(c) Copyright August 28, 2013
Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D.
All rights reserved
A summary of about 1100 words was published on August 28, 2013 in the online newspaper Hawaii Political Info at
http://www.hawaiipoliticalinfo.org/node/6695
and on August 29, 2013 in the online newspaper Hawaii Reporter at
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/?p=424029
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On August 28, 1963 Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln memorial.[1] It was undoubtedly the most powerful civil rights speech of the 20th Century.
How sad it is to see Dr. King's dream for race relations in America mocked by the nightmare developing in Hawaii.[2]
I certainly cannot begin to match Dr. King's eloquence. But on the 50th anniversary of his greatest speech, I offer my own dream for Hawaii's future as a tribute to Dr. King and a ho'okupu (offering) to my hanai (adopted) homeland.
My dream is summarized in a single paragraph. Each element of the dream has a footnote providing detailed explanations and references. Readers unfamiliar with what's happening behind the scenes in Hawaii might be surprised that I find it necessary to say these things. That's why the footnotes are very important, even if lengthy and emotionally difficult.
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My dream for Hawaii
I have a dream that someday all Hawaii's people will embrace the concept that we are all equal in the eyes of God,[3] and we are all fully imbued with the Aloha Spirit.[4] I have a dream that all Hawaii's people will embrace the fact that we are Americans.[5] I have a dream that all Hawaii's people will embrace the fact that we have a right to be treated equally under the law by our federal and state governments; and will therefore put aside and repudiate racial entitlement programs.[6] I have a dream that all Hawaii's people will put aside and repudiate efforts to create a race-based government and to divide the lands and people of Hawaii along racial lines.[7] I have a dream that someday Caucasian boys and girls who are born and raised in Hawaii will be treated as locals, keiki o ka 'aina, kama'aina; and that malihini and kama'aina Caucasians will no longer be subjected to racial epithets and racial hate crimes.[8]
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Visits to Hawaii by Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King
Dr. King visited Hawaii a month after Statehood and gave a speech at the legislature on September 17, 1959 in which he said: "I come to you with a great deal of appreciation and great feeling of appreciation, I should say, for what has been accomplished in this beautiful setting and in this beautiful state of our Union. As I think of the struggle that we are engaged in in the South land, we look to you for inspiration and as a noble example, where you have already accomplished in the area of racial harmony and racial justice, what we are struggling to accomplish in other sections of the country, and you can never know what it means to those of us caught for the moment in the tragic and often dark midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, to come to a place where we see the glowing daybreak of freedom and dignity and racial justice." It is significant that Dr. King and some of his fellow civil rights leaders wore Hawaiian leis in their fateful 1965 Alabama march from Selma to Montgomery, when many were severely clubbed, and bitten by police dogs.[9]
Dr. King's widow, Coretta Scott King, was remembered in a Honolulu Advertiser obituary on February 1, 2006, where it was noted that she "first came to Honolulu in June 1987 in an effort to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a state holiday. Hawai'i was then one of seven states that had not declared it a state holiday, following the establishment of the federal holiday in 1983. ... A year later, King returned to the state Capitol to witness then-Gov. John Waihee signing the holiday into law. ... Hawai'i, among the last three states to mark the holiday in honor of the fallen civil rights leader, held its first Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1989."[10]
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NOTES
[1] Of course Dr. King wrote his speech before delivering it. But the most soaring, inspirational portion about his dream was spoken from the heart, going far beyond what he had written. A printed transcript of the speech as he actually delivered it can be seen at
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/publications/speeches/address_at_march_on_washington.pdf
But the written words don't come close to capturing the inspirational power of the words as spoken with Dr. King's tone and cadence. See an 18-minute video of the actual speech at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs
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[2] How sad it is to see Dr. King's dream for race relations in America mocked by the nightmare developing in Hawaii.
What nightmare? Read the 302-page book "Hawaiian Apartheid: Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State" 27 copies are available among various branches of the Hawaii Public Library system. There are additional copies in the University of Hawaii and affiliated community college libraries. Chapter 1 and Table of Contents, along with a link to purchase the book directly from the publisher, are available at
http://tinyurl.com/2a9fqa
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[3] I have a dream that someday all Hawaii's people will embrace the concept that we are all equal in the eyes of God.
At the present time this is only a dream, because Hawaiian sovereignty activists have twisted the beautiful Kumulipo creation legend to assert god-given racial supremacy. The activists have made it a justification for Hawaiian religious fascism and race-based political control of Hawaii; rather than a story about the relationship among the gods, the Earth, and all Earth's people.
The relevant elements of the Kumulipo legend are that the gods mated and gave birth to the Hawaiian islands [and all Earth's lands and seas] as their living children. (To see how universal this concept is, put "Gaia theory" into Google or Bing) Later the gods mated and gave birth to a human baby whose deformed body was born dead; they planted it in the ground and from that burial grew the first taro plant. Later the gods mated and gave birth to a perfect human boy, Haloa. Thus the descendants of Haloa are children of the gods, and the descendants are younger brothers to these islands [the entire Earth] and to the taro plant.
In Kumulipo, Haloa is the person Jews, Christians and Muslims call Adam, the primordial ancestor from whom all human beings are descended. But Hawaiian sovereignty activists interpret Haloa to be the primordial ancestor only of native Hawaiians.
With that interpretation it is only ethnic Hawaiians who are the children of the gods and the brothers to these islands. Anyone with at least one drop of Hawaiian native blood is a descendant of Haloa and therefore a member of that family, with a god-given right to participate in governing these islands. Anyone lacking a drop of Hawaiian native blood is forever outside that family and can be here only as a guest with no right to participate in governance unless invited by the ethnic Hawaiians.
This twisted version of the creation legend is Hawaiian religious fascism -- it is a religious belief providing a justification for racial supremacy by ethnic Hawaiians over all other racial groups in Hawaii. This religion is taught in all the Hawaiian Studies programs in Hawaii colleges and K-12 schools.
The activists who favor the Akaka bill to create a federally recognized tribe, and the Kana'iolowalu process to create a state-recognized tribe, believe in this religion. The activists who favor secession from the U.S. to make Hawaii an independent nation believe in this religion; they talk about restoring Hawaii as a multiracial independent nation just like the Kingdom was; but they also believe that the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will then guarantee racial supremacy in an independent Hawaii. Remember that South Africa under the apartheid regime was a multiracial nation -- however, a small minority had all the legal rights and political power, and ruled over a much larger majority.
Hawaiian religious fascism is as dangerous as other forms of religious race-based fascism which have historically led to warfare and slaughter such as what was done by Germany and Japan in 1935-1945 and what is happening today with radical Islamist jihad.
But I have a dream that someday all Hawaii's people will embrace the concept that we are all equal in the eyes of God.
See "Religion and Zealotry in the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement -- How Religious Myths are Used to Support Political Claims for Racial Supremacy in Hawaii" at
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/religion.html
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[4] I have a dream that someday all Hawaii's people will embrace the concept that we are all fully imbued with the Aloha Spirit.
At the present time this is only a dream.
Some Hawaiian sovereignty zealots say there is no such thing as the Aloha Spirit -- they say it is merely a marketing slogan invented by the tourist industry.
Other Hawaiian sovereignty zealots assert that ethnic Hawaiians are the only people who have the Aloha Spirit dwelling inside them -- they think it's part of the genome of ethnic Hawaiians, because they are children of the gods as descendants of Haloa. A bumper sticker often seen in Hawaii says "No Hawaiians, no aloha." That slogan captures an attitude often expressed in newspaper columns, classrooms, and casual conversations -- an attitude that "aloha" is the property of a racial group -- that the only people who can fully exemplify the Aloha Spirit, or who even have a right to discuss it, are those who have a drop of the magic blood.
But the Aloha Spirit is very real, very powerful, and universally present in all persons and all of nature.
The Aloha Spirit is the local Hawaii name for what Christians call the Holy Spirit, or what Plato called the Form of Goodness. In the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of the Godhead, equal in power and glory to God the Father and God the Son. The Holy Spirit is always present to anyone who opens his heart and mind to receive it. It is able to take away sin and guilt while delivering hope, compassion, peace of mind, a desire to do what is right and to give freely without expectation of return. In some Asian cultures people greet each other with the wai -- placing the palms of the hands together in front of the chest while bowing politely, as a way of acknowledging the divine spark of Buddha-nature dwelling inside the other person.
The Hawaii Revised Statutes enshrines in law the following amazing statement: "Aloha is the essence of relationships in which each person is important to every other person for collective existence. Aloha means to hear what is not said, to see what cannot be seen and to know the unknowable."
One of the most beautiful and powerful written expressions of the Aloha Spirit is found in the first sentence of the first systematic law of the Kingdom of Hawaii. King Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III (advised by missionary William Richards) voluntarily gave up his absolute power and officially recognized that chiefs, commoners, and people of all races share fundamental rights. Here was a King whose right to dictatorial authority was earned by the conquests of his father, but whose heart was infused by his love of God and by compassion for his people, enlightened by awareness of democratic principles brought to him by European and American newcomers.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man was proclaimed by Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III in 1839, and became the preamble of the first Constitution which he proclaimed in 1840. Although some call this "Hawaii's Magna Carta," the political history is very different. The English document was extracted by force from a despotic king under pressure from land barons (a "Bayonet Constitution", one might say), while the Hawaiian document was given freely as an act of benevolence.
The first sentence, known as the "kokokahi" sentence, says this in Hawaiian: "Ua hana mai ke Akua i na lahuikanaka a pau i ke koko hookahi, e noho like lakou ma ka honua nei me ke kuikahi, a me ka pomaikai." In English, it can be translated into modern usage as follows: "God has made of one blood all races of people to dwell on this Earth in unity and blessedness." What a beautiful and eloquently expressed concept!
I have a dream that someday all Hawaii's people will embrace the concept that we are all fully imbued with the Aloha Spirit. See "The Aloha Spirit -- what it is, who possesses it, and why it is important" at
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/big60/AlohaSpirit.html
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[5] I have a dream that all Hawaii's people will embrace the fact that we are Americans.
At the present time this is only a dream. There are numerous groups of secessionists, most of whom are ethnic Hawaiians expressing virulent hatred for the U.S. in general and the U.S. military in particular. See "Hawai'i's Fifth Column: Anti-Americanism in the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement" at
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/antiamerican.html
The secessionists believe that the Hawaiian revolution of 1893 which overthrew the monarchy was illegal. They portray it as an armed invasion by the United States, which then set up a puppet regime and has continued its belligerent military occupation of Hawaii for more than a century. In actuality 162 U.S. peacekeepers came ashore to protect American lives and property and to be ready in case of rioting and arson. The peacekeepers were never actually needed; they never took over any buildings, did not patrol the streets, and did not give any arms, ammunition, or food to the revolutionaries. A majority of the "Committee of Safety" which led the revolution were either native-born or naturalized subjects of the Kingdom, and the rest were long-time local residents with large business investments. The largest national origin represented among the Annexation Club and the Honolulu Rifles was Portuguese, not American.
See "Was the 1893 overthrow of the monarchy illegal? Was it a theft of a nation owned by kanaka maoli and stolen by non-kanaka maoli?" which includes links to the Morgan Report and to a downloadable pdf copy of Thurston Twigg-Smith's book "Hawaiian Sovereignty: Do the Facts Matter?"
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/overthrow.html
See photocopies of letters granting full-fledged diplomatic recognition to the Republic of Hawaii as the rightful successor to the Kingdom of Hawaii. These letters were personally signed in Fall 1894 by Emperors, Kings, Queens, and Presidents of at least 20 nations on four continents, and written in 11 languages. Included among the letters are the letter of abdication and oath of loyalty to the Republic personally signed by ex-queen Lili'uokalani in 1895, notarized and witnessed by all the cabinet ministers she had appointed.
https://www.angelfire.com/big11a/RepublicLettersRecog.html
The secessionists believe that the Annexation of Hawaii to the U.S. in 1898 was illegal, because there was no Treaty of Annexation. See "Was the 1898 annexation illegal?"
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/annexation.html
and
"Treaty of Annexation between the Republic of Hawaii and the United States of America (1898). Full text of the treaty, and of the resolutions whereby the Republic of Hawaii legislature and the U.S. Congress ratified it. The politics surrounding the treaty, then and now"
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/TreatyOfAnnexationHawaiiUS.html
The secessionists believe the Statehood vote of 1959 was illegal, and that Hawaii should be put back on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories awaiting decolonization. See "HAWAII STATEHOOD -- A Brief History of the Struggle to Achieve Statehood, and Current Challenges" at
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/statehoodhistandcurr.html
For a historical overview of the legitimacy of the revolution, annexation, and Statehood vote, see "Hawaii Statehood -- straightening out the history-twisters. A historical narrative defending the legitimacy of the revolution of 1893, the annexation of 1898, and the statehood vote of 1959" at
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/StatehoodHistUntwisted.html
So-called executive agreements between Hawaii Queen Liliuokalani and U.S. President Grover Cleveland -- the new Hawaiian history scam by Keanu Sai
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/SaiExecutiveAgreementsScam.html
"Hawaii Statehood Day 2006 -- Celebration at Old Territorial Capitol Building (Iolani Palace) Disrupted by Hawaiian Ethnic Nationalist Wannabe-Terrorists"
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/statehoodday2006.html
Several groups of militant anti-Americans make a lot of noise demanding secession. But I have a dream that all Hawaii's people will embrace the fact that we are Americans.
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[6] I have a dream that all Hawaii's people will embrace the fact that we have a right to be treated equally under the law by our federal and state governments; and will therefore put aside and repudiate racial entitlement programs.
At the present time this is only a dream.
An agency of the state government, the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, has more than 200,000 acres of land scattered among more than 70 large parcels, set aside for leases for homes and farms where every leaseholder is required to have at least 50% Hawaiian native blood. The land is designated for collective racial ownership forever. If a native Hawaiian leaseholder dies and his spouse has no native blood, the spouse is forced out and the lease is given to someone else on the waiting list who has the required racial blood quantum.
An agency of the state government, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, is authorized by the state Constitution to use government money to sponsor programs that benefit ethnic Hawaiians to the exclusion of others lacking native blood, and to speak on behalf of ethnic Hawaiians (including filing lawsuits) in opposition to government and private entities which are racially integrated. No other ethnic group in Hawaii owns a government agency spending government money for racially exclusionary purposes.
A webpage compiled a list several years ago identifying 856 grants totaling approximately $322,220,808 which are racially exclusionary, "For [ethnic] Hawaiians only." Nearly all of them are funded with federal or state taxpayer dollars.
https://www.angelfire.com/big11a/ForHawaiiansOnly.html
Research done for plaintiffs in the Arakaki2 lawsuit in the Summer of 2002 revealed huge amounts of money being diverted to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) and the Department of Hawaiian Homelands (DHHL), which implements the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. This is money which otherwise could have been spent for public schools or for other public purposes for the benefit of all the people of Hawaii without racial discrimination. See "OHA and DHHL Cost to State of Hawaii Treasury: $1 Billion to Date. Estimate for Next Ten Years: $2 Billion More at the Current Expenditure Rate. See Spreadsheets On This Webpage for Details" at
https://www.angelfire.com/hi5/bigfiles/ohadhhlburdenstatetreasury.html
Office of Hawaiian Affairs -- Watching the Moves It Makes to Expand the Evil Empire (acquiring huge parcels of land, building a headquarters for the "nation", considering purchase of a TV station, etc.). YEARS 2005 THROUGH 2007
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/big60/EvilEmpireOHA2005thru2007.html
Bishop Estate, worth 8-15 Billion dollars, funds schools on several islands which ruthlessly refuse to admit any child lacking a drop of Hawaiian native blood. In one case the school paid hush money of $7 Million to settle a lawsuit demanding school desegregation at the moment when the U.S. Supreme Court was holding its third conference to decide to accept the case for trial. See webpage "Kamehameha School Racially Exclusionary Admission Policy, and Tax-Exempt Status, in View of Rice v. Cayetano" which describes the admissions policy and has subpages tracking lawsuits, news reports, and commentaries during the period from 2000 to 2012, at
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/kamschool.html
The phrase "institutional racism" has been widely used by civil rights advocates for several decades. Hawaii today has by far the most pervasive and intense institutional racism anywhere in the United States. But I have a dream that all Hawaii's people will embrace and celebrate the fact that we have a right to be treated equally under the law by our federal and state governments; and will therefore put aside and repudiate racial entitlement programs.
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[7] I have a dream that all Hawaii's people will put aside and repudiate efforts to create a race-based government and to divide the lands and people of Hawaii along racial lines.
At the present time this is only a dream.
In February 2000 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a 7-2 decision in Rice v. Cayetano, prohibiting the State of Hawaii from continuing to hold racially exclusionary elections for the board of directors of the state government agency Office of Hawaiian Affairs. For 20 years the Hawaii voter registration form had included a question about race and an affidavit of racial heritage required for anyone wanting to vote for OHA trustees; and the pollbooks on election day contained a column where each voter was racially identified as either ethnic Hawaiian or not. Ballots for OHA trustee were given only to people with an X next to their name in the pollbook. The Rice decision included strong language that it demeans the dignity and worth of an individual to be identified by race when exercising the most fundamental right of an individual in a democracy. Language in the decision also made clear that ancestry is a proxy for race in the case of "Native Hawaiians."
Immediately following the Rice decision the racial entitlement empire in Hawaii went into panic mode. They decided that the only way to protect racial entitlements is to declare that "Native Hawaiians" are an Indian tribe, because tribes are allowed to have elections restricted to members and to give money, land, and other benefits to members exclusively. Thus the Akaka bill was born, to provide federal recognition to "Native Hawaiians" as though they are an Indian tribe. From 2000 through 2012 there were numerous different versions of the Akaka bill in Congress. It passed the House of Representatives in three different years, including most recently 2010; but was always blocked by Republican filibusters in the Senate. Senator Inouye used his power as Chairman of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee and later as Chairman of the full Appropriations Committee to use stealth procedures to insert the Akaka bill into military spending bills, or to insert a clause into the Department of Interior appropriations bill authorizing DOI to simply add the name "Native Hawaiian" to the list of federally recognized tribes. All stealth maneuvers were caught and removed.
Beginning in 2011 and continuing through 2013, the state legislature has passed bills officially recognizing "Native Hawaiians" as the only "indigenous people" of Hawaii, and authorizing the creation of a roster of "Native Hawaiians" who can prove their racial heritage and who wish to participate in building a state-recognized tribe. Once that list of names has been assembled and a tribal council has been created, then the state-recognized tribe will seek federal recognition either through a bureaucratic process in the Department of Interior, or through a Presidential Executive Order, or through an Act of Congress. Whether the tribe has federal recognition or only state recognition, it can negotiate with the federal and state governments for land, money, and jurisdictional authority.
There are massive amounts of information about the federal Akaka bill and the state legislation to convert the racial group "Native Hawaiian" into an Indian tribe. Here are a few major webpages which make good starting points to read about these efforts at racial separatism.
"History of the Hawaiian Government Reorganization bill in the 113th Congress (January 2013 through December 2014)." This webpage first reviews the history of the Akaka bill from 2000 to now, providing subpages for each period of time containing full text of the bills, news reports, and commentaries. Hawaii legislation to create a state-recognized tribe is also closely followed from 2010 to now.
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/AkakaHist113thCong.html
Hawaii begins to create a state-recognized tribe. SB1520 passed the legislature on May 3, 2011, and was signed by Governor Abercrombie on July 6, 2011 to become Act 195. Text of the bill and compilation of news reports and commentaries through end of 2012.
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/SB1520StateRecognizedTribe.html
Major Articles Opposing the federal Hawaiian Government Reorganization bill (Akaka bill) and the creation of a state-recognized tribe under Hawaii Act 195 (Session laws of 2011) -- INDEX for years 2000 - 2013 leads to subpages providing full text of each publication.
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/AkakaPublishedOpposition.html
Despite a history of state government support for racial separatism and ongoing zealous efforts to strengthen it, I have a dream that all Hawaii's people will put aside and repudiate efforts to create a race-based government and to divide the lands and people of Hawaii along racial lines.
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[8] I have a dream that someday Caucasian boys and girls who are born and raised in Hawaii will be treated as locals, keiki o ka 'aina, kama'aina; and that malihini and kama'aina Caucasians will no longer be subjected to racial epithets and racial hate crimes.
At the present time this is only a dream.
Caucasians are singled out for racial name-calling and racial hate crimes in Hawaii in roughly the same way as African-Americans are treated on the U.S. mainland. Things seem to be improving in both Hawaii and the mainland. But the word "haole" is often used in Hawaii in the same nasty way as the word "nigger" is used on the mainland. Not all Caucasians object to the word "haole." But when a Caucasian does make an objection, he is often met with a condescending, uninvited lesson explaining that he should not be offended because the word originated when Captain Cook arrived in 1778 and the word was applied to all foreigners regardless of race for several decades. Imagine telling an African-American who gets offended when the word "nigger" is applied to him that he should not feel offended, because the word was used in normal conversation in the 1800s and can be found in many literary classics such as Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn."
Jokes stereotyping ethnic groups are commonplace in Hawaii unlike anywhere else in America; and it's a perfectly acceptable form of humor and joshing among friends both face-to-face and on TV. But Caucasians are routinely singled out for hostile comments not directed toward other groups, such as "fuckin' haole." Online comments to news reports or editorials are often racially abusive to Caucasians in a way commenters are never abusive to other racial groups.
Police, the news media, and local residents generally are extremely reluctant to use the term "racial hate crime" when a Caucasian is the victim. An example was the case of so-called "road rage" that happened in a strip mall parking lot in Waikele (Oahu) in February 2007. Unlike many such incidents that get suppressed, this one got media attention because it was so violent (including the beatdown of a Caucasian mother on the pavement by a Hawaiian man, watched by her small child from inside her car) and especially because it was witnessed by many people. A large webpage provides news reports and published commentaries over a period of many days, along with dozens of online comments by people trying to sweep the incident under the rug or explain why anti-haole sentiment is historically justified.
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/RoadRageVsRacialHateCrime.html
Everyone in Hawaii knows that for many years the last day of school has been known as "Kill Haole Day", not because Caucasian kids have actually been killed, but because aggressive harassment and sometimes actual physical attacks on Caucasian children are expected and regarded as "normal" on that day. Nobody would ever dream of having a "Kill Hawaiian" or "Kill Jap" day, but somehow it's OK to single out Caucasians for this sort of treatment.
One mother of a Caucasian high school girl got fed up when the girl was repeatedly harassed and assaulted at school and school officials did nothing to protect her or punish the offenders. She filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education, and also contacted the Southern Poverty Law Center asking them to investigate and publish a report. SPLC is a far-left organization that normally focuses on racial hate crimes against African Americans and Jews committed by Ku Klux Klan or neo-Nazi skinheads. But SPLC spent some time investigating anti-Caucasian hate crime in Hawaii and published an article about it in its quarterly "Intelligence Report." It was the first time SPLC reported on racial hate crimes against Caucasians. The report drew considerable anger from leftists who think Caucasians should never be identified as victims of hate crime. Hawaiian activists were especially outraged, because they consider victimhood and grievance to be their claim to fame and reparations. How dare the Caucasians steal the limelight! The entire SPLC article, and local reactions to it, are at
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/RacialHateCrimesHawSPLC.html
Perhaps because of its leftist readership, SPLC felt compelled to accompany its report with another article which provided a blame-the-victim excuse for racial violence against Caucasians. It's comparable to saying a woman got raped because she wore a short skirt on the street late at night. SPLC noted that the historic roots of hatred against Caucasians in Hawaii go back to the 19th Century when Caucasians owned the sugar plantations and sometimes abused Hawaiian and Asian laborers both physically and economically. It goes back to the revolution of 1893 when a native Hawaiian Queen was overthrown by an armed militia of local men, all of whose leaders and most of whose members were Caucasians. Physical and economic abuses by Caucasians continued during the Territorial period, as shown most outrageously by the Massie Case of 1931-32 (Hawaii's version of the Emmett Till case in Mississippi, 1955). Whenever a hate crime committed today by a Hawaiian against a Caucasian comes to attention, Hawaiian activists like to remind everyone about the 80-year-old Massie case as though to say it's OK, we're just getting even. SPLC would never tolerate this sort of blame-the-victim excusing of violence against blacks, Jews, or homosexuals.
The plantations have faded away. Caucasians are a minority in Hawaii along with all ethnic groups, and are not the top group economically; but are vilified nevertheless. Ethnic Japanese have higher average income and life expectancy than Caucasians; and Japanese are characterized as running the state government bureaucracy, the school system, the banks, etc. Yet the wrath of Hawaiians is directed against Caucasians, not Japanese. Filipinos are the fastest-growing group in Hawaii due to rapid immigration; yet it is Caucasian immigration from the mainland which Hawaiians object to most strenuously. Ethnic Hawaiians in Hawaii have higher life expectancy and higher average income than Tongans in Tonga, native Fijians in Fiji, or Samoans in Samoa; but still the Hawaiians complain they are not at the top in Hawaii. And they blame it on the fuckin' haoles.
A book published by the University of Hawaii Press in 2008 was entitled "Asian Settler Colonialism." Alternate chapters are written by ethnic Hawaiian sovereignty activists and their ethnic Asian supporters (the Hawaiian chapters always come first in each pair, of course). The thrust of the book is that Asians in Hawaii have a moral obligation to help Hawaiians throw off the yoke of American imperialism and haole domination. Asians who fail to subordinate themselves to Hawaiians or who fail to enlist in the struggle for Hawaiian liberation are accessories and collaborators with the haoles in oppressing the Hawaiians. See a major book review with lengthy quotes and criticism, at
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/AsianSettlerColonialism.html
One ethnic Hawaiian who never hesitated to show her racial hatred against haoles was University of Hawaii Professor Haunani-Kay Trask. She was a full professor and chair of the Center for Hawaiian Studies but is now retired and no longer spewing hatred publicly. Nearly everyone says her views are extreme, and most sovereignty activists publicly disavow her. But privately she is applauded by both the racial separatists and the ethnic nationalists. The simple truth is that the views Professor Trask espouses so vehemently are the same views held quietly by nearly all sovereignty activists of both varieties. Most of the activists exercise restraint in their rhetoric either because they lack Professor Trask's courage or because they exercise careful prudence in public relations to preserve the image of Hawaiians as peaceful, welcoming, and filled with aloha. Many sovereignty activists, especially those seeking racial separatism inside the U.S. in a tribal model, say in public that they disagree with Trask. But in reality what they disagree with is Trask's honesty, aggressiveness, and publicly expressed anger.
When undergraduate student Joey Carter wrote an essay in the student newspaper objecting to the label "haole", Trask wrote a lengthy racist rant in reply letting him know he is indeed a haole. She is also noted for the racism of her essays in her book "From a Native Daughter" and for her sentiment "I could kick Your face, puncture Both eyes ... Just a knife Slitting your tight Little heart...." directed against a white woman in a poem in her book "Light in the Crevice Never Seen." Links to full text of Trask's exchange with Joey Carter, her poem "Racist White Woman" and others are at
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/trask.html
Included in that webpage is a complete transcript and explanation of a speech she gave at Iolani Palace on September 2, 2002. Here are some excerpts from that astonishing hate-filled speech [cover your children's eyes and ears!]:
"Don't let anybody tell you not to be angry. We have every right to be angry. ... because this is OUR country, and they took our government and imprisoned our queen -- right here she was imprisoned in her palace. And they banned our language. And then they forcibly made us a state of the racist, colonialist United States of colonial America. Do you have a right to be angry? Of course you do. ... Never, never forget your own history. We don't need to know what the haole is telling us. What we need to know is what really happened to our people. Who brought the disease? Who created private property? Who overthrew our queen? You won't find any Hawaiians there. There were FOREIGNERS who overthrew our queen. There were FOREIGNERS who made us a state. And they are still FOREIGNERS today. ...This is OUR country Hawaiians. ... Why are WE, as native people, subjugated in our own land? ... All you Hawaiians who think the United States is good think again. ...These are your ENEMIES Hawaiians, your ENEMIES. ... If this is your country then BEHAVE like it's your country. You tell those racist haoles "You're a racist haole." That's the word we need to use. RACIST! ..."
Despite the vicious racial hatred by ethnic Hawaiian radicals against Caucasians, I have a dream that someday Caucasian boys and girls who are born and raised in Hawaii will be treated as locals, keiki o ka 'aina, kama'aina; and that malihini and kama'aina Caucasians will no longer be subjected to racial epithets and racial hate crimes.
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[9] Text of Dr. King's speech to the legislature on September 17, 1959, along with photos including his use of leis at the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march, can be seen at
http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/5008/1959-Martin-Luther-King-Jr-Salutes-Hawaii-Statehood.aspx
[10] "Coretta Scott King warmly remembered in Islands", Honolulu Advertiser, Wednesday, February 1, 2006
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Feb/01/ln/FP602010342.html
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