Kamehameha Schools does admit all races


An article in today's Star-Bulletin about various issues surrounding the admission of a non-Hawaiian student to Kamehameha Schools. Governor Lingle makes an interesting point:

"If you look at the ethnic makeup of the kids at Kamehameha School, they are every ethnic background in the book," she said. "I think the issue of civil rights is a red herring. It's not an issue in any case because every ethnic group is going through Kamehameha."

This is one of the interesting aspects of racial dynamics. If you have only one grandparent who is Hawaiian, you are considered Hawaiian. If you have only one grandparent who is anything but white, enough to show up in your appearance, you are not considered white. What this says to me (as a 100% white person) is that whiteness is almost considered like a recessive gene! It is a weird double standard. Of course there are disputes between light-skinned and dark-skinned blacks, and even among Hawaiians with 50%+ blood quantum and those with less (those created by divisive policies imposed by the U.S.), but no one disputes that even those will less are still Hawaiian.

Anyway, back to Kamehameha Schools, it is an interesting fact that they are different from a school or club that would admit only whites (as in pure whites), in that they don't exclude any race and do admit people of all races, including people of European, Asian, African and other heritages, they just require Hawaiian be in there somewhere, even a tiny fraction, because that was supposedly the will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop who founded the school. (Whether her will actually says that is another issue I'll raise at in a later post).

This is a good perspective to keep in mind.

The rest of the article has some other interesting points on the issue, including regarding the traditional practice of hanai, or adoption in Hawaiian.

Posted: Sun - August 24, 2003 at 08:26 PM    
   
 
Categories
XML/RSS Feed
Search
World Court Case DVD
Larsen Case on DVD
Larsen DVD
Larsen v. Hawaiian Kingdom at the
Permanent Court of Arbitration
The Hague, 2001
DVD Mini-Documentary & Booklet
Order your copy
FREE HAWAII STICKERS
Free Hawaii
Over at the Free Hawaii blog, Koani Foundation is giving away "Free Hawaii" stickers and pins, and will post photos of them displayed in interesting places. Spread them far and wide!
HAWAII DOCUMENTS
HAWAII LINKS
HAWAII BLOGROLL
HAWAII FORUMS
HAWAII PODCASTING
PROGRESSIVE BLOGROLL
TV Worth Watching
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
The Colbert Report
NOW with David Brancaccio
Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry
Real Time with Bill Maher
Washington Journal on C-Span
PBN Friday with Howard Dicus
Portfolio
Archives
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
Browse archives by date
CURRENT IMAGE
Support Organ Donation
DONATE LIFE
Comments powered by
Weblog Commenting by HaloScan.com
TECHNORATI
SUPPORT THIS BLOG
If you find this weblog valuable, please consider making a secure donation via PayPal to support its ongoing maintenance:

Mahalo!
Or contact me about sponsoring this blog in exchange for space in the Sponsored Links area above.
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Dec 27, 2005 10:14 PM
Powered by
iBlog


©