I know that in Hawaii white people from the mainland are called Haoles?

but does the word also apply to mainlanders of other races, too? also is it considered an insult or just a word?

The word Haole literally means 'no blood' or 'no life' and was used when white people came to Hawaii for the first time. Hawaiians were surprised to see someone without color or 'Ha' meaning blood or life, so technically it should only apply to white people, but sometimes is used to generalize people from the mainland. Black people are usually called 'popolo' which is the name of a blackberry and therefore used to describe black people, although the actual Hawaiian word for black is "ele'ele". It used to be considered an insult, no matter how it was used,but has since become just a general term like 'Japanese' or 'Hawaiian', for example "Go ask the haole guy over there."

It can be just a word, or it can be an insult. If it is preceded by a participle that begins with "F", it is an insult. If it is said to you because you just dropped in on a local's wave, it's definitely an insult. I'm a Southerner, and when people talk about "those Haoles", always trying to get ahead and not understanding local ways, I say, "Back home we call those people 'Yankees'." The locals don't make much of a distinction there, either, but I think the Southerners tend to stick around more than the Northerners, from my own experience.

There are other names for people of other races. "Popolo" refers to Black folks. There's a word for an American of Japanese Ancestry from the mainland that I don't think I can spell, but it kind of sounds like "guh-dunk".

It isn't just about race. For example, locals of Portuguese descent are not normally considered haoles because they worked on the sugar and pineapple plantations with everybody else. They might be called "Podagee" or "Pocho", though. And there's definitely a distinction between malahini or guests and "local haoles".

The structure is a bit like this. At the very center, but also at the margins of society, are the Hawaiians--the Hawaiian Homelands Hawaiians with more than 50% ancestry who qualify for a Homestead, and the Part-Hawaiians. If you have any Hawaiian ancestry at all, especially if you've grown up since the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s, your primary ethnic identification tends to be Hawaiian.

The next layer out is more Locals: descendants of the Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino workers who were brought in to work the plantations. Of these, the Japanese tended to intermarry the least, and often left the plantations to become entrepreneurs fairly quickly. In post WWII Hawaii, they came to dominate the schools and the civil services. I think they represent about 1/3 of the population, but about 2/3 of State employment. Look at the Congressional delegation: Inouye, Akaka, Hirono, and Abercrombie, the hippie who wore a ponytail and beard in Congress for years.

Then you have the FOBs (Fresh Off the Boats) and the mainland Haoles. The FOBs from places like Indonesia, the Philippines, China, and even El Salvador tend to be absorbed into working class society fairly quickly. The mainland Haoles either leave, or they don't, but they mostly leave, and when they stay, they often stay kind of separate from everybody else.

And you have other Pacific Islanders: Samoans, Tongans, and Micronesians. There's always been a few of them around, but they maintain some kind of presence back home more than a lot of groups do.

Really, I'm just scratching the surface here. I've lived on two Hawaiian islands, but I've only been here 7 and a half years altogether.

There's a song in Pidgin, "Mr. San Cho Lee", that's been popular here for more than 30 years. It makes fun of the Chinese, "Japanee", Haole, "Pilifino", and Hawaiians. The last verse goes:

One ting I wen' notice 'bout this place,
All us guys we tease da udder race,
It's amazing we can live in da same place!

Beckee hit it right on the nail. she explained it much better than I would have.

Haoles is a racist word just like n***a, or wetb***k.

So if some one calls you that.....just try to brush it off.

My hubby is a blond hair blue eye white man, and they always call him haole.
I am brown eyed , black hair, and people here always ask me what I am.

They are usually nice to me or cool with me until I tell them what I am, then they treat me just like a haole.

So, it applies mostly to mainlanders.

The short version is: if it is said with the wrong "attitude" it is an insult, if it is said neutrally, it is not.

The term actually means "without breath" rather than blood, but both give you an idea that the original whites were thought to be a very different type of folk by the indigenous people.