Attempts to make sense of haole (Hawaiian for "white person”) and "the politics of haole” in current debates about race in Hawai'i. Recognizing it as a form of American whiteness specific to Hawai'i, the author argues that haole was forged and reforged over two centuries of colonization and needs to be understood in that context.

Judy Rohrer grew up a haole girl on Kaua'i and O'ahu. She received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Hawai'i.