Hawaii Inequality Study Overlooked Thousands of Micronesians
“The recent state report had lots of information about income, household size and homeownership for the top 14 biggest racial groups in Hawaii, illuminating huge socioeconomic gaps between Japanese, white and Okinawan residents compared with Samoan, Tongan and Marshallese people in Hawaii. But there was no mention of people from Chuuk or other islands in the Federated States of Micronesia. They were lumped into another category called ‘Other Micronesians’ made up of more than 18,000 people in 2015. That’s about equal to the number of people who make up Hawaii’s Okinawan, Chamorro and Tongan communities combined.”