Trump Fans Boycotted Hawaii. Hawaii’s Response is Epic
After a judge in Hawaii ruled against President Donald Trump’s second Muslim travel ban, some of his angry supporters called for a boycott of the islands. U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson blocked the ban on March 16.
That boycott threat has some Hawaii residents laughing with joy. “We realized what a blessing this was” Mynah Manini, a choir leader, told the Huffington Post “We had been trying for years to figure out how to keep the bigots and racists from coming here. It’s not like we can screen for them at the airport.”
The Hawaiian population is less than 30 percent white, and the state also has a large gay and lesbian community. That has long bugged the state’s bigots and haters, which in turn is frustrating to most of the population.
“We figured once we legalized gay marriage, they’d just go someplace else,” said Manini, adding: “But they just kept coming anyway.”
Raymond Mongoose, who works at a convenience store, said Hawaii isn’t against all visitors, just those “haole people” who are loud, obnoxious bigots, the kind who ask if the people of Hawaii speak English and use the same kind of money. “Haole” is a term for a person who is not Polynesian, and refers to a white person in Hawaii, or a foreigner.
“It’s not like all mainland people are evil bigots,” said Mongoose. “I’ve known at least two or three who were O.K. But we’d have room for lots of nice people if the problem kind of mainland haole people would just stay away.”
As the home of former President Obama, Hawaii was already a place many Trump supporters shunned. Now that there is an active boycott, the irony is that it makes many Hawaii natives happy that those who don’t like the kind of diverse community tat exists on the islands are likely to stay away.
