by
Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D.
; April 23, 2016
THE GOEBBELS OF APRIL 23, 2016 IS HEREBY AWARDED JOINTLY TO DIRECTOR OF HAWAIIAN STUDIES DAWN KAU'ILANI SANG, SUPERINTENDENT KATHRYN MATAYOSHI, AND THE HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
for refusing to correct a scurrilous falsehood on their website and in their curriculum despite being provided with massive irrefutable proof that it is false. Propagating the lie causes great harm because its primary effect is to arouse resentment and racial hatred over a grievance which never happened. The lie is that "After the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893, teaching and learning through the medium of Hawaiian was banned in 1896" and furthermore "After the language was banned in 1896, it would not be heard in schools for four generations."
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WHAT IS THE GOEBBELS AWARD?
The Goebbels is an award especially for mainstream news media and powerful institutions in Hawaii. Some big celebrities have a single name, like Madonna. Media awards often have a single name, like the Oscar, the Emmy, the Grammy, and the Pulitzer.
The Goebbels is named in (dis)honor of Joseph Goebbels, who was propaganda minister for Adolph Hitler. He was known for using the media to tell small lies repeatedly until people came to believe them; and for telling big lies that were so outrageous, with such authoritativeness, that nobody dared to challenge them. The lies told by Goebbels, presented as facts, usually concerned governmental policy and often were directed in favor or disfavor of selected racial groups. Thus his name is especially appropriate for use in Hawaii.
The icon for the Goebbels is, appropriately, a pile of steaming crap.
The inaugural Goebbels
http://bigfiles90.angelfire.com/GoebbelsAwardHonStarBull042308.html
was awarded in 2008 to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin for a feature article falsely stating that
"President Grover Cleveland signed a proclamation in 1894 that set April 30th as a day of prayer and remembrance for Queen Liliuokalani and the overthrown monarchy of Hawaii."
The article was accompanied by photos of ethnic Hawaiian activists praying at the Royal Mausoleum chapel ahead of a highly publicized 5,000-mile trip to lay flowers on the tomb of Grover Cleveland. Emails were sent to 9 reporters and editors at the newspaper demanding that a correction be published. The emails contained proof that President Cleveland never issued such a proclamation, and that the alleged proclamation was not in a news report but was in fact a sarcastic editorial against Cleveland (a Democrat) in a New York Republican-oriented newspaper in 1894. But the Star-Bulletin people ignored the evidence and the demand for correction. The legislature later passed a resolution establishing April 30 as a permanent Hawaiian Restoration Day state holiday, relying on lies told by Hawaiian activists who requested the resolution and despite written testimony containing the same proof given to the Star-Bulletin.
WHY THIS NEW GOEBBELS IS BEING AWARDED ON APRIL 23, 2016
On this occasion, April 23, 2016, the Goebbels is being awarded in honor of the 172nd birthday of Hawaii President Sanford B. Dole, who signed the law in 1896 which is the focus of the lies on the DOE webpage -- the law which the Department of Education website falsely says banned Hawaiian language from Hawaii's schools and caused Hawaiian language to never be heard again for the next four generations. A short biography is on a webpage "Sanford Ballard Dole -- Elected Legislator and Appointed Supreme Court Justice of the Kingdom of Hawaii; President of the Provisional Government and of the Republic of Hawaii; Governor of the Territory of Hawaii, and Presiding Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Territory of Hawaii." at
http://tinyurl.com/6pymj
The law established the requirement that English must be the language of instruction in all the schools which the government would certify as satisfying the requirement that children must attend school, and was primarily directed at the private schools on the sugar plantations where thousands of children the government expected would grow up as American citizens were being educated entirely through Japanese language. But the law had no effect on using Hawaiian or Japanese as the language of instruction in after-school and weekend academies, and there is proof that Hawaiian language courses were taught in both government and private schools throughout the Territorial period.
THE GOEBBELS OF APRIL 23, 2016 IS HEREBY AWARDED JOINTLY TO DIRECTOR OF HAWAIIAN STUDIES DAWN KAU'ILANI SANG, SUPERINTENDENT KATHRYN MATAYOSHI, AND THE HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
for refusing to correct a scurrilous falsehood on their website and in their curriculum despite being provided with massive irrefutable proof that it is false.
Propagating the lie causes great harm because its primary effect is to arouse resentment and racial hatred over a grievance which never happened.
HERE IS THE OFFENDING WEBPAGE:
http://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/TeachingAndLearning/StudentLearning/HawaiianEducation/Pages/History-of-the-Hawaiian-Education-program.aspx
HERE ARE THE THREE PLACES WHERE THE WEBPAGE MAKES FALSE STATEMENTS ALLEGING A BAN ON HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE:
(1) The second sentence of the top (header) paragraph says "After the language was banned in 1896, it would not be heard in schools for four generations." But the language was never banned, and it did continue to be heard in the schools throughout the Territorial period, as I proved.
(2) In the main body of the webpage, the second paragraph next to the picture of Kauikeaouli includes this sentence: "After the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893, teaching and learning through the medium of Hawaiian was banned in 1896." But as proved in the emails to Director Sang and Superintendent Matayoshi, teaching and learning through the medium of Hawaiian was never banned; the law of 1896 only established English as the language of instruction in schools (government and private) which could be certified as meeting the compulsory schooling law, but the law did not single out Hawaiian at all; it explicitly allowed for the teaching of other languages than English as language courses in the day schools; it did not in any way interfere with after-school and weekend academies where Hawaiian, Japanese, etc. could be used as the medium of instruction for all subjects; its primary purpose was to ensure that the private plantation weekday schools for the children of Asian laborers must use English rather than Japanese as the language of instruction; and it had almost no effect on the Hawaiian kids, nearly all of whom were already attending government schools where English was the language of instruction in 95% of all the government schools by 1892 when Lili'uokalani was Queen (the year before the monarchy was overthrown).
(3) The timeline says
"1896 Hawaiian Language banned as medium of instruction in the public education system"
But that's incorrect because: the 1896 law applied to all schools both public and private which were allowed to be certified as meeting the requirements of the compulsory school attendance law; it did not ban Hawaiian language from being used as the medium of instruction in after-school or weekend academies; and it did not ban courses teaching Hawaiian language as the subject matter.
DOCUMENTATION
A webpage provides full text of the 1896 law, and a massive amount of indisputable proof that Hawaiian language was never banned from the schools and was in fact often heard in schools throughout the Territorial period. The website also provides a quote published in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser stating the falsehood that Hawaiian language had been banned; a request that a correction should be published; the reporter's email reply citing the Department of Education webpage as his authority; full text of a series of emails to Director of Hawaiian Studies Dawn Kau'ilani Sang and Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi providing the massive amount of indisputable proof that the DOE webpage statements are false; and the letter from Superintendent Matayoshi refusing to make any correction.
This webpage is "Holding the State of Hawaii Department of Education accountable for propagating the lie that Hawaiian language was banned" at
https://www.angelfire.com/big11a/DOEHawnLangBan.html
Matayoshi wrote "... the information provided on our website is accurate and generally accepted in public policy and scholarship." In other words: the lie has been repeated so often by so many in the Hawaiian grievance industry that it is now accepted as true and we are going to continue teaching it to the kids and allowing news media to cite our website as authority for it. That's exactly how Hitler's propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels operated. That's why the Goebbels is appropriate to award jointly to Director of Hawaiian Studies Dawn Kau'ilani Sang, Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi, and the Hawaii Department of Education.
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