Let's try a thought experiment to expand our understanding of the concept of race in the Akaka bill. Let's think about a time a few decades from now when Caucasians have become a downtrodden minority of America's population. Caucasians are outvoted by a majority coalition of Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asians; and they are also targeted for racial hate crimes by misguided individuals seeking retribution for historical grievances of slavery, cultural oppression, and economic exploitation.
To give Caucasians a measure of protection and self-determination, Congress passes the Caucasian Government Reorganization Act of 2040 to create a Caucasian Governing Entity and to establish a U.S. Office of Caucasian Affairs. The job of the OCA will be to oversee federal handouts for Caucasians and coordinate Caucasian racial entitlement programs among various federal departments and state governments.
As we'll see, the elderly former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle will be eligible for membership in the Caucasian Governing Entity because they are Caucasians. Everyone knows that Barack's mother was Caucasian, so Barack has 50% Caucasian blood and is eligible for a 99 year lease at one dollar per year on a Caucasian homestead. Recently it was discovered that Michelle's great-great-great grandfather was Caucasian, thus making her eligible for all other Caucasian entitlement programs.
Hawaii has more than a century of experience with government and private racial entitlement programs for ethnic Hawaiians. That experience will serve as legal precedent and moral inspiration for racial entitlements for Caucasians.
In the 1880s the largest private landowner in Hawaii was Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, whose bequeathed approximately 10% of all the lands in Hawaii to establish Kamehameha Schools. Although her will does not restrict admission solely to ethnic Hawaiians, a provision in her will set aside a portion of each year's estate income to ensure that orphans and indigents would be admitted to the schools; and among the orphans and indigents, those with native blood were to be given a preference. But today that racial preference among orphans and indigents has turned into a policy of the trustees to exclude all children lacking native blood so long as there are any children seeking admission who do have a drop of native blood, regardless whether they are orphans or indigents. An en banc panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 8-7 to uphold Kamehameha's de-facto racially exclusionary admissions policy on the theory that ethnic Hawaiians are a disadvantaged minority in need of affirmative action. That theory can be used in the future to provide legal justification for affirmative action programs to benefit Caucasians when the time comes that they are a disadvantaged minority. (In Hawaii, for example, Census data show that Caucasians are already a minority and are on the path toward becoming disadvantaged as we'll see below.)
In 1921 Congress passed the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act setting aside 203,500 acres of land exclusively for the benefit of native Hawaiians with at least 50% Hawaiian blood. The idea was to rehabilitate a "dying race" by providing land leases for 99 years at a price of $1 per year for homes and farms. Perhaps America in the future will enact a similar Caucasian Homes Commission Act.
In the 1970s and 1980s the first few federally funded racial entitlement programs for "Native Hawaiians" were enacted by Congress for the benefit of anyone with as little as one drop of native blood, such as Alu Like (vocational training) and Papa Ola Lokahi (healthcare). Two branches of the State of Hawaii government were established for exclusive benefit of ethnic Hawaiians -- Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and Department of Hawaiian Homelands. There is also a state government Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission to manage that island until such time as the Akaka tribe achieves federal recognition, when state law requires that the island be turned over to that tribe. Also, according to OHA, there are more than 160 federally funded programs exclusively for ethnic Hawaiians, following the style of the first few from the 1970s and 1980s. So in the future, the example of racial entitlements for ethnic Hawaiians might be used as inspiration and justification for racial entitlements for a declining minority of Caucasians throughout the United States.
Is the Caucasian population of America headed for minority status? In the Census of 1930 and 1940, 90% of the population of the United States was Caucasian. By the Census of 2000 that figure had fallen to 75% due to immigration (both legal and illegal) and comparatively low birth rates among Caucasians. Some demographers predict that by 2040 or 2050 non-Hispanic Caucasians will become a minority of the U.S. population. Entrepreneurs getting wealthy by providing "diversity training" for corporate employees are fond of citing such projections.
In Hawaii Caucasians have always been a minority, from the time Captain Cook arrived in 1778 until today. For about a century, from the 1850s to the 1950s, Caucasian residents of Hawaii had the highest average income, longest life expectancy, and greatest political power among all racial groups. But already by Census 2000 the descendants of former Japanese plantation laborers had become so successful that they had established economic and political dominance in Hawaii, and had the longest life expectancy among all ethnic groups. In 1999 (the base period for the 2000 decennial Census) ethnic Japanese median household income in Hawaii was $56,528, family income was $69,214, and per capita income was $24,124; compared with Caucasian medians of $48,210, $55,543, and $23,285 respectively. See
http://tinyurl.com/ylffznr
The 3-year cumulative American Community Survey for Hawaii for 2005-2007 shows the Asian population had reached 713,000 while the Caucasian population was only 532,000 (both according to the "one drop" rule).
http://tinyurl.com/yg4yxnb
Perhaps a rising coalition of Blacks and Hispanics will replace Caucasians as the dominant group on the mainland for demographic, economic, and political power, as Asians have replaced Caucasians in Hawaii.
The decline of Caucasian economic and political power in Hawaii has been accompanied by rising levels of racial hate crime by ethnic Hawaiians against Caucasians, as illustrated by an article in the Fall 2009 "Intelligence Report" published by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
http://tinyurl.com/kkpf74
A member of the Hawaii Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights demanded that the issue of anti-Caucasian racial hate crime be placed on the agenda of projects for the committee's attention in the coming year.
http://tinyurl.com/nafl26
But the non-Caucasian majority on the committee defeated that proposal. Instead the committee decided to investigate the alleged disproportionate representation among incarcerated people by the traditionally favorite victim groups of ethnic Hawaiians and women.
The declining economic and political power of Caucasians in Hawaii, and increasing levels of racial violence directed at them, foreshadows what seems destined to happen in the rest of America. It's easy to imagine that by the year 2040 or 2050 Caucasians have become a downtrodden minority throughout America.
The U.S. might then enact a Caucasian Government Reorganization bill to create a Caucasian Governing Entity and to establish a U.S. Office of Caucasian Affairs whose job will be to oversee federal handouts for Caucasians and coordinate among various federal departments and state governments. Perhaps several thousand protected Caucasian Homelands will be established throughout America, comparable to the several dozen Hawaiian Homelands and with a similar restriction to 50% blood quantum.
Under the Caucasian Government Reorganization Act of 2040, the elderly former President Barack Obama will be eligible for a 99-year lease on the Caucasian Homelands at a lease rent of one dollar per year. He qualifies on account of the fact that his mother was Caucasian and therefore Barack Obama has the required 50% Caucasian blood quantum. Actually, if the Caucasian Government Reorganization Act uses the same concepts as the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, anyone with at least 50% Caucasian ancestry anywhere in the world would be eligible to claim a Caucasian homeland lease for a dollar per year for 99 years regardless of his/her citizenship or nation of residence, even if neither that individual nor any of his/her living ancestors had ever stepped foot in America.
In addition to Barack Obama's eligibility for a Caucasian homestead, he and his wife Michelle, and their two daughters Sasha and Malia, and the daughters' children and grandchildren down through the generations forever, will be eligible for the multitude of government handouts for Caucasians (defined as anyone with at least one drop of Caucasian blood). Michelle's mother has 1/16 Caucasian blood and Michelle has 1/32.
One of Michelle's great-great-great-grandfathers was a Caucasian (He was also a great-great grandfather of Michelle's mother). The New York Times on October 8, 2009 published details of careful research into Michelle Obama's genealogy
http://tinyurl.com/ylqm9ub
including an interactive family tree with mouse-over information about each known member through six generations:
http://tinyurl.com/yac3boj
Barack and Michelle's daughters Malia and Sasha have 17/64 Caucasian blood, so neither of them qualify for a homestead lease in their own right because that requires 50% Caucasian blood quantum. However, either Malia or Sasha would be eligible to inherit Barack's homestead lease, since the right to inherit requires only 25% quantum.
If the Caucasian Government Reorganization bill uses the same concepts as the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization bill, anyone with a single drop of Caucasian blood anywhere in the world would be eligible to claim voting rights and all government and private benefits provided by the Caucasian Governing Entity, even if neither that individual nor any of his/her living ancestors had ever stepped foot in the United States, and regardless whether they "look" Caucasian or have Caucasian cultural affiliation.
Of course it is true that there has never been a U.S. government exclusively of, by, and for Caucasians; just as there has never been a government of a unified nation of Hawaii encompassing all the islands which was composed entirely of ethnic Hawaiians. But if it's OK for Congress to create a racially exclusive Native Hawaiian government in a place where there never was such a thing, and to invite all people throughout the world with a drop of Hawaiian blood to join it on Hawaiian soil; then it also must be OK to create a racially exclusive Caucasian government and to invite all people in the world with a drop of Caucasian blood to join it on American soil.
America is indeed the land of opportunity.
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