soydulcedeleche:

Do you know who Native Hawaiians are? They are the poorest, most worse off ethnic group in the United States because when the U.S. stole, yes, STOLE the Hawaiian islands (Hawaii was a sovereign independent country) they were populated by Hawaiian Natives who were all killed off and/or stripped of…

This is a subject that needs to be discussed in the ukulele more than it currently is (which is not at all).

Most of the mock-Hawaiian songs churned out by Tin Pan Alley at the time of the first ukulele boom are just horrible. The most often played example being Ukulele Lady.

Troubling things about them:

- They present Hawaii as a tranquil paradise while it was being run by a group of businessmen that stole Hawaii from the Hawaiians.

- Almost all present Hawaiian women as fetishised lust-objects rather than actual people.

- They used nonsense ‘wikky wakky woo’ lyrics whilst the Hawaiian language was moving towards extinction.

I don’t think there’s a problem with people being influenced by Hawaiian music or playing Hawaiian songs. But if you’re going to borrow from people of another culture the least you can do is respect them as full human beings. Some of these songs don’t pass that test and should be retired from the repertoire.