Hawaii exceptionalism

In Real Clear Politics, Peter Brown writes an opinion piece (also syndicated on yahoo) entitled "The Disconnect Between Hawaii & America" which begins thusly:

Americans who visit Hawaii often feel they are in a foreign country, and if those tourists cared about the island's politics that might make them even more likely to wonder if they really are in the United States.

He writes from a conservative perspective about "Hawaii exceptionalism" based on its demographics, cultural differences, and physical isolation, exemplified by Kamehameha Schools' admission policy, the (struck down) banning of non-resident hiring, and "a growing movement to set up a native Hawaiian government that would seek billions of dollars in state assets."

Regarding the former, he says:

Supporters claim that because no tax money is involved discrimination is permissible, although federal courts decades long ago dismissed that same argument in Dixie by segregation academies.

The thing that Brown, like so many, doesn't seem to get is that, far from being segregationist, Kamehameha Schools does not exclude any race, and has one of if not the most integrated and diverse of student bodies of any private school in the country!

Bolstering his thesis of Hawaii's exceptionalism, though, is today's Advertiser poll showing 79% of the population "generally supports" this admissions policy. What is so hard for outsiders to grasp is actually widely agreed upon and commonly accepted here. What they are so fearful of being so divisive and dangerous has unified support by those who actually live here.

Re the hiring law, I didn't really think about it in this context before, but he says that "Hawaii Attorney General Mark Bennett will appeal to sustain the law, which was enacted to discourage immigrants, but would seem based on a belief this state is a separate entity, rather than one of 50." Interesting.

He concludes, referring to the "drive to create a separate government":

Since Congress refused to give native Hawaiians that status earlier this year, a movement with substantial political clout has surfaced to have a referendum create a separate nation for native Hawaiians.

The goal is an entity that would be unique in the United States to represent native Hawaiians that could negotiate with a friendly state government for billions of dollars in assets.

In this unusual political incubator it can't be dismissed as it would be elsewhere in the USA.

Like so many others, he completely misses the dynamic between this and the effort to restore racially inclusive national independence, but that fact that both of these efforts exist openly and with substantial support here in the islands does indeed stem from our exceptionalism, which is not just cultural/demographic/geographic, but also political/legal. Americans who visit Hawaii have very good reason to feel they are in a foreign country. As a matter of fact, they are.

Posted: Tue - July 4, 2006 at 04:14 PM

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Hawaii exceptionalism

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