THE ADMISSIONS POLICY RACIAL ISSUE: Is the Kamehameha School's admissions policy racially exclusionary? Why does the school have this policy? Is the policy racist? Is it required by the Will of Princess Pauahi?

To be admitted to Kamehameha School, a child must pass an entrance examination, pass a personal interview, and provide proof that he is kanaka maoli.

Kanaka maoli are defined by Princess Pauahi in her will as: "Hawaiians of pure or part aboriginal blood." The definition has been written into law in modern times as follows: "any descendant of aboriginal peoples inhabiting the Hawaiian islands which exercised sovereignty and subsisted in the Hawaiian islands in 1778, and which peoples thereafter have continued to reside in Hawai'i." (HRS $ 11-1)

In plain language what this means is that kanaka maoli, or Hawaiians or Native Hawaiians, are all persons who have at least one drop of native blood; that is, at least one ancestor who lived in Hawai'i before Captain Cook's arrival in 1778. The convoluted language in the HRS definition was put there to prevent Tahitians or Samoans or other non-Hawaiian Polynesians who now come to live in Hawai'i from claiming that they are kanaka maoli because they are descended from Tahitians or Samoans who may have briefly visited Hawai'i in 1400 AD, produced no offspring with people previously living in Hawai'i, returned to Tahiti or Samoa, and remanied there. If this last sentence is confusing, forget it -- it has no important practical effects.

Supporters of the Kamehameha School admissions policy claim that it is NOT racially exclusionary. No races are in fact excluded. All races are represented in the blood of the students at Kamehameha School, because of intermarriage. Some children have Chinese ancestry, along with kanaka maoli. Some have Irish ancestry, along with kanaka maoli. The only requirement is that every child must have at least one drop of kanaka maoli blood -- at least one kanaka maoli ancestor.

However, 80% of the children of Hawai'i are prohibited from admission to Kamehameha School for no reason other than their failure to have the correct genetic makeup. This is racial segregation. It is apartheid. It would surely be considered racially discriminatory to require that nobody could live in a private suburban gated community unless he has Irish ancestry -- requiring a specific component of ancestry (one drop of Irish blood required for residency) is just as discriminatory as prohibiting a specific component of ancestry (one drop of African blood is sufficient to exclude from residency). Even privately owned restaurants or stores are not allowed to require or prohibit specific racial heritages as a condition of admission. And certainly the existence of a taxpayer subsidy (in the form of exemption from taxes, which others must then make up for) makes Kamehameha School far less "private" than a neighborhood restaurant or a mom-and-pop grocery store. In the Rice v. Cayetano decision, the Supreme Court specifically looked at the requirement that a person must be kanaka maoli in order to vote in OHA elections. The Court explicitly stated: Ancestry can be a proxy for race. It is that proxy here ... the State ... has used ancestry as a racial definition and for a racial purpose." The fact that people of Irish or Chinese ancestry get to vote in OHA (as long as they have that one precious drop of kanaka maoli blood) does not prevent the kanaka maoli requirement from being ruled as racially exclusionary. The intent is clearly to exclude people who are not of the "right" race. The admissions policy in its definition is racial, and in its intent is racist.

The most amazing fact in this whole debate is this: the racially exclusionary admissions policy is NOT required by the terms of the Princess' will. The admissions policy is merely an exercise of the discretionary power given to the trustees by the terms of the will. To put it simply: THE TRUSTEES HAVE ADOPTED THIS RACIALLY EXCLUSIONARY ADMISSIONS POLICY NOT BECAUSE THEY HAD TO, BUT BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO. Every time I have said this to kanaka maoli people, they have expressed shock and disbelief. Not just the minority of Hawaiian racial supremacists, but almost all kanaka maoli people hold the Will of the Princess to be almost sacred, and are firmly convinced that the racially exclusionary admissions policy is required by that will. Hardly anyone has actually read the will, but all have been brainwashed since childhood to believe that Princess Pauahi gave her immense wealth to create a school that would be set aside forever for only the kanaka maoli people. For that reason, the remainder of this section of the webpage will be spent on this one issue. The entire long paragraph of the will that sets the policy for the operation of the school is provided. Then attention will be called to the only phrase, in the entire will, consisting of eleven words, which makes any reference to race. Then the meaning will be analyzed in detail. There can be no doubt that the Princess' Will does not require a racially exclusionary admissions policy, NOR EVEN A RACIAL PREFERENCE for most of the students.

The entire Will can be seen on the Kamehameha Schools internet website http://www.ksbe.edu Whenever the Kamehameha Schools website is reorganized, the URL of the will can change. Therefore the entire will is copied below, at the bottom of this page, as taken from the Kamehameha Schools website in June, 2002 at this address:
http://www.ksbe.edu/endowment/bpbishop/will/allwill.html

Here is the entire paragraph containing the only racial language in the will, so that readers can see the full context of the so-called "racial preference:"

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I direct my trustees to invest the remainder of my estate in such manner as they may think best, and to expend the annual income in the maintenance of said schools; meaning thereby the salaries of teachers, the repairing buildings and other incidental expenses; and to devote a portion of each years income to the support and education of orphans, and others in indigent circumstances, giving the preference to Hawaiians of pure or part aboriginal blood; the proportion in which said annual income is to be divided among the various objects above mentioned to be determined solely by my said trustees they to have full discretion.

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The racial preference for kanaka maoli only pertains to orphans and indigents. The entire portion pertaining to the racial preference comes between two semicolons to set it off from the rest of the paragraph. It says; "and to devote a portion of each years income to the support and education of orphans, and others in indigent circumstances, giving the preference to Hawaiians of pure or part aboriginal blood;"

Only orphans and indigents are affected by the racial preference. The vast majority of students at Kamehameha School are neither orphans nor indigents.

Furthermore, even within the categories of orphans or indigents, kanaka maoli are only entitled to a PREFERENCE, not an absolute guarantee. The exact words are: "giving the preference to Hawaiians of pure or part aboriginal blood."

There is no requirement to exclude non-kanaka maoli, only to give a preference to kanaka maoli, and only within the categories of orphans and indigents.

The trustees are not violating the Will by adopting this policy. The Will gives them full discretion, as shown by this quote: "I also give unto my said trustees full power to make all such rules and regulations as they may deem necessary for the government of said schools and to regulate the admission of pupils, and the same to alter, amend and publish upon a vote of a majority of said trustees." The Princess gave to the trustees the power "to regulate the admission of pupils."

One more issue should be addressed here. There is nothing unchangeable about a will. Even the Will of the Princess is subject to the laws of the United States and of the State of Hawai'i. If something would be illegal for a person to do, it is also illegal for the executor of a will or the trustees of a trust to do.

One significant change in Pauahi's will was made a few years ago as a result of a legal challenge. The following sentence is a part of Pauahi's will: "I also direct that the teachers of said schools shall forever be persons of the Protestant religion, but I do not intend that the choice should be restricted to persons of any particular sect of Protestants." A person who was denied employment as a teacher because of not being a Protestant filed suit, and the court struck down that sentence of Pauahi's will. The court said that since Kamehameha School is not primarily a religious institution, such as a monastery or theological school for ordaining ministers, therefore it cannot discriminate on the basis of religion.

The trustees themselves made a significant change to the Will when they decided around 1920 to change the purpose of the school and the focus of the curriculum. The Will says, "I desire my trustees to provide first and chiefly a good education in the common English branches, and also instruction in morals and in such useful knowledge as may tend to make good and industrious men and women; and I desire instruction in the higher branches to be subsidiary to the foregoing objects." But the trustees decided to de-emphasize vocational training, and now there is a high school whose curriculum is primarily college-preparatory, which directly contradicts the quoted requirement of the Will. Indeed, the admissions test is academically rigorous and excludes many more students than it admits. Another major change was to adopt coeducation. The Will says the trustees shall "erect and maintain in the Hawaiian Islands two schools, each for boarding and day scholars, one for boys and one for girls, to be known as, and called the Kamehameha Schools." At first there were separate schools for boys and girls, but nowadays the boys and girls are in the same classes and gender separation is purely an administrative technical fiction.

It is perfectly clear that according to the Will, the preference for kanaka maoli is only a preference and not an exclusive restriction; and most important, that racial preference applies only to orphans and indigents. But in actual practice, the trustees admit only kanaka maoli children; and most of them are neither orphans nor indigent. The trustees in the past have voluntarily changed or ignored specific requirements of the Will, and provisions of the Will which are contrary to law can be and have been struck down. The admissions policy of the trustees is voluntary, not required by the will; furthermore, the admissions policy in its definition is racial, and in its intent is racist.

** Comment inserted November 2004: A reader of this webpage informed me that the link to the Kamehameha website provided above is no longer working. I have discovered that the will is now located on the Kamehameha website at the following link (which, of course, they might change again in the future, so please notify me if they do that!). By the way, the link seems to have been changed to accomplish at least two goals: (a) it is now harder to find the will from the Kamehameha website front page, thus deterring scholars who want to check the accuracy of bogus claims made about what it says; (b) In the last couple of years it has become fashionable to downplay the haole names of ethnic Hawaiians and to mention only their Hawaiian names -- the link has accordingly been changed from “bpbishop” to “pauahi” just as the estate’s name itself has been changed from “Bishop Estate” to “Kamehameha Schools.” The woman herself was proud to marry a haole and change her name to “Bishop” but today’s revisionist and race-centered historians have played racial identity politics by stripping away the “Bishop” name. Here’s the link to the will on the Kamehameha website as of November 2004:
http://www.ksbe.edu/pauahi/will.php

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Will of Bernice Pauahi Bishop

[ The original will is kept by the Hawai`i State Archives and is handwritten on ruled legal stationery that fills approximately 40 pages. ]

Know all Men by these Presents, That I, Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the wife of Charles R. Bishop, of Honolulu, Island of Oahu, Hawaiian Islands, being of sound mind and memory, but conscious of the uncertainty of life, do make, publish and declare this my last Will and Testament in manner following, hereby revoking all former wills by me made:

First. I give and bequeath unto my namesakes, E. Bernice Bishop Dunham, niece of my husband, now residing in San Joaquim County, California, Bernice Parke, daughter of W. C. Parke Esq., of Honolulu, Bernice Bishop Barnard, daughter of the late John E. Barnard Esq. of Honolulu, Bernice Bates, daughter of Mr. Dudley C. Bates, of San Francisco, California, Annie Pauahi Cleghorn of Honolulu, Lilah Bernice Wodehouse, daughter of Major J. H. Wodehouse, of Honolulu, and Pauahi Judd the daughter of Col. Charles H. Judd of Honolulu, the sum of Two hundred Dollars ($200.) each.

Second. I give and bequeath unto Mrs. William F. Allen, Mrs. Amoe Haalelea, Mrs. Antone Rosa, and Mrs. Nancy Ellis, the sum of Two Hundred Dollars ($200.) each.

Third. I give and bequeath unto Mrs. Caroline Bush, widow of A .W. Bush, Mrs. Sarah Parmenter, wife of Gilbert Parmenter Mrs. Keomailani Taylor, wife of Mr. Wray Taylor, to their sole and separate use free from the control of their husbands, and to Mrs. Emma Barnard, widow of the late John E Barnard Esq. the sum of Five hundred dollars ($500.) each.

Fourth. I give, devise and bequeath unto H. R. H. Liliuokalani, the wife of Gov. John 0. Dominis, all of those tracts of land known as the "Ahupuaa of Lumahai," situated on the Island of Kauai, and the "Ahupuaa of Kealia", situated in South Kona Island of Hawaii; to have and to hold for and during the term of her natural life; and after her decease to my trustees upon the trusts below expressed.

Fifth. I give and bequeath unto Kahakuakoi (w) and Kealohapanole, her husband, and to the survivor of them, the sum of Thirty Dollars ($3O.) per month, (not $30. each) so long as either of them may live. And I also devise unto them and to their heirs of the body of either, the lot of land called "Mauna Kamala", situated at Kapalama Honolulu; upon default of issue the same to go to my trustees upon the trusts below expressed.

Sixth. I give and bequeath unto Mrs. Kapoli Kamakau, the sum of Forty Dollars ($4O.) per month during her life; to my servant woman Kaia the sum of Thirty Dollars ($30.) per month during her life, and to Nakaahiki (w) the sum of Thirty Dollars ($30.) per month during her life.

Seventh. I give, devise and bequeath unto Kapaa (k) the house-lot he now occupies, situated between Merchant and Queen Streets in Honolulu, to have and to hold for and during the term of his natural life; upon his decease to my trustees upon the trusts below expressed.

Eighth. I give, devise and bequeath unto Auhea (w) tile wife of Lokana (k) the house-lot situated on the corner of Richard and Queen Streets, now occupied by G. W. Macfarlane & Co; to have and to hold for and during the term of her natural life; upon her decease to my trustees upon the trusts below expressed.

Ninth. I give, devise and bequeath unto my husband, Charles R. Bishop, all of the various tracts and parcels of land situated upon the Island of Molokai, comprising the "Molokai Ranch", and all of the live-stock and personal property thereon; being the same premises now under the care of R. W. Myer Esq.; and also all of the real property wherever situated, inherited by me from my parents, and also all of that devised to me by my aunt Akahi, except the two lands above devised to H. R. H. Liliuokalani for her life; and also all of my lands at Waikiki, Oahu, situated makai of the government main road leading to Kapiolani Park; to have and to hold together with all tenements, hereditaments, rights, privileges and appurtenances to the game appertaining, for and during the term of his natural life; and upon his decease to my trustees upon the trusts below expressed.

Tenth. I give, devise and bequeath unto Her Majesty Emma Kaleleonalani, Queen Dowager, as a token of my good will, all of the premises situated upon Emma Street in said Honolulu, known as Kaakopua, lately the residence of my cousin Keelikolani; to have and to hold with the appurtenances for and during the term of her natural life; and upon her decease to my trustees upon the trusts below expressed.

Eleventh. I give and bequeath the sum of Five thousand Dollars ($5000.) to be expended by my executors in repairs upon Kawaiahao Church building in Honolulu, or in improvements upon the same-

Twelfth. I give and bequeath the sum of Five thousand Dollars ($5000.) to be expended by my executors for the benefit of the Kawaiahao Family School for Girls (now under charge of Miss Norton) to be expended for additions either to the grounds, buildings or both.

Thirteenth. I give, devise and bequeath all of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate real and personal, wherever situated unto the trustees below named, their heirs and assigns forever, to hold upon the following trusts, namely: to erect and maintain in the Hawaiian Islands two schools, each for boarding and day scholars, one for boys and one for girls, to be known as, and called the Kamehameha Schools.

I direct my trustees to expend such amount as they may deem best, not to exceed however one-half of the fund which may come into their hands, in the purchase of suitable premises, the erection of school buildings, and in furnishing the same with the necessary and appropriate fixtures furniture and apparatus.

I desire my trustees to provide first and chiefly a good education in the common English branches, and also instruction in morals and in such useful knowledge as may tend to make good and industrious men and women; and I desire instruction in the higher branches to be subsidiary to the foregoing objects.

For the purposes aforesaid I grant unto my said trustees full power to lease or sell any portion of my real estate, and to reinvest the proceeds and the balance of my estate in real estate, or in such other manner as to my said trustees may seem best.

I also give unto my said trustees full power to make all such rules and regulations as they may deem necessary for the government of said schools and to regulate the admission of pupils, and the same to alter, amend and publish upon a vote of a majority of said trustees.

I also direct that my said trustees shall annually make a full and complete report of all receipts and expenditures, and of the condition of said schools to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, or other highest judicial officer in this country; and shall also file before him annually an inventory of the property in their hands and how invested, and to publish the same in some Newspaper published in said Honolulu; I also direct my said trustees to keep said school buildings insured in good Companies, and in case of loss to expend the amounts recovered in replacing or repairing said buildings.

I also direct that the teachers of said schools shall forever be persons of the Protestant religion, but I do not intend that the choice should be restricted to persons of any particular sect of Protestants.

Fourteenth. I appoint my husband Charles R. Bishop, Samuel M. Damon, Charles M. Hyde, Charles M. Cooke, and William 0. Smith, all of Honolulu, to be my trustees to carry into effect the trusts above specified.

I direct that a majority of my said trustees may act in all cases and may convey real estate and perform all of the duties and powers hereby conferred; but three of them at least must join in all acts.

I further direct that the number of my said trustees shall be kept at five; and that vacancies shall be filled by the choice of a majority of the Justices of the Supreme Court, the selection to be made from persons of the Protestant religion.

Fifteenth. In addition to the above devise to Queen Emma, I also give, devise and bequeath to her (said Emma Kaleleonalani Queen Dowager (sic) the Fish-pond in Kawaa, Honolulu near Oahu Prison, called "Kawa", for and during the term of her natural life; and after her decease to my trustees upon the trusts aforesaid.

Sixteenth. In addition to the above devise to my husband, I also give and bequeath to him, said Charles R. Bishop all of my personal property of every description, including cattle at Molokai; to have and to hold to him, his executors., administrators and assigns forever.

Seventeenth. I hereby nominate and appoint my husband Charles R. Bishop and Samuel M. Damon, executors of this my will.

In witness whereof I, said Bernice Pauahi Bishop, have hereunto set my hand and seal this thirty-first day of October A. D. Eighteen hundred and eighty-three.

BERNICE P. BISHOP (SEAL)

The foregoing instrument, written on eleven pages, was signed, sealed, published and declared by said Bernice Pauahi Bishop, as and for her last will and testament in our presence, who at her request, in her presence, and in the presence of each other, have hereunto set our names as witnesses thereto, this 31st day of October A. D. 1883.

F. W. MACFARLANE

FRANCIS M. HATCH

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