Hawaiian Culture Celebration of Mourning?
By: Charles Fredricks and E. Moanake'ala Akaka
Point: It's not statehood that
causes many Hawaiian people to suffer as "have nots," it's
stupidity. Not knowing something is ignorance; not wanting to know (how
to do MOST things or how the rest of the world lives, etc.) is stupidity,
and it has been a very harmful attitude for some in our subculture here
to embrace. Traditionally, Hawaiians were very interested in learning
about how other people do things. They were curious, respectful of things
which were useful, carefully educated (even before written language
was introduced), and a hardworking people. These traditions are ebbing
away among some here; it's tragic, especially for our children. Only
the stupid are proud of their ignorance and make it a part of their
cultural identity.
Many of the worst of people here do not value education or hard work
of any kind and therefore do not do well in school, which starts a chain
reaction going for the rest of their lives. They are inarticulate in
both thought and word, speaking neither Hawaiian nor English well, but
instead fumbling along in the "plantation speak" of pidgin
as their only language. There's nothing wrong with speaking pidgin as
a second or third language, but it closes the doors of opportunity and
the rest of the world to our generations when pidgin is all they can
speak. We cannot force a good quality of life on a people; we can only
offer opportunities.
The only "job" a person should have for the first 20+ years
of life is to become socialized and educated. When they are instead
lied to and made to believe that the only way to be a "real Hawaiian"
in the modern world is to be stupid, violent, and lazy, that anything
else is just "acting white," then they join the ranks of other
small subcultures around the world who have made the same choices and
also continue to do very poorly in life. Anyone from any culture who
gets a good education has the world at their feet; it has nothing to
do with race, and everything to do with subculture.
Wake up! Become powerful in your minds. Learn to be able to do ANYTHING
you want to, not just how to wait on tourists or sweat in the fields
(or worse). It's a racist's wet dream to see a nonwhite people hold
themselves down, and wrongly blame the past or others for their fate.
There's no need to oppress a people who are so keen on oppressing themselves.
Embrace the older tradition of hard work and expansive education! No
one who does this stays poor.
Charles Fredericks, Hilo
Counterpoint
I have difficulty relating to Mr. Fredericks, who has responded to my
letter about some of the negative aspects statehood has brought to these
Hawaiian Islands ("Statehood: Celebration or Mourning?" -HIJ,
03/24). He callously refers to some Hawaiian "have-nots" as
stupid and proud of their ignorance, which, he claims, they see as part
of their cultural identity. He accuses many of being "inarticulate
in both thought and word, speaking neither Hawaiian nor English well."
Yet this writer doesn't bother to mention (and perhaps doesn't know)
that after the overthrow of our Queen and the Hawaiian Nation in 1893,
our language was torn from our tongues-made illegal to speak here in
our motherland of over a thousand years!
I am 63 years old; when I was growing up in Honolulu there were Japanese
and Chinese language classes offered after school, but never Hawaiian.
It was only after a handful of us initiated the movement for justice
for the Kanaka-Maoli almost 40 years ago at Kalama Valley, O'ahu, that
a Hawaiian renaissance of language, culture and pride began to surface.
Previously, for generations, precious few Hawaiians, in semi-secrecy,
carried on their rich traditions.
We Kanaka-Maoli were made to feel ashamed of our Hawaiian-ness. The
more western, the more haolefied in mannerism, the more fair-skinned
we were, the more acceptable to the conquering status-quo that had taken
over Hawai'i. In short, Hawai'i was colonized!
In Mr. Fredrick's essay we have a prime example of the simpleminded
attempt to sweep history under the usurper's rug: Work hard, study hard
and play by the rules and you cannot fail. Excellent rules to live by,
but this neo-Horatio Alger nonsense in this age of Enron and CEO grand
larceny defies the reality we live in.
Reminds me of the 100 percent Hawaiian rancher from Pu'uanahulu swept
off his family land of generations by a mainland patriotic plutocrat
with arms industry wealth and a track record of illegally clear-cutting
a koa forest on state land and building a landing strip for his plane,
equally illegally. His legalized treachery enabled him to transfer the
ranch into an upscale gated community with airs of colonial Virginia.
Work hard, they say, work a little harder and suck it up! Might as well
say God wants me to be rich and you poor. Born on the fourth of July,
I sometimes wonder if the ideals that America has come to symbolize
to the world are not more important than the America we live in. America
should follow Hawaiian values-not vice-versa.
The good thing about this exchange of ideas is that it opens the door
to the ongoing discussion of how things got the way they are and most
importantly: Where do we go from here? In the meantime, we Hawaiians
are supposed to suck it up? I don't think so! As my Russian father-in-law
used to say, "We wuzzent made with a finger!"
Ua mau ke ea o ka 'aina i ka pono. (The life of the land is perpetuated
in righteousness.)
E. Moanike'ala Akaka, Hilo
Dr. Fredricks is a retired university professor and educational consultant
specializing in social and moral values; Ms. Akaka served as an OHA
trustee 1984-96.
Point/Counterpoint is a new feature that lets readers express opposing viewpoints on specific issues. We will run P/CP occasionally and welcome your input. E-mail the editor with queries: editor@hawaiiislandjournal.com
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