Style guide gets it right: Locals aren’t all Hawaiian

This should not slip idly by. This is a thing.

Last week the U.S. Government Publishing Office released the 31st edition of the GPO Style Manual, a guide for writers and editors both inside and outside the federal government. It’s kind of like that odious Strunk and White book you had to carry around in high school, only wonkier and with higher stakes than a language arts grade.

In this new edition the guide advises that people who live in Hawaii should be called “Hawaii residents” instead of “Hawaiians.” This change acknowledges that not all residents of the state are of Native Hawaiian ancestry.

At the moment, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is more shamefully dysfunctional than usual with infighting so immature and volatile that trustees can’t even make themselves sit at the same table and hash it out like grown-ups. The call for federal recognition of a Native Hawaiian government has been all but drowned out by the echo chamber of dissent from within and without the Native Hawaiian community. So much effort is expended defining who is Hawaiian and who is Hawaiian enough and what being Hawaiian means. But here, in a small but significant way, the U.S. government is recognizing that there’s a difference between people who live in Hawaii and people of Native Hawaiian descent.

This matters because identity matters. It matters to everyone. Yes, it is not up to the outside world to define a person’s identity; however, it sure is grating when you know what you are but others insist on calling you something you’re not. Perhaps it does nothing to your own self-worth, but it does negate their message.

The Associated Press used to recommend “Hawaiian” as the demonym for residents of Hawaii, but in 2005 its stylebook was updated to note the term refers to people of Native Hawaiian descent. Still, journalists all over the world persist in using “Hawaiians” when they mean “Hawaii residents,” and when they do, people who live here know that the writer doesn’t understand something basic to our culture, and, on some level, it calls the rest of the story into question.

A post on a board for campaign volunteers summed it up nicely:

“When people from outside Hawaii refer to residents as Hawaiians, it betrays a lack of knowledge about Hawaii, its people, and its particular local issues. … Just to clarify, this isn’t some PC thing, it’s pointing out a local custom and helping people to engage in a way that sounds more authentic to the local ear if they are, for example, phonebanking this weekend. Also, it’s not offensive, just awkward. You’re not going to win any votes by making locals feel uncomfortable with you by calling them Hawaiian when … they’re not.”

Yes, California residents are Californians and Colorado residents are Colo­radans and so on. But residents of Hawaii are Hawaii residents. Because Hawaii is different. And people are different. And where they live is only part of who they are.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.