Last night, a federal judge in Hawaii blocked President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban from going into effect today, saying the executive order “disfavour[ed] a particular religion” as it would bar people from six predominately Muslim countries from entering the U.S. While pro-immigrant advocates and liberals rejoiced, Trump supporters took to Twitter to announce their plan to #BoycottHawaii.
Taking it one step beyond denouncing the ruling, boycotters offered such key argument as: Hawaii isn’t legitimately a state anyway, the islands aren’t a wanted part of America, and tourism will likely suffer without Trump supporters.
https://twitter.com/AnthonyEinzig/status/842377087059165184
@HawaiiTravel Cancelling my families plans to travel to Hawaii this summer bc Hawaii does not want to keep America safe! #boycotthawaii
— American Voter (@Voter2017) March 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/JoshHallGOP/status/842380478359441408
However, people from Hawaii were quick to point out that natives never asked to be part of the United States in the first place. A brief history of Hawaii’s colonization: Native Hawaiians, or Kanaka Maoli, were doing their own thing until England’s Captain James Cook “found” Hawaii in the late 1700s. Protestant missionaries followed, eventually getting the Kanaka to abolish their “sinful” cultural kapu system, while European and American businessmen saw there was money to be made by turning Hawaii’s lush land into sugar plantations. With the Kanaka populations whittled from 300,00 to 71,000 from Western disease by 1853, plantation owners shipped in immigrants from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Portugal to do manual labor for low wages. By 1893, American colonists controlled much of the economy and overthrew Hawaii’s last monarch, Queen Liliuokalani. Five years later, Hawaii was officially a U.S. territory, a strategic military point between the mainland and the East.
In other words, while being American surely has its perks, there are groups of Kanaka who still want sovereignty and reparations. And the families of all those immigrants from the plantations are what make Hawaii the most culturally diverse state in the country today. Which is why people from Hawaii on Twitter were lol’ing at what little people understand about their state’s history.
https://twitter.com/sierraawolf/status/842193912659812353
Hawaii residents watching ignorant haoles using the #BoycottHawaii be like pic.twitter.com/3lKsGGFY8t
— lehua (@TheLehuaFlower) March 16, 2017
About 100yrs after Cook’s arrival there was a 95% decrease in the Native Hawaiian population due to foreigners, so ya #boycotthawaii
— Kamakaila🌻💫 (@itsurbffjill) March 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/sierraawolf/status/842234216372879361
Others on Twitter were like, “I think people in Hawaii are just fine with their perfect weather, beaches, and non-hostile people, so the joke’s on you.”
Live footage of Starbucks, Hawaii, Nordstrom, and Hamilton picking up the pieces after trumpers boycotted them #BoycottHawaii pic.twitter.com/YIpG6qpLp8
— Original Rich Dollas (@Richie_whatever) March 16, 2017
Anyone who wants to #BoycottHawaii can slide those plane tickets right over here. Hotel reservations, too.
— Caleb DEIme (@ThaCalebDume) March 16, 2017
How do Trump supporters #BoycottHawaii when they couldn’t even afford to travel to D.C. for the inauguration? #mealsonwheels #morningjoe pic.twitter.com/5otIaXDUM1
— Arrest Trump Already🥱 💛 (@CResisting) March 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/GoodwinMelissa/status/842347080978964480
HAHAHAHA MORE FOR ME THEN LMAOOOOO #BoycottHawaii pic.twitter.com/dSoLQmfYmS
— victoria (@victoriaaze_) March 16, 2017
Hawaii: Not afraid to show aloha to foreigners even after foreigners took their land.
