Dr. King's legacy misrepresented

David Rosen has a letter in the Advertiser today in response to David's Shapiro's column about what he called Rosen's "cheap shot" in a letter regarding the joint commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the Hawaiian 'overthrow' anniversary.

What Rosen fails or refuses to recognize, first, is that Hawaii's independence is about a country and its nationality, not about race. The Hawaiian Kingdom was/is a racially inclusive country with nationals of many backgrounds enjoying equal rights and protections, and that is what those of us who support independence seek to restore. They were far ahead of the United States in this regard (at least until the white annexationists forced a constitution on Kalakaua under threat of bodily harm in 1887 that enacted Jim Crow style laws that disenfranchised much of the Native Hawaiian population, and then the post-intervention oligarchy calling itself the Republic of Hawaii excluded Hawaiian nationals of Asian races from voting while allowing non-nationals of European races to vote.) It is Hawaii's congressional delegation in Washington, not the independence movement, that could be said to be pushing a "separatist" agenda based on ethnicity with their goal to subvert the international rights of the Hawaiian Kingdom under "federal recognition" of domestic law of native nations, which Hawaii is not.

Second, later in his life Dr. King took a strong stand against colonialism, imperialism and militarism. Folks who support the occupation of Hawaii would like to conveniently ignore this, but it is this as much as his message on race that has relevance and parallel in Hawaii.

Rosen states flatly that "Native Hawaiians have never been the subject of governmental or societal discrimination." Well, this is so patently ridiculous that it scarcely needs rebuttal. But since he makes this an absolute categorical statement, that Hawaiians were never subject to discrimination, it takes only one example to disprove him and demonstrate that he doesn't know WTF he's talking about. Let's just pick one. Okay, in 1994 Bank of America was forced by its regulator the ~~Office of Comptroller of the Currency~~ Office of Thrift Supervision to make a $150 million commitment to lending on Hawaiian homelands because of discriminatory practices with regard to its mortgage lending to Native Hawaiians and in Native Hawaiian communities. Bank of America was essentially redlining Hawaiian homeland communities and denying loans solely based on the race of the applicants. This is part of a much larger pattern of institutional economic discrimination against Hawaiians, but in this case it was proven (with the help of some dedicated folks here). So, with just one example we can demonstrate that Rosen is just plain wrong when he says "Native Hawaiians have never been the subject of ... societal discrimination."

Rosen also makes a statement about an article from the LA Times in which, Rosen says, "a Marine was quoted as articulating an apparently prevalent sentiment among Hawai'i-based military personnel and their dependents that '[w]e're just not wanted [in Hawai'i] ... I can't wait to leave.'" I hadn't seen this article before and it is an interesting read that I encourage folks to take a look at, and I'll post some thoughts separately on it if I get a chance, but what I notice is that the sentiment expressed which Rosen cites, when read in the context of the article, is clearly due to the fact that they are military personnel, and has nothing to do with race. And while the article does talk about native land claims and resistance among Native Hawaiian groups such as in Makua valley, it also talks about environmental and peace groups. Rosen takes one quotation out of context and tries to use it to make his point about race, but actually it has nothing to do with his point and only demonstrates how widespread resistance to U.S. occupation is in Hawaii. So I guess I should thank him at least for bringing that to our attention!

Posted: Tue - February 15, 2005 at 11:24 AM

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Dr. King's legacy misrepresented

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