<Begin Segment 18>

BN: I think what I'd asked you is how you felt you have changed from living in Hawaii all these years. And specifically I asked you about your reaction to racist...

JF: Yeah, my hair trigger reaction to being called any kind of a racial epithet. Yeah, that still exists, and I don't think it'll ever go away. When I fly back to the mainland, it's not that I'm on high alert, but all these, you drive past places, say, "Yeah, that was where that jerk called me a... whatever." And oh, that was where this other thing happened. And so it all comes rushing back, you kind of become a little bit defensive, but it's very different at the places that we visited, or tend to visit over there now, which includes parts of Orange County like Irvine. It's very different from pre-1990 Irvine. So yeah, I'm on guard, but it never happens there either, now. Like we were mentioning before I grew up, like, sorry, but hating white folks, and holding them personally responsible for all these horrific things that they've done throughout everyone's past in this country. And so that's the flip side of that hair trigger reaction. And so living here for the past thirty-some odd years, yeah, the hair trigger part has dissipated a little bit, but that racist attitude towards white folks is now refined. So there's more delineation that I learned. And it's people and it's not just haole folks, but it's anybody who disrespects the local culture or who doesn't respect local folks. And I include my dad in that, because he is the most discriminatory person when it comes to, you know, speaking English the King's English, he would call it. He would roll his eyes whenever he would hear, like Gary Furuno or David Cho or other friends, still had that west side accent. "Are they speaking English?" "Dad, come on." I mean, he'd be half joking, but half not. So it's like he was so prejudiced in that way. And so he would come out here to visit us, and we'd be at Zippy's or something and he'd overhear the people behind us talk, and he'd lean over and in a loud enough voice for everybody to hear, "Is he speaking English?" Oh, my god, Dad. [Laughs] So yeah, it's changed. And I'm much more discerning now in how I dish out my anger.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.