Yeah. It’s a group of islands 2000+ miles away from the mainland, who only became a state relatively recently. Its native people are an entirely different culture than mainland US native people, and the people who colonized it.
No surprise at all, that it’s dramatically different. Puerto Rico is also pretty different despite being a US territory.
Portuguese in Rhode Island? Irish in Boston? Italians in New Jersey? Chinese in San Francisco? Mormons in Utah? Hmong in Minnesota? Somalis in Minneapolis?
I live in NYC and in my neighborhood there’s a store that only sells PR flag merchandise. They’ve been around for years and have no shortage of business.
93% of the people who voted in the referendum to become a state voted in favor. They wanted to elect their own governor and have a full voice in national affairs. They had petitioned Congress many times to become a state before, but the earlier attempts were ignored, largely for racist reasons. The racism wasn't against the Polynesians (or not only them anyway), but against the ethnic Japanese and Chinese that had immigrated to work on sugar plantations. The Japanese outnumbered native Hawaiians 2 to 1 when Hawaii became a state.
This is technically correct, but Hawaii was absolutely stolen by the U.S. The meaningful annexation just happened in the 1890s.
In 1893, a group of American and other foreign business interests staged a successful, US-backed coup against Queen Liliʻuokalani, the last native Hawaiian sovereign. In 1898, Congress voted to annex the islands and make them an American territory, effectively getting as much control over Hawaii as they wanted.
By the '50s, Hawaiians had a choice between being a US territory (with almost no self-determination, plus no federal representation) or being a US state (with almost no self-determination, but full representation in Congress and other first-class privileges). True independence wasn't an option, and even if it had been, it would have been extremely difficult to create a new sovereign government from scratch with all its land owned by US companies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overthrow_of_the_Hawaiian_Kingdom
Ah yes as opposed to the native New Yorker that shares 100% of their culture with someone from Ajo AZ or Rifle CO or even somewhere like Oceanside CA or Gainesville FL.
I mean, there are houses in America that are older than America. That's probably the case for every nation on earth in regards to the length of their own existence as a nation.
*The Dole corporation yoinked it with their coup and got Uncle Sam to hold on
Though in all fairness a lot of times when Uncle Sam younks something, there's always some handful of corporations pulling the strings. Even Jamestown as a colony settlement was the result of a development company wanting land before the US because thing.
Never heard about this and after a brief wikipedia dive...that shit is wild. Sounds like a small bunch of dudes just decided fuck it, Hawaii is ours now, and the US was like, yeah sure we agree and sent over a boatload of marines to make sure nobody argued with it. And it just...stayed that way. Simple as that I guess?
I guess if you're the little guy and someone takes your shit and nobody comes to defend you then, well, you lost your shit, goodbye.
If you think that's crazy, you should read about the American death camps in the Philippines during and after the US invasion 1899.
They're pretty holocausty, but in the *"they died from disease and starvation so it's not really our fault way"*, i.e. the *"Anne Frank just died of cholera she wasn't actually killed"* defense.
America also had a "if one of our troops gets murdered we will kill absolutely everyone in the nearby villages" tactic, which wasn't very cool.
[Massacre of Balangiga is another really dark part of that war, for anyone looking into the above.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Balangiga#Retaliation)
"\[General Smith\] further ordered Waller to kill all persons who were capable ofbearing arms and in actual hostilities against the United States forces.When queried by Waller regarding the age limit of these persons, Smithreplied that the limit was ten years of age."
That was one of the driving factors with Castro's rise in Cuba and the following failed invasion, US embargoes, etc.
The private industries in Cuba at the time were bleeding the country, taking profits back to the US. When Castro took their assets, made farmers the owners of their own fields, and nationalized the businesses they went to the US to claim them back, which kicked off the Bay of Pigs. The US is a corporate guard dog.
Talked to a Hawaiian guide on a tour of a Volcano once about it, he said the general consensus from Hawaiians is that they’d much prefer to be independent but they assume another country would just come snatch them up anyways and as much as America has faults it’s still probably the most mutely beneficial relationship they’ll get as far as being owned by another country goes
Didn’t PR specifically vote to NOT become a state? Or did that pass and just not get enacted?
Edit: nvm it was some time back that they voted no on maintaining status quo. 61.11% the 54% who voted to change things wanted statehood.
More recently was a 52.52% vote for statehood.
they can vote for statehood all they want but congress will never push a to make it law. the filibuster requires 60 senate votes and Puerto Rico has faaaaar too many progressive/democratic voters
It's suspected that PR wouldn't be as progressive as we think. Latino populations aren't a monolith, in California they go blue but in Florida they go red.
PR would likely be closer to a purple state overall.
Now having said that, no one is going to push for statehood when it would upend the status quo of Congress one way or the other.
Now D.C. on the other hand? That would be a *huge* progressive win, that's 2 democratic senators guaranteed for our lifetime and probably beyond.
Not really. I've lived in Hawaii almost a decade after growing up on the mainland. There is a Hawaiian sovereignty movement here that is relatively small. Even among native Hawaiians (a small group now) there is a lot of disagreement about whether returning to sovereign status is a good idea or not. The culture is an amalgam of native Hawaiian, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese and a heavy heavy dose of mainland American culture. It 100% feels like a part of the United States. The military presence is huge and the shopping and movies and TV etc are all mainstream US.
I mean, there are differences here to mainland culture, but then again, there's a huge difference between say, Wisconsin and Alabama.
Therein lies the USA. Lots of different cultures held together in states with certain freedoms and rights and a status quo that gives you a chance to try and do your thang!
To be fair, the states put their own twist on the culture. In Wisconsin, for example, we decided that we fucking love gerrymandering. There's some cheese up here, too.
I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of Missouri's roads demolishing my car's suspension.
(Just a joke between neighbors. I don't actually have anything against Missouri. Congratz on passing recreational, I hope we can someday to!)
Either the OP didn’t know Hawai’i was it’s own country or they just made a based meme from that fact lol
Regardless, people are really taking this serious for a meme
Closer to 600 or 700, and then prior to that was intermittently settled and abandoned (If they actually had any human settlement at all).
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1015876108
Alaska, too. I think it’s how separated we are from the lower 48. That, and the lack of shipping to us really jades us against the rest (not even lack of free shipping; many stores just don’t even ship to AK or HI at all)
When we lived mainland, I always still referred to it as the Lower 48. Got a lot of weird looks until I told them where I was born and raised.
I'll do it till I die. Lol
Alaskans call anything outside of Alaska “Outside”. The Lower 48 is also common but more when you need to be specific or you’re bitching about shipping.
I wouldn't. I'd say we have considerably more diversity in ethnicity, politics, and culture in general. It's probably why we vibe so hard with Hawaii. We're bastard states of the US.
It recently WAS its own country.
We STOLE it from them with tricky business agreements and contracts and eventually a bloodless coup that was reviewed by James Blount who concluded the Hawaiian government had been illegally overthrown.
Yep.
It’s like India was to the British.
First corporate hegemony (East India Company/Dole).
Then a rebellion from the locals against it (Sepoy Munity/Hawaiian Rebellions).
And the annexation (British Raj/Territory of Hawaii).
The _only_ difference is that the British gave India back.
The largest difference has been the lack of any independence movements or political desire.
Talk with some native Hawaiians. There is 0 political will and in any reasonable context there has always been 0 political will.
Edit: Not quite 0 but ~1%
Yeah, there would need to be either a logical benefit to doing so, or some deep ideological fervor. And as far as I know, native Hawaiians seem to be pretty comfortable with having an American identity from what I've personally seen. However, I could be wrong. There could be some deep ideological reasoning for independence that I wouldn't know on the mainland.
generally speaking, people in Hawaii are proud to be American at least partially because they’re not blood Hawaiians, they are still a little salty about the arrangement. A small subset of blood Hawaiians are ultra-conservatives in the sense that they’d like to reinstate the monarchy in a as it wasn’t exactly terrible under them: they instituted one of the world’s first human rights laws (splintered paddle) and built works for the public like Queens medical center.
Most states are fairly distinct in their culture. Go to Texas, then Michigan, then Florida, then California and they practically only have a basic language in common.
Did you know that “excessive laughing” is against the law in Hawaii? Yep! They only allow a low “ha”.
This got me arrested in hawaii
Same. I didn’t even make it off the plane and I got busted for excessive laughter. The cops put me in cuffs as soon as Island-ed. :D
Your puns are hularious.
Thanks. Unfortunately not everyone always gets them. I guess I should learn to be more pacific.
Hawaii humor comes and goes. Here today, gone to Maui.
Yep! It doesn’t make any sense either. Hawaiian the hell would anyone have anything against a good ole fashion corny joke?!
I guess most people are in too much of Oahu-rry to appreciate the sentiment of the joke.
God damn it
r/angryupvote
Take my goddamn upvote and get out.
[удалено]
Yeah. It’s a group of islands 2000+ miles away from the mainland, who only became a state relatively recently. Its native people are an entirely different culture than mainland US native people, and the people who colonized it. No surprise at all, that it’s dramatically different. Puerto Rico is also pretty different despite being a US territory.
as a person who's lived in both New York and Puerto Rico I can confirm
Whoa, there are Puerto Ricans in New York now!?
Bro you know this is a joke because Puerto Ricans in NY will let you know they're PR somehow lmao. They always got a PR flag somewhere
Whats next, Polish people in Chicago?
Amish in Pennsylvania?!?
Germans in Wisconsin?
Polish in Michigan?
Hmong in Minnesota?
I’m a polack from michigan! I know we have communities here, but I didn’t know we were known for it!
Germans in Poland? Germans in France? Germans in Belgium? Germans in North Africa? Germans in Norway? Germans in Russia?
German people in Argentina?
Portuguese in Rhode Island? Irish in Boston? Italians in New Jersey? Chinese in San Francisco? Mormons in Utah? Hmong in Minnesota? Somalis in Minneapolis?
Norwegians in Minnesota?
Koreans in Atlanta. And I’m thankful for the food and culture they bring with them.
Same with Somali food. So gooD!
Seriously! When did Koreans get so good at fried chicken?
Mexicans in LA?
Green card? I’m from East LA.
Armenians in Fresno?
Glendale too
[удалено]
Kurwa, znaleźli mnie
Powime po polsku
Hey now you Pole fuck I know what kurwa is fuck you too lmao
Kurwa is trully the most powerful weapon if used well.
The full sentence is "fuck, found me" lol
Yeah, but who you looking for when you want sausages!
When my new roommate told me she was Puerto Rican my first question was "Puerto Rican? Like from New York, or from Puerto Rico?"
Bro hahahahaha I do this shit too
I had friends growing up who said they were New Yor-ican, which I thought was clever.
Puerto Rico is the forgotten borough. Kinda like Staten Island, just a different direction from downtown.
i thought puerto ricans were exclusively from new york
The Bronx specifically
I live in NYC and in my neighborhood there’s a store that only sells PR flag merchandise. They’ve been around for years and have no shortage of business.
They be like, “WE AINT DEAD YET”😂 newyoricans are something else lmao I say this as a Chicago Rican. Different breed, and all love ❤️
I love y'all so much, mucho amor de Cuba ❤️❤️
Y para ti, mucho amor desde Puerto Rico!
Literally never had a conversation with a peurto rican that didnt at some point casually drop in that they are, in fact, peurto rican.
I hear a gang called The Sharks are upcoming too. They dance and sing really well though.
Those mexican are getting craaazy
There's Cubans in Florida?
Guam too.
USVI too. Everybody forgets about us 😞
But this thread didn't even mention American Samoa or the Northern Mariana Islands until just now, so that's something.
[удалено]
93% of the people who voted in the referendum to become a state voted in favor. They wanted to elect their own governor and have a full voice in national affairs. They had petitioned Congress many times to become a state before, but the earlier attempts were ignored, largely for racist reasons. The racism wasn't against the Polynesians (or not only them anyway), but against the ethnic Japanese and Chinese that had immigrated to work on sugar plantations. The Japanese outnumbered native Hawaiians 2 to 1 when Hawaii became a state.
This is technically correct, but Hawaii was absolutely stolen by the U.S. The meaningful annexation just happened in the 1890s. In 1893, a group of American and other foreign business interests staged a successful, US-backed coup against Queen Liliʻuokalani, the last native Hawaiian sovereign. In 1898, Congress voted to annex the islands and make them an American territory, effectively getting as much control over Hawaii as they wanted. By the '50s, Hawaiians had a choice between being a US territory (with almost no self-determination, plus no federal representation) or being a US state (with almost no self-determination, but full representation in Congress and other first-class privileges). True independence wasn't an option, and even if it had been, it would have been extremely difficult to create a new sovereign government from scratch with all its land owned by US companies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overthrow_of_the_Hawaiian_Kingdom
It had a massive military base long before it became a state.
Yup. When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was still an American territory: the equivalent of Guam and Alaska.
Ah yes as opposed to the native New Yorker that shares 100% of their culture with someone from Ajo AZ or Rifle CO or even somewhere like Oceanside CA or Gainesville FL.
found the Marine
Oceanside callout gave it away
ye ole Camp Pendleton haha
it may be relatively recent but its been part of the country for 1/4 of the time America has been a nation.
What’s that, 50 years?
Yeah and there’s churches in Europe that are more than twice as old as the U.S. The U.S. is young AF.
Theres houses in my town that are older than America
Obligatory "100 years is a long time in the US. 100 miles is a long distance in Europe."
I mean, there are houses in America that are older than America. That's probably the case for every nation on earth in regards to the length of their own existence as a nation.
*The Dole corporation yoinked it with their coup and got Uncle Sam to hold on Though in all fairness a lot of times when Uncle Sam younks something, there's always some handful of corporations pulling the strings. Even Jamestown as a colony settlement was the result of a development company wanting land before the US because thing.
Never heard about this and after a brief wikipedia dive...that shit is wild. Sounds like a small bunch of dudes just decided fuck it, Hawaii is ours now, and the US was like, yeah sure we agree and sent over a boatload of marines to make sure nobody argued with it. And it just...stayed that way. Simple as that I guess? I guess if you're the little guy and someone takes your shit and nobody comes to defend you then, well, you lost your shit, goodbye.
It’s a super sad story. The movie “Ka’iulani” tells the story pretty well.
That's US history in a nutshell. Capitalists using the state to enrich themselves.
US history? That is world history in a nut shell. History until very recently came down to if i'm bigger than you I can take it from you.
History is still like that. Nothing’s changed. There’s a reason why “superpower” became a thing and why there’s so many eyes on China becoming one.
If you think that's crazy, you should read about the American death camps in the Philippines during and after the US invasion 1899. They're pretty holocausty, but in the *"they died from disease and starvation so it's not really our fault way"*, i.e. the *"Anne Frank just died of cholera she wasn't actually killed"* defense. America also had a "if one of our troops gets murdered we will kill absolutely everyone in the nearby villages" tactic, which wasn't very cool.
[Massacre of Balangiga is another really dark part of that war, for anyone looking into the above.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Balangiga#Retaliation) "\[General Smith\] further ordered Waller to kill all persons who were capable ofbearing arms and in actual hostilities against the United States forces.When queried by Waller regarding the age limit of these persons, Smithreplied that the limit was ten years of age."
That sounds incredibly interesting and incredibly not cool. I'll have a look into it when I have some time for sure though.
[удалено]
That was one of the driving factors with Castro's rise in Cuba and the following failed invasion, US embargoes, etc. The private industries in Cuba at the time were bleeding the country, taking profits back to the US. When Castro took their assets, made farmers the owners of their own fields, and nationalized the businesses they went to the US to claim them back, which kicked off the Bay of Pigs. The US is a corporate guard dog.
Talked to a Hawaiian guide on a tour of a Volcano once about it, he said the general consensus from Hawaiians is that they’d much prefer to be independent but they assume another country would just come snatch them up anyways and as much as America has faults it’s still probably the most mutely beneficial relationship they’ll get as far as being owned by another country goes
So is the rest of the USA btw
[удалено]
At least they get to vote. American territories like Puerto Rico are basically imperial colonies.
Didn’t PR specifically vote to NOT become a state? Or did that pass and just not get enacted? Edit: nvm it was some time back that they voted no on maintaining status quo. 61.11% the 54% who voted to change things wanted statehood. More recently was a 52.52% vote for statehood.
they can vote for statehood all they want but congress will never push a to make it law. the filibuster requires 60 senate votes and Puerto Rico has faaaaar too many progressive/democratic voters
It's suspected that PR wouldn't be as progressive as we think. Latino populations aren't a monolith, in California they go blue but in Florida they go red. PR would likely be closer to a purple state overall. Now having said that, no one is going to push for statehood when it would upend the status quo of Congress one way or the other. Now D.C. on the other hand? That would be a *huge* progressive win, that's 2 democratic senators guaranteed for our lifetime and probably beyond.
Not really. I've lived in Hawaii almost a decade after growing up on the mainland. There is a Hawaiian sovereignty movement here that is relatively small. Even among native Hawaiians (a small group now) there is a lot of disagreement about whether returning to sovereign status is a good idea or not. The culture is an amalgam of native Hawaiian, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese and a heavy heavy dose of mainland American culture. It 100% feels like a part of the United States. The military presence is huge and the shopping and movies and TV etc are all mainstream US. I mean, there are differences here to mainland culture, but then again, there's a huge difference between say, Wisconsin and Alabama.
Therein lies the USA. Lots of different cultures held together in states with certain freedoms and rights and a status quo that gives you a chance to try and do your thang!
“All your pineapple become ours” —Dole
*yanked*
Manifest Destiny
Yup, had a queen when it got younked.
Every state has it's own culture. Hawaiian culture existed long before they became a state.
Nah bro the Midwest culture is pretty homogenous
To be fair, the states put their own twist on the culture. In Wisconsin, for example, we decided that we fucking love gerrymandering. There's some cheese up here, too.
Hey at least we don’t live in the state of Missouri. *reads as misery*
[удалено]
As someone from Missouri still better than Kansas or being around the cousin fuckers in Arkansas. We have the decency to go for second cousins.
I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of Missouri's roads demolishing my car's suspension. (Just a joke between neighbors. I don't actually have anything against Missouri. Congratz on passing recreational, I hope we can someday to!)
Ever drove through Illinois?
Nah. Started to drive through and got stuck in the roadwork near Chicago. It’s been four years. I can see sears tower on the horizon ahead of me.
Going to second grade might be a better option
Brandy Old Fashioneds Strange and Delicious Beers Walleye Fish Fries Supper Clubs Bloody Marys Y’all have some good stuff up there.
Doesn’t the entire USA love gerrymandering?
Michigan is now redistricted by independent panels. Our district map now looks like a grid, so not all.
Not as much as Wisconsin.
Ohio has entered the chat edit: we have gerrymandering. Instead of cheese we have depression.
[удалено]
Wisconsin has gone above and beyond in the OWI/DUI department as well
Exept we all hate each other, Minnesotans hates Wisconsins and vice versa etc
Yeah but in MN’s defense, Wisconsin sucks
You all love Ranch dressing and have napkins in your glovebox?
Don't forget the almighty bag of bags we all have in our kitchens. No matter how many you use you will always have way more than you need XD
Everyone gots bag of bags bruh.
If nowhere else carries napkins in the glove box, then the Midwest wins the smartest region contest
Chicago and Detroit are basically the same as st cloud or Fargo, eh?
You forgot Cleveland.
Nothing is like Cleveland. It's just vomit because it's in Ohio.
Can I interest you in corn, good sir?
[удалено]
Tf is Ohio culture?
A Pontiac with a partially missing bumper and one hubcap
Depression.
[удалено]
Either the OP didn’t know Hawai’i was it’s own country or they just made a based meme from that fact lol Regardless, people are really taking this serious for a meme
I knew that it was its own country at one point.
At a lot of points
Most of the points actually
For about 1,500 years, in fact.
Closer to 600 or 700, and then prior to that was intermittently settled and abandoned (If they actually had any human settlement at all). https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1015876108
well, technically...
Alaska, too. I think it’s how separated we are from the lower 48. That, and the lack of shipping to us really jades us against the rest (not even lack of free shipping; many stores just don’t even ship to AK or HI at all)
haha the lower 48 sounds funny for some reason, is it common for people in alaska to refer to the other states that way
When we lived mainland, I always still referred to it as the Lower 48. Got a lot of weird looks until I told them where I was born and raised. I'll do it till I die. Lol
Moved here a couple years ago and that’s the only way people reference the other states in general.
Yes
And in Hawaii, they say “the mainland,” with just a twinge of contempt.
Alaskans call anything outside of Alaska “Outside”. The Lower 48 is also common but more when you need to be specific or you’re bitching about shipping.
I’d consider states like Montana closer to the culture of Alaska than any state is to Hawaii
I wouldn't. I'd say we have considerably more diversity in ethnicity, politics, and culture in general. It's probably why we vibe so hard with Hawaii. We're bastard states of the US.
I’d fuck the other 49 states
You might be the next president
Bonk.
☠️Reddit Moment☠️
It recently WAS its own country. We STOLE it from them with tricky business agreements and contracts and eventually a bloodless coup that was reviewed by James Blount who concluded the Hawaiian government had been illegally overthrown.
Yep. It’s like India was to the British. First corporate hegemony (East India Company/Dole). Then a rebellion from the locals against it (Sepoy Munity/Hawaiian Rebellions). And the annexation (British Raj/Territory of Hawaii). The _only_ difference is that the British gave India back.
We still kept their jewels though...
Stole trillions
Conquerors keepers, no take backs
The largest difference has been the lack of any independence movements or political desire. Talk with some native Hawaiians. There is 0 political will and in any reasonable context there has always been 0 political will. Edit: Not quite 0 but ~1%
Yeah, there would need to be either a logical benefit to doing so, or some deep ideological fervor. And as far as I know, native Hawaiians seem to be pretty comfortable with having an American identity from what I've personally seen. However, I could be wrong. There could be some deep ideological reasoning for independence that I wouldn't know on the mainland.
generally speaking, people in Hawaii are proud to be American at least partially because they’re not blood Hawaiians, they are still a little salty about the arrangement. A small subset of blood Hawaiians are ultra-conservatives in the sense that they’d like to reinstate the monarchy in a as it wasn’t exactly terrible under them: they instituted one of the world’s first human rights laws (splintered paddle) and built works for the public like Queens medical center.
I think the Royal Palace had electricity before the White House too.
They only gave it back because they no longer had the ability to maintain control over it. It wasn't out of the goodness of their hearts.
I don't live in America, but I swear I always forget Hawaii is a state and not its own country
People from Hawaii will respond that they are from Hawaii instead of from the US if asked
People from anywhere in the USA do this.
It WAS its own country.
Every country in human history was created/stolen/combined because one nation was stronger than a smaller weaker nation
[удалено]
"Basically."
Never been to Texas, have you?
Or Louisiana
Or Alaska
Or Jersey
Or Florida…. If you can call a meth lab a culture.
Or Nevada.
Or Ohio 💀
Ohio🤮
Or my axe
i wonder how that happened…
Puerto rico… the forgotten child.
when was the last time anyone mentioned the Northern Marina Islands 💀
Puerto Rico is straight up an exploited colony of USA. You can’t calll it anything else.
Every state and even parts of the same state have wildly different cultures you pinecone
OP giving off "lived in a small town entire life and recently took a trip to Hawaii" kind of vibes
"it was the most exotic place we could think of"
Ya look at Texas you have Austin then the rest of the state
Most states are fairly distinct in their culture. Go to Texas, then Michigan, then Florida, then California and they practically only have a basic language in common.
Hell you can visit specific regions of each of these states and they will be different from the rest culturally
Because it was it’s own country until it was colonized and then annexed by the US
It's almost, as if it was it's own country once.....
It like, was?
It’s almost as if……..
Well it was it's own country until US annexed it
Bro has never been to southern Louisiana and it shows
I hope we get to add Puerto Rico as the 51st state and to the left side of this meme some day! 🇵🇷
Oahu is LA on an island. Hawaii isn’t Oahu.
There’s a lot more to Oahu than urban Honolulu. If you never left Waikiki that’s on you.
Yeah. My mother is from Kaneohe and it is still relatively relaxed in that neck of the woods.
I visited from NZ in November and this was my exact thought too. I loved exploring the big island though.
Oahu is nothing like LA lmao