
you’re in somebody else’s home or in
another environment it seems that way i
don’t have any statistics to back it up
but that’s what seems to have happened
maybe it’s because the tourists were
like you know blowing off steam and
they’re finally you know everyone’s so
glad to be out of their house and
they’re just like whatever going forward
or you know they
who knows i don’t know what people’s
motivations are but i can say that it
definitely feels as if there was an
increased level of disrespect of the
culture the people in the land and when
you combine this
with
the overcrowding
not so much the overcrowding but when
you when you combine this with we used
to have this place all to ourselves it
used to be that there was nobody here
and now all of a sudden not only is it
crowded
but it’s crowded with a bunch of people
that are basically
not nice
not respectful and you know
hawaii culture
if you really want to get a local upset
disrespect
disrespect respect in local culture is a
very high value
any kind of disrespect that is shown
maybe it’s because of our asian roots
our asian the asian part of our culture
i’m not sure but one thing’s for sure
disrespect is a big deal it’s very
highly held and not respecting others
man you are gonna be on the wrong side
uh the wrong side of an argument with
disrespect you might say well what do
you mean by disrespect okay there’s a
bunch of examples of disrespect and a
lot of it’s been
uh
broadcast out on social media so that’s
probably another component too we had
social media before but social media is
really amplifying this and the media’s
picking it up of course one idiot
does something disrespectful
and the media picks it up it gets on the
story and now everyone’s pissed off and
of course social media it spreads like
wildfire right you know one idiot went
and touched a monk seal to get a selfie
right
bad idea you’re disrespecting the
environment you’re disrespecting animals
wildlife protected species big deal big
big big no-no in hawaii and you do this
because you want a selfie yeah well
guess what happens these things go this
thing goes viral it gets in the media
and everyone’s completely outraged
rightly so or like this one
part of the overcrowding
in maui on the road to hana there’s
these beautiful waterfalls right they’re
just gorgeous
so what are visitors doing
it’s a two-lane highway not unlike this
one
and
they’re not pulling over in a place
they’re blocking traffic they’re
blocking traffic to go look at a
waterfall and it’s not just like
blocking traffic like at an intersection
you’re blocking traffic on a two-lane
highway that is on that’s only one way
in and out of the town of hana and
you’re blocking like the whole thing or
half of it your lane because you want to
get a look at a waterfall
that’s disrespectful
and of course it goes viral goes on
social media everyone knows about it and
everyone’s pissed off so do islanders
resent visitors
wrong question do islanders resent those
that disrespect our people
our culture our land
heck yes do islanders resent those that
act like some sort of entitled royalty
like we exist here to serve them
heck yeah a lot in the visitor industry
have said that they are really getting
increasingly disrespectful treatment
from visitors do islanders envy visitors
in some kind of twisted class warfare
have versus have not situation
absolutely not in fact i don’t even
think it enters people’s minds hawaii is
this great mix what i love about hawaii
is we have a beautiful integrated
society
where
yes there are various districts and yes
there are the wealthy parts there are
the wealthy districts and the less
wealthy districts yes we have all that
but is not a stratification
it’s not like
it’s not at them versus us
any given neighborhood is is really well
integrated it isn’t like on the mainland
where
where you got like you know the white
neighborhood and the black neighborhood
and the the chinese neighborhood and the
italian neighborhood don’t have that
here it’s really well integrated there’s
some general trends
but for the most part it’s really well
integrated
and one of the reasons why i love
honolulu so what does this all mean to
you
what advice what’s your takeaway here
learn about the place you’re going take
a genuine interest in learning about the
people
the culture
the land
the values and most of all
especially in hawaii
respect respect here’s what i want the
locals who are watching do
put in the comments
my comment my my idea about respect how
much does respect matter how much it
factors in in the culture
tell them so that they can all see it
because you know
we all know this in hawaii
if you give respect
you will receive respect
many times over
if you give disrespect
you are good as we say in hawaii you get
lickins which is you’re gonna get in
trouble you’re gonna get in trouble this
whole idea of respect
is something that
thankfully thank god i learned this
early despite myself
and you know
i’ve been here since the 80s
and i am living the dream man
all right you got a question for me
i got a form in the comments enter the
form
give me your comments make sure you tell
me where you’re from so i can give you
credit like carrick i’m peter k
and
hawaii has taught me so much it’s taught
me how to live with respect and love i
hope that you can too
aloh