{"id":645,"date":"2023-12-09T04:49:17","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T04:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/?page_id=645"},"modified":"2023-12-11T02:12:56","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T02:12:56","slug":"settler-colonialism","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/settler-colonialism\/","title":{"rendered":"Settler Colonialism"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"645\" class=\"elementor elementor-645\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-48156da e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"48156da\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-dca0141 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"dca0141\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.18.0 - 20-12-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p><strong>The Racialization of Hawaii<\/strong><\/p><p>Historical narratives of Hawaii, from 1893-1941, have long obscured the truth of the conspiratorial efforts of the Oligarchy to maintain political, economic and societal superiority.\u00a0 It\u2019s vital that light is shed on this turbulent time; to know the systemic measures taken through the settler colonial framework that was to reshape the racial hierarchy of the islands. By exposing the mechanisms that created and maintained inequality, exploitation, and oppression, perhaps then the<em> hilahila <\/em>(shame) that is held by many Native Hawaiians towards their ancestors will be quelled and a new appreciation towards the resilience of their cultural identity will be realized.<\/p><p>It is hard to understand how, in less than fifty years after the \u201cOverthrow,\u201d the <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> found themselves strategically positioned to be the most destitute people in Hawaii. How did the drastic transformation take place? From landed to homeless? From franchised to disenfranchised? From a nation that was 95% literate to that of only being 20% literate.[100] To the adoption of a racial hierarchy where none had been before, with <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> at the lowest rung of the economic ladder?\u00a0 In order to better understand this period of transition, and the severe affect it had on K\u0101naka Maoli identity, an examination of this history requires a multi-layered\u00a0 theoretical approaches. First, Racial Formation theory allows an analysis of the political, economic and social forces that constructed and continue to construct, at both the micro and macro levels, but as the the scholars Joe Feagin and John Elias argue, relying on it alone risks dismissing or ignoring the actions of white people\u02bbs dominant role in constructing and sustaining Hawaii\u02bbs racial heirarchy. [101]\u00a0 However, as Feagin and Elias point out, utilization of this theory alone masks the white man\u2019s role in creating racial oppression.[102] Secondly, Systemic Racism Theory illuminates the foundational role the white patriarchy and materialism plays in creating racist policies and laws.[103]\u00a0 Finally, Settler Colonialism Theory, first introduced by Patrick Wolfe, allows us to uncover the construction and implementation of universal principles of Imperial motivations to control lands and resources, thus identifying the methods at which this power was attained and upheld through the application of racilization.[104] Andrea Smith emphasizes that it is \u201cimportant to conceptualize white supremacy as operating through multiple logics rather than through a single one.\u201d[105]\u00a0 By applying these three frameworks, this project will explicate the role of the oppressors, by tracing the many ideas, laws, policies, and practices created to promote white male dominance and American interests in Hawaii. Understanding the specific, multiple and intersecting mechanisms of white colonial power is a necessary step toward decolonization.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8e624fd e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"8e624fd\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-052d606 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"052d606\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>The Creation of Hawaii\u02bbs Racial Heirarchy<\/strong><\/p><p>Prior to the overthrow, <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> had lived for centuries under a stratified social structure, the <em>ali\u02bbi<\/em> (the chiefs, royalty) and the <em>maka\u02bb\u0101inana<\/em> (the commoners), yet they held a respected understanding of their mutual support for one another, no one starved unless they all starved.[106] This concept can be seen in the <em>\u02bb\u014dlelo no\u02bbeau<\/em> (traditional saying, proverb), \u201c<em>he ali\u02bbi ka \u02bb\u0101ina; he kauw\u0101 ke kanaka<\/em>,\u201d which means the \u201cland is the chief; man is its servant.\u201d[107] As <em>Haole <\/em>(white foreigners, lit: without spiritual breath) came to Hawaii\u2019s shores, in 1778, many maneuvered their way into the <em>K\u0101naka Maoli <\/em>(Native Hawaiian, lit: original people) elite society, either through commercial, religious or political influence, or by marriage. Capitalism was slowly introduced, first in the trade of sandlewood (1810-1820), then with the coming of whalers (1819-1870s), but neither market had changed the subsistence traditions that supported Hawaii\u2019s people for centuries.\u00a0 It was not until sugar was established in the islands (1835-2016), that Hawaii\u2019s subsistence traditions were threatened. As sugar planters gained wealth, they consolidated political influence and control over large portions of lease lands and water also increased. Simultaneously, <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> population continued to decline drastically due to the many diseases imported by the influx of new arrivals daily. As a result, in order to resolve the labor shortages on their sugar plantations, the planters began to import contract laborers (1860\u2019s &#8211; 1890\u02bbs), from China, Japan, the Philipines, Korea, Scandanavia, Portugal and the Azores.\u00a0 This would begin the structuring of what would become Hawaii\u2019s racial hierarchy. Those laborers of European descent, were the <em>Luna<\/em> (overseers)<em>, <\/em>assigned positions of authority and skill over the Asians and Filipinos who were placed on the lowest rung of the social status. These events laid the groundwork for what would become the oligarchy, aka the Big Five, the <em>Haole<\/em> businessmen that conspired to overthrow the Hawaiian Kingdom, with the aid of the United States military.<\/p><p>It was on Hawaii\u2019s sugar plantations that Hawaii\u2019s racialization was first introduced, with the importation of contract laborers. Originally only single males from China, then later Japan, arrived to work the sugarcane, many of which sent their earnings back to their homeland. While some intermarried within the native community leaving the plantation, many others returned to Asia or continued on to the United States upon the completion of their contracts.[108]\u00a0 This practice was not conducive to the stability of production on the plantations, therefore, picture brides were initially provided which made it more logistically difficult for laborers to leave.[109] By the 1900s, whole families traveled the long distance to Hawaii to find themselves bound by poor wage contracts and indebtedness to the company store.[110] Not only did they fill the void for labor, they\u2019re purpose was to increase the wealth of the sugar planters.[111]<\/p><p>Equally important was the strategic nature of how the Hawaii Sugar Planter\u02bbs Association (HSPA) formed racial spaces, spaces created to fortify a perception of <em>Haole<\/em> authority.[112] They were what became to be known as the \u201cBig Five,\u201d \u201ca closed society,&#8230;that forced mandates, &#8230;.often ruthless and always self-serving, paternalistic and racist.\u201d[113] First, they contracted \u201cskilled\u201d northern Europeans to become managers and white-Portuguese to be the <em>Luna<\/em> (the overseers); thereby, establishing the start of the racial hierarchy.\u00a0 This stratification of labor was further buttressed by the Master\u2019s and Servants Act of 1850, which not only allowed the planters to import contract laborers, but also to employ their <em>Luna<\/em> to enforce those contracts by force if necessary.[114] Racial segregation was also initiated on the plantations through a camp system: <em>Pukik\u012b<\/em> (Portugese) camp, <em>Kepan\u012b <\/em>(Japanese) camp, <em>P\u0101k\u0113<\/em> (Chinese) camp, and so on.[115] The white management community, with the exception of the Portuguese of the Azores, were separated from the camps, living in large plantation-provided homes set on the hillsides looking down at the laborers ramshackled cottages.<\/p><p>Conversely, unlike mainland non-white segregated communities, the close proximity the camps had with one another resulted in far more social interactions among the diverse ethnic groups and the <em>K\u0101naka Maoli.<\/em><strong><em>[116]<\/em><\/strong> Pidgin became the mode of communication among the camps and on the fields,\u00a0 grammatically grounded in the Hawaiian language, it combined a blend of the languages of the camp and <em>\u02bb\u014dlelo Hawaii<\/em> with that of English, eventually becoming the first language spoken by many second generation children.[117]<\/p><p>\u201cAfta school, we would play with our friends, but first we when go one <em>Kepan\u012b <\/em>(Japanese) aunty, she would tell us come inside and she when give us sushi; den we when go to one Portugee aunty and she would give us bread, was ono fresh out of da oven; den we when go my <em>Pilipino<\/em> aunty and get some ono goodies.\u201d[118]<\/p><p>Camp life was a community, although separated by ethnic groups, they were drawn together through work, church, school, entrepreneurial efforts, and a plantation social life: baseball, fighting cocks, tug-of-war, and other team activities.[119] Thus a \u201clocal identity\u201d came out of the camps; yet, marginalized and stigmatized by the Haole community, thereby \u201cstrengthening the colonial mentality.\u201d[120]<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e3253f3 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"e3253f3\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f1354fb elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"f1354fb\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>The Evolution of the Racial Hierarchy within the School System<\/strong><\/p><p>In 1851, the Hawaiian Kingdom was the first nation in the world to provide a public education for children six to fifteen; as a result, 95% of all <em>K\u0101naka Maoli <\/em>were highly literate in <em>\u02bb\u014dlelo Hawai\u02bbi<\/em>, and about 30% were also literate in the English language.[121] This would quickly change, however, after the overthrow, as a result of\u00a0 the laws and policies that were systematically put in place to limit the voices and authority of\u00a0 <em>K\u0101naka Maoli. <\/em>First, Hawaiian language publications were banned, then a prohibition of its use within the false Republic. Finally, in 1896, Act 57 of the Republic of Hawaii designated English only as the medium of instruction in all of Hawaii\u02bbs schools.[122] Any student that was caught speaking <em>\u02bb\u014dlelo Hawai\u02bbi<\/em> was severely punished, this in turn caused many <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> parents to protect their children, thus encouraging them to speak English only.[123] The loss of the language, consequently, broke the link to their ancestors and the ability of the younger generation to access the cultural knowledge, and genealogies that only the language could illuminate.\u00a0 It was just one step in the Oligarchy\u02bbs strategic plot to confiscate the lands and resources of Hawaii through the attempt to erase <em>K\u0101naka Maoli <\/em>identity, rendering the new generation\u02bbs inability to decipher the expansive wealth of historical knowledge written in <em>\u02bb\u014dlelo Hawai\u02bbi<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><p>\u201cEconomic\/political control, cannot happen without mental control: \u02bbachieved through deliberate undervaluing of a people\u02bbs culture, art, dances, religions, history, geography, education, orature, and literature; and the conscious elevation of the language of the colonizer.\u201d[124]<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Annexation, however, would entail more drastic measures, since <em>K\u0101naka Maoli <\/em>once again were given the right to vote, they threatening the continued authority of the Oligarchy.\u00a0 While voting requirements no longer had property restrictions or the requirement of signing a loyalty oath in order to vote, the territory still stipulated that they had to pass a literacy test.[125] Many of the <em>Haole <\/em>newspapers of the time demonstrated the oligarchy\u02bbs racial motivations; in the debate over voting rights the Hawaiian Gazette (Apr. 1900) stated that \u201cif color is to rule any sub-division of American Territory, that color will be white.[126] Throughout the Republics rule, and on into the Territorial control, the Big Five and the <em>Haole<\/em> Oligarchy tried to promote unequal educational opportunities.[127] <em>Haole<\/em> students were educated in exclusive private schools in which fluency in English was a requirement or sent to the mainland for school; while the <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> and non-white camp students were relegated to under-funded segregated schools again based on English language proficiency.[128] It was thought by the capitalist elite, that \u201ceducating people beyond what was needed for a plantation job only created problems&#8230;.We spend money to educate them and they will destroy us.\u201d[129] As a result, the majority of rural schools did not go beyond a sixth grade education.[130] \u201cI was da first class in H\u0101na school to graduate 8th grade, that was just before WWII when pau (end).\u201d[131]<\/p><p>With the threat of the <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> majority gaining political power in the early years of the territory, the Oligarchy saw the contiued need to curb their rise and ensure the Americanization of the non-white community.\u00a0 Policies were put in place which would turn to the schools to start the process of forced \u201cbrainwashing.\u201d In 1906, after a territorial competition amongst its <em>Haole<\/em> teachers, the framework for mass patriotization of Hawaii\u02bbs school children was laid through the mandated use of \u201cAmericanization\u201d guidelines.[132] Its primary purpose was to crush the fighting spirit within the Hawaiian people who were still in support of the Queen and Kingdom.\u00a0 The expectations were to have all students daily, both before school started and at the end of day, circle around the American flag in patriotic attention and absolute silence, while music played and the flag was raised or taken down.\u00a0 Then the children were expected to chant, \u201cWe give our heads and hearts to God and our Country! ONE COUNTRY! ONE LANGUAGE! ONE FLAG!\u201d[133] They also expected the students during the school day to say the <em>Lord\u2019s Prayer, <\/em>sing American patriotic songs, learn American patriotic quotes, learn to recite specific American speeches, and learn about US heroes.[134] Teachers were expected to guide students through this process, create curriculum and provide formal instruction on important American historical events and stories.[135] If teachers were unwilling, they were no longer employed. This practice, over the next decades would not only become institutionalized, but uniform in the routine; not ending until the 1970s, well into statehood.<\/p><p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As talk of statehood began to take root, the Oligarchy and business interests expressed their concerns through their newspapers.[136] Statehood would make it more difficult to maintain the white dominant power structure that had been established. Arguments claimed that Hawaii was not ready, the process of acculturation had not been completed.[137] Some in the US Congress were also ambivalent, raising alerts that Hawaii had too many inferior \u201cunassimilable races\u201d and mixed race children who were of \u201clower moral and mental character.\u201d[138] The need to Americanize the non-white community became the public justification; yet behind closed doors apprehensions were voiced that the non-white majority would be able to influence politics, economics or society within the coming State if they could not delay the action.[139]<\/p><p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Accordingly, due to these debates, the United States Bureau of Education proceeded to conduct a survey of the Hawaii\u02bbs public education in 1920.\u00a0 Their purpose was to determine the success of training their students in adopting \u201cAmerican ideals.\u201d[140] At its completion, recommendations were presented: \u201cclose private foreign language schools, promote \u201cstandardized English,\u201d build more secondary schools, provide vocational education, teacher training and higher education.[141] However, when the Hawaii territorial legislature decided to implement the recommendations, territorial education policies aligned with the interests of the plantation economy and the desire to reaffirm <em>Haole<\/em> privilege.[142] What the result would be was the creation of the English Standard Schools, a segregated public education system in which, only those who could pass a subjective oral language test could attend.\u00a0 Subsequently, the law codified the racially segregated school system that would exist in Hawaii until 1948. Non-white students\u2019 public schools were poorly funded, vocationalized, paternalistic, and strictly promoted Americanization and English-language only education.[143] Courses were further segregated within the school itself by splitting up classrooms according to language and skills proficiency.[144] Grade level classes were labeled \u02bbA\u2019 class for the smart students, \u2018B\u2019 class for the average students, and \u2018C\u2019 classes for the \u02bbdumbest\u2019 students; larger schools went through the alphabet to the letter \u2018F\u2019 those that were deemed the troublemakers and educationally slow; this practice of labeling classes did not end until the 1980s.[145] Practices designed to erase <em>K\u0101naka Maoli <\/em>identity, culture, and history; assimilate immigrant students, and Americanize all non-white students, began to unfold.<\/p><p>Teacher training and American-values qualifications became a central focus. Originally, many teachers were brought in to Hawaii from the mainland to instruct students in the way of American values, however, the short duration of the new teachers\u2019 stay in Hawaii caused for too much instability within the classrooms.[146] Therefore, it was determined that in order to teach the students democratic values, and ensure the weakening of <em>K\u0101naka Maoli <\/em>cultural and political identity, it would equally be important to train territorial teachers as well.\u00a0 The result was a teacher training program, instituted by the newly created college for educators, the Normal School, which would instill American patriotism, the use of standardized English, and American values.[147] While the English Standard School employed primarily Haole teachers; the non-white schools demonstrated a more racially diverse group of instructors:\u00a0 <em>Kanaka Maoli<\/em>, <em>Haole,<\/em> Asian, and Portuguese.\u00a0 The multi-ethnic nature of the non-white schools provided for increased interactions and relationships between students, thereby creating a \u201clocal\u201d community dynamic. The teachers were relegated to implementing the territorial schools\u2019 goals of \u201cerasing native identity, Americanizing immigrants, and preparing all children for full citizenship\u201d into what would be the state, thereby completing the colonizing process.[148] Nevertheless, concerns over whether the <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> teachers were \u201cforceful enough\u201d in the implementation of English-only and American values education, causing many of them to be replaced; \u201csacrificed for the general good of the school system.\u201d[149]<\/p><p>Additionally, long-standing racialized stereotyping against <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> had followed many of the teachers into the classrooms.\u00a0 Stereotypes, that had been promoted by the sugar planters\u2019 claims that<em> K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> were \u201cdirty, stupid, and lazy,\u201d which stemmed from the <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> community\u2019s refusals to work under the whip of the <em>Luna<\/em> on plantations.[150] Yet, territorial educational policies, in which promoted discrimination of Hawaii\u2019s ethnic groups, were masked behind color-blind language that justified the segregation of students because of language abilities or educational skill levels.[151] These biases would soon permeate the classrooms, where teachers ridiculed students for speaking \u2018pidgin\u2019 (Hawaii Creole English), enacted corporal punishment, or insinuated that \u201cHawaiians&#8230;.are dumb and they\u02bbre not supposed to succeed,\u201d assigning \u201cC\u201d or \u201cF\u201d classrooms to be majority <em>K\u0101naka Maoli.<\/em><strong><em>[152]<\/em><\/strong><\/p><p>This discriminatory behavior by the adults in the classrooms had a traumatic influence on <em>K\u0101naka Maoli <\/em>children\u2019s psyche. Persistant negative responses to student behavior or outright discrimination can damage a student\u2019s self-concept, hence promoting self-hatred of ones own culture, thereby \u201cinternalizing negative self-images due to racist beliefs.\u201d[153] Immigrant students, specifically those who were placed in \u201cA\u201d classes, began to \u201cemploy tactics of defensive othering to improve self-worth and to avoid experiences with racism.\u201d[154] Thus, students of immigrant ancestry, many of whom were of Japanese ancestry, began to take on the \u201cmental attitude of Americans&#8230;identify [students] by race&#8230;[engage stereotypes, and] adopt a mentality of dependency,\u201d thereby becoming participants in the colonization-Americanization process.[155] Colonization, thereby, became internalized. <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> students fell to apathy and resignaton, while third generation immigrant students accepted American governing control.[156]<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Racialization of Hawaii Historical narratives of Hawaii, from 1893-1941, have long obscured the truth of the conspiratorial efforts of the Oligarchy to maintain political, economic and societal superiority.\u00a0 It\u2019s vital that light is shed on this turbulent time; to know the systemic measures taken through the settler colonial framework that was to reshape the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":808,"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/645\/revisions\/808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}