Posted on 08/07/2005 12:31:18 PM PDT by dila813
HONOLULU -- Blowing conch shells and chanting Hawaiian prayers, some 15,000 people marched through downtown Honolulu Saturday to protest a federal court ruling striking down Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiians-only admissions policy as unlawful.
"We are outraged," said Lilikala Kameeleihiwa, a professor of Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaii. "This is a great setback for our people. Here we are on our own homeland and we can't educate our children."
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled 2-1 on Tuesday that the private school's policy of admitting only native Hawaiians amounted to "unlawful race discrimination" even though the school receives no federal funding.
The decision shocked school officials and devastated the Native Hawaiian community. The school has defended the exclusive policy as a remedy to socio-economic and educational disadvantages Hawaiians' have suffered since the 1893 U.S.-backed overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy.
Protests against the ruling were planned throughout the islands Saturday.
"Our hearts have bled in these past four days," Michael Chun, headmaster at the school's main Kapalama campus on Oahu, told the massive crowd blanketing the courtyard surrounding Iolani Palace - the former residence of the Hawaiian Kingdom's last two monarchs.
"We must stand together to focus and right this wrong," Chun said. "March tall, march proud, march strong."
The Kamehameha Schools were established under the 1883 will of a Hawaiian princess. About 5,100 Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian students from kindergarten through 12th grade attend the three campuses, which are partly funded by a trust now worth $6.2 billion. Admission is highly prized in Hawaii because of the quality of education and the relatively low cost.
Non-Hawaiians may be admitted if there are openings after Hawaiians who meet the criteria have been offered admission.
The lawsuit was brought by an unidentified non-Hawaiian student who was turned down in 2003.
The appeals court wrote that the school's admission policies are illegal because they operate "as an absolute bar to admission of those of the non-preferred race."
Kamehameha Schools has said it will appeal. An injunction asking the court to order the school to accept the teenager for the fall term is pending.
At the Honololu rally, Gov. Linda Lingle, introducing herself as a "haole" and "a non-Hawaiian," said the court's decision was "not just."
"The Hawaiian people have been tested many, many times," Lingle said. "This is just one more test that you will show you will overcome."
Amber Marquez, 17, a senior at the school's Kapalama campus, said Kamehameha has given her a future.
"We are just trying to preserve what little we have left because everything is being taken away," she said. "We just deserve this; we feel blessed."
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On the Net:
Kamehameha Schools: http://www.ksbe.edu/
similar to the Indian casinos and their billions......now, they want to make sure you have enough of that blood in you to warrent the big pay outs from the profits....
those people making all the profits off of special "minority" type rulings are passionate about keeping their little kingdoms private and controlled by the few....
does anybody really know where all the money goes that the casinos bring in?.......
I'll tell ya....the Mob couldn't have orchestrated it better......
If you want to find racism here you will, just like anywhere else.
Personally though, we have fallen in love with the place and the people. Our kids (blonde hair, blue eyes) suffered more in Texas at the hands of other kids than they have here.
As generations have come and gone, more and more are intermarrying between cultures and there is more of a "local" flavor than "Hawaiian" or "Japanese," "Korean," "Chinese," or "Filipino."
Most here support the perpetuation of Hawaiian culture as taught at Kamehameha schools and agree that "Hawaiian" kids probably need a little help. A lot of us are torn with a decision like this, though, because a private school should be allowed to do what they want, especially when it was apparent that Bernice Pauahi's will was intended to educate "Hawaiian" children. The problem arises, however, that the Bishop Estate doesn't have the greatest reputation, really has not done its best to see that any Hawaiian child who wants a quality education gets one. They educate the cream of the crop, the best of the best. Yes, you have to be able to demonstrate a drop or two of Hawaiian blood, but that's no guarantee they'll take you.
A lot of folk like to see the Bishop Estate get their comeuppance but not at the expense of the Hawaiian kids.
The will setting up the estate left a large amount of latitude to the trustees as to what the makeup of the school would be, saying "orphans, and indigent children, with preference to Hawaiians", but letting the trustees do what they thought was proper. Considering the tax-free status of the trust, the dumbass trustees should do what I proposed in a previous post, and open the school up to everybody, based strictly on an admissions test - or start paying taxes on the estate's income.
Yes, and you can just BET that if someone started a private school exclusively for NON-aboriginals that the abos would torch it in a new york minute.
Bernice Pauahi Bishop's will and benefaction is the most noble gift to Hawaii's people. It's been taken over long ago. The problem lies with the trustees. A drop of Hawaiian blood ......doesn't cut it. Surpassing admission standards.....doesn't mean admission. It's a club.
What stuns me is the ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court. I think they got this one right.
Except there's no federal law prohibiting private organizations from discriminating against gays. There is however a federal law prohibiting private discrimination based on race.
not so fast. this is the 9th circus.
So what? It's actually an excellent opinion if you ask me. Precedent and Congress are not the fault of the court. Jay Bybee (of torture memo fame) wrote the decision. He's one of Bush's 9th Circuit appointees. I recommend reading it. It's quite interesting (at least to me since it was mostly stuff that I didn't know about).
This (and others you make) are good points. It is THEIR MONEY, THEIR SCHOOL. Let them spend their money and run their school as they see fit.
I lived through the forced integration of schools in Maryland in the '60s and the only persons who benefitted while I was in school were those of us who ended up in private schools, refugees from ongoing riots in the public schools.
The last thing the Hawiians need is some whining non-native Hawiian liberal sniveling about Hawiian culture and insisting on some kind of multicultural revisionism of Hawiian culture.
If the Feds aren't paying in, they should keep the hell out.
No, but I think we had best honor the treaty obligations which were incurred as a condition of peace.
Or is it okay if the 'great white father' speaks with forked tongue? Have you become that inured to political lies and corruption?
If this crap is going to stop it might as well stop right here. If not now, then when?
Dear Yahweh,
Could you inform Lewite that MoJo is one of *those people*?
And could you please strike his/her sorry butt with lightning for making such a dumb statement?
Thank you,
MoJo
P.S Could you also enlighten Lewite that many of those *Native* Hawaiians being referred to in this article aren't even close to being as Native as MoJo? As a matter of fact, more would look like him/her than me. And I'm supposedly a pure blooded one of *those people*.
That's true.
There are very few *Native* Hawaiians left. I guess if you wanted to see what one would look like..travel to the other South Pacific islands.
Cry me a river. Homeschool and find out just how the rest of us feel.
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Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If these nondiscrimination laws apply to a white private school, well then they apply to nonwhite private schools. If that galls backers of the nonwhite school, well then they should back repealing the law in its entirety.
Laws are to govern all alike—those opposed as well as those who favor them. I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.
Ulysses S. Grant
First Inaugural Address
Thursday, March 4, 1869
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