November 19, 2003
Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop
Last Monday, a judge decided in favor of the Kamehameha Schools Hawaiian-ancestry-preference admissions policy. This is considered a huge victory here, and being a malihini (outsider), I don't really understand the ramifications of this decision. I'll do my best at it anyway.
First a bit of background on the Kamehameha Schools:
In 1887, the first campus of the Kamehameha schools was founded, in accordance with the will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the last royal descendant of King Kamehameha the Great*. When the Islands were discovered by Captain Cook, there were over 400,000 Hawaiians here; by the time of the 1880 census, there were only 45,000 or so here. The typical things killed them: disease, mainly, in addition to other things like starvation because their system of land management was upset by the outsiders who didn't know or care about the system. In 1883, she created her will which gave her entire estate for the founding of a school which would educate the dwindling Hawaiians.
So in 1887 the first campus was founded, and since then they added another campus on Oahu, this one for girls; there are also campuses on Maui and Hawaii.
Students at the Kamehameha Schools have many, many advantages. Princess Bernice was royalty, and had a large estate. The Trustees also have invested her money, so the first advantage is that the Schools are very well-funded. Kamehameha Schools also subsidize about 90% of the students' tuition, and graduates may apply for college subsidies also--and graduate school subsidies! The school itself is well-run, and provides the best in every way--academics, athletics, extracurriculars, and other ways. It's truly excellent, and to be a student there...the kids feel like they are really special. They feel like royalty themselves, and they have the privilege of being there primarily because they are Hawaiian.
Back to the main purpose of this blog: the court decision.
The plaintiff was suing Kamehameha Schools because he claimed the Hawaiian-preference policy was unconstitutional. On November 17, the suit was rejected and the Judge (Alan Kay) decided in favor of Kamehameha Schools, saying that part of the purpose of the Schools is to right the wrongs done to native Hawaiians in the last century (especially after the overthrow of self-rule in 1897).
This raises interesting questions for me. What is justice in this situation? (That is not, "How can ____ get payback," but "What is justice?") How can we seek justice? Obviously there was injustice done in the 1890s when Dole and others overthrew the Hawaiian royalty. There was injustice in the 1950s when (as someone told me yesterday) speaking the Hawaiian language was forbidden and punishable by jail time. But what is the answer to the injustice? Is it to exclude children who are needy but don't have the requistite drop of Hawaiian blood? What if they have been living here for generations but don't have the requisite native Hawaiian ancestry?
I don't know. Being white, I'm used to feeling included and normal. I know I have Whilte Privilege and that I take it for granted, and it could just be that here is ONE PLACE I cannot be because I don't have the right blood.**
I'm glad that the decision went the way it did. The money is private money; the Kamehameha Schools accept no public money. There were injustices in the past, and we have to work for justice now. It's a wonderful opportunity, and the students deserve it.
But it opens the door (for me at least) to a larger discussion on justice. What is justice? Can we ever achieve it here? Do we have to atone for former sins? (I was not part of the coup in 1897, and none of the students at Kamehameha were either!) Can we atone for former sins? How do we atone for former sins? Isn't the justice in Christ enough? Why attempt to add to it? Is that what is going on: adding (or attempting to add to) the atonement Christ worked on the cross?
Any thoughts?
* -- King Kamehameha the Great was something like King Arthur. He has a fascinating history, some of which is here. Here is some more information about him--a bit more academic.
** -- The word minority has little to no meaning here, because there are soooo many different races and cultures here all mixed together! (Here is a Hawaiian, there is a Hawaiian-Japanese, there is a Hawaiian-Japanese-Portuguese-Chinese-Korean-White-Filipino-English-Spanish-Dutch-German-Scot!) For me to say that 'I'm no longer the majority and I'm just not used to it' is meaningless because that's not part of the vocabulary here. That's not how people think.