--The White House argued Native Hawaiians cannot be compared with other indigenous peoples, given the "substantial historical and cultural differences."--

Is there someone in the White House who believes this is actually a valid argument? To say the kanaka maoli cannot be compared to the natives of the North American continent based on a difference of history and culture is asinine. It is true, the cultures are different from the Inuit and the native American Tribes because they are a different people. It is true, their histories are different because again they are a different people. However what does a difference in history and culture has nothing to do with the FACT that the kanaka maoli are indigenous to Hawai`i. They were not brought there by other people. They were not introduced. They are not invasive. They made their way there just as all the other indigenous plants and animal life did by crossing the ocean and blowing on the winds. To believe in this argument seems to support the notion that no other native population can be considered indigenous, if their histories and cultures are not identical to the Inuit and native American Tribes. Given this statement I am very curious to learn what the White House's definition of an indigenous people is and what would validate a legitimate comparison.

dan

I have something radical to say, but I have an explanation for my opinion that may be useful to anyone that reads this. Please keep an open mind and just hear me out. If someone thinks I’m wrong, please don’t get mad, just keep talking so that we can all grow together.

I think the Akaka Bill is racist – and I’m a Hawaiian and I’m pretty damn sure I want that bill to go through (after thinking and debating about this thing for what seems like forever now), although at times I still have my doubts.
First – this is why I think it’s racist. So – we’re going to set up this government, right? A government is considered the “state” for a nation. Under international human rights law – and under the natural law that all good people know – people have a right to choose their nationality. A state further has a right to say some people are considered treasonous and have them expelled (by some method) from not only the rights guaranteed by that state, but also the very nation or geographical borders that nation has defined. Also a nation has a right to restrict entrance into a nation based on that nation’s ability and desire to incorporate new members, such incorporation often based on that person’s ability to contribute to the nation.

Racism is to discriminate between people based on ancestry and then act on those perceived differences (just to make it simple cuz some people have made a life’s effort to say what race even is).

One of the biggest blocks to the Hawaiian governing entity (which will evolve into a nation) outlined in the Akaka Bill is based, not on whether or not a person would be a desirable candidate of Hawaiian Nationality, but in ALL cases, whether or not that person is of Hawaiian descent. It doesn’t matter how desirable they are to the nation or how long their loyalties have stood with our nation, if they’re not of Hawaiian descent, they automatically are blocked. That is racism – plain and true. I know that sounds bad to say, but take out all the history and the anger I know we hold for the wrongs done to us and just think for a second about what would happen if there were people among us (which I know there are) who are wholly and truly loyal to the Hawaiian people and our culture – who would stick by us to the bitter end if need be – and we say to them, you have no nationality. That is like telling someone you love that they are a stranger…and it’s all based on RACE. You ever get that feeling like no ha`ole could ever love Hawaii as much as us? Racism…and maybe I can show why.

BUT first, I just want to say that under the historical circumstances and by living in a Eurocentric world, I think it’s important to understand ABSOLUTELY that Hawaiians have been FORCED to this extreme. Hawaiian people were not the ones to invent racism. Hawaiian people didn’t ever say “you’re this or that, so you get this and that.” In fact, the Hawaiian people said “whoever you are, we’ll take care of you because you’ve come from nowhere and have nothing and we have things to share.” The Hawaiian people held these foreigners up in the highest esteem and did everything to insure their comfort and success in our nation. They did this with the whole hearted belief that these people would share our love and become helpful and heartful contributors to the betterment of the whole Hawaiian society, which during the 1800s was growing to become what could have been today a world leader in social progress.
That’s not where we are though and that has not been the world’s history. In fact much to the contrary, huge, rich, and European based nations have since the late 1400s gone around this whole world to rape and pillage resources from the ends of the earth. They commoditized resources such as HUMAN BEINGS and LAND by putting a price on these things, when we know such things are priceless. Historically, and from the Eurocentric viewpoint, colonization is over (of course we know that isn’t true). But at the end of what these rich countries called the period of colonization, when supposedly all colonized lands were made independent (in their view finalized during the 1960s in Africa), these same rich countries got together to “loan” all their “ex-colonies” some money through institutions like the IMF and the World Bank. After getting these countries substantially in debt, they pulled the rug out from underneath them, FORCING these countries to become dependent on the rich nations. You could call this “mass colonization of the world part II.” As part of the conditions of this dependency, almost EVERY NATION OF THE WORLD is FORCED to comply by the laws made by only a very few number of countries. In most cases, only 7 nations are making the rules for the whole world, the United States being the leader of those nations.

What this has resulted in is the very exact same thing that was happening under world colonization. There are international agreements in place which bar countries from setting regulations and limits on pollution, workers rights, import/export tariffs that could protect these country’s economies in order that the rich nations may continue to strip these nations of whatever they want. The resulting poverty, lack of freedoms, and death around the world today is something ENORMOUS. When I say that, I’m talking about crisis – no joke – not to be taken lightly whatsoever. We’ve heard people talk about apocalypse, and really and truly, the possibility is on our doorstep.
So what does this have to do with us and racism? Historically, from the Eurocentric viewpoint, it was the idea that people were “different” in some way from each other – SO DIFFERENT, that some people were and ARE believed to not feel as much pain as others, to not feel so tortured by poverty as a white person would be. This is one of the reasons why some people can be so heartless in their acts towards others, especially people with a simple difference in skin color. They don’t think we feel pain the same way as them - they really don’t – and I could cite articles written just this year in famous and highly acclaimed journals (journals whose advice will be taken by international policy makers) by numerous people denying the strength of feeling of those in third world countries. This is racism. People will miss out on the opportunities given to someone else, not because they’re not worthy or slightly less human, but because of their race. That’s racism. That’s just like what we’re doing now with the Akaka Bill. It’s racist...BUT we all know it’s the only direction we can go in order to survive – the real question is WHY are we having to be racists?

It is the historical “pigeon holing,” the stuffing of people into a well framed box in the Eurocentric viewpoint that is the cause of all our own “racism” now. It is the historical struggle that nations throughout the world made to survive a deluge of empirical damage that FORCED us all to subsequently start to “climb a ladder” to another world. However, just as we all got going, the rich countries of the world kicked out a bar in the ladder they called RACE. It is that missing bar now in that ladder (A LADDER OF THE RICH COUNTRY’S OWN INVENTION) that we are FORCED to replace in order to survive the flood. We have been forced to identify race because that is an inherent piece of the game that has been SET UP BY OTHERS.

I’ve read some clever arts of language among the Hawaiian people who have done such things as to flip the language of racism to say that we are not racist. They try to redefine what racism is to make it only fit the greedy, as though people in more strained circumstances could not be racists.

In reality, however, I think we have caught the disease of racism. I still have never met a white person that I was willing to say loves Hawaii as much as I do. I couldn’t even think of it. Someone turned THIS Hawaiian into a racist, and I KNOW I’m not alone.

My point in saying all this is many. First, I think Mr. Bush is right. The bill is racist. However, ironically, the racist country of America won’t vote for any other thing regarding the people of Hawaii that were so heinously ripped off. So don’t anyone worry when they hear George Bush railing us for our racism because racism is what all these representatives and senators love. They’ll practically vote it in just based on the racism alone (And they will too – the Akaka Bill is going to pass one of these days). George’s words, like so many others’, can do nothing to stop the racism. That’s what he gets for practically reinventing racism on a daily basis.

What we should really be worrying about is this disease we’ve caught and how that affects our prospects for the future of the Hawaiian nation. Perhaps among others it serves us well to cover it up or to flip the terminology, but among ourselves, we should take a closer look. Like I mentioned above, the whole world is being destroyed, and I can’t emphasize enough that I’m not exaggerating. Theoretically ALL the Hawaiians in this world could be wiped out in a few weeks if we were all to get dropped in some of these countries where people are having to make like 8 kids each (on average!) just to keep their families going. That’s how few we are and how screwed up some places are getting. And these places are not isolated and far away. Like I said above, this is on our doorstep. We are going to need the people we love and that love us before long no matter what race they are in order for everything we love to survive. We should therefore be careful not to ignore this racism, no matter how enraging and hypocritical it sounds coming from someone like George Bush.

Again, I don’t mean this to offend anyone. I’m not assuming all Hawaiians have turned into crazed racists, in fact, I believe the racism we hold does not run very deep to our true sentiments and I know Hawaiians that don’t show any racist feelings at all and are more than accepting of other people no matter their race. I am trying to say, though, that there is something in the Akaka Bill that IS racist and that we should be careful not to let that bill make us who we are, and on the contrary, carefully keep our eyes open to racism at all times AND especially when that bill goes through because the racism in that bill could undermine our efforts towards the very purpose of the bill which is to ensure the survival and wellbeing of everything Hawaiian.