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/
"Hawaii was occupied by military force and the legitimate Queen was overthrown"
The same thing happened to the Indians all over the US. Tell me, should we give it all back?
Who would have thought Hawaii, one of the most liberal states in the USA, would be in favor of school choice and against teaching multiculturalism. Wonders never cease.
So why don't the Hawaiins just steal it back?
driveserve
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
If white people cannot privately associate and have their own little thing going on then neither can these Hawaiian clowns. Sauce that's good for the goose is good for the gander.
FWIW I also dead set against the multi-billion dollar scam of Indian casinos. And so called Hawaiians with minimal native blood are in the courts right now agitating for tribal recognition meaning casinos.
no guns....
My opinion as a Jew is that in a free country private clubs select their membership without needing permission or supervision by the state.
Now ethnic Hawaiians have taken to the streets to demand a special privilege to discriminate as recompense for their self-proclaimed status of victim-hood. They needn't worry overmuch, their bleatings will almost certainly gain them a shadow zone where they can carry on with their race based discrimination free of fear of effective prosecution- much like the immunity from prosecution enjoyed by black churches who engage in blatant political activity.
Sadly, it is very unlikely that even one of those Hawaiians who have taken to the streets to blow into conch shells in protest, will ever look into a mirror and recognize Dr. Frankenstein.
So it's not an original idea. Sorry for the redundancy...
driveserve
So, if they had guns they could?
driveserve
A private school that gets no tax support should be able to admit anyone it wants to. A free society includes freedom of association.
I live in Hawaii and the Kamehameha Schools are already multicultural; the vast majority of students are a mixture of every ethnic and racial group found here. Very few of the students are more than 50% Hawaiian, and most are a lot less. The only constant is a minimum of 1% Hawaiian blood. That's why the kids have last names (reading from a Kamehameha football program) of Silva (Portugese), Wong (Chinese), Jung (German), Yamashita (Japanese), Soon (Korean) Pacarro (Filipino) and Smith, Holt, Williams etc. My wife has a friend with a daughter who is 3/32 Hawaiian and looks like a 15 yr old Vanna White, and she would be eligible. I believe that if the Kamehameha Schools do not receive public funding, then the courts have no right to intercede in their admissions policy.
There is a very simple solution to Kamehameha's predicament: Open enrollment to any scholastically qualified student (there is an admissions test - only about 50% pass), but charge the market rate of approximately $30,000 for a boarding student or $15,000 for a day student. Then use the Bishop Estate money to provide scholarships to whoever the Bishop Estate trustees deem worthy - and that can be anybody - especially those of Hawaiian blood. Many colleges already have scholarship money earmarked for certain racial and gender groups, so it shouldn't be an issue.
It's hard to reason with that.
Not true. The rebellion was primarily fomented by white men who were citizens of Hawaii, in some cases second or third generation residents. They were armed and willing to fight for their property, which the Hawaiian monarchy and nobles had sold or leased to them, and was calculating how to take back to support their corrupt, wasteful and extravagant lifestyles (the Iolani Palace was one of the most expensive residences in the world at the time it was built). The presence of one US warship in the harbor with several hundred sailors and Marines was hardly a factor, as the armed rebels in Honolulu alone numbered approximately 1500. The US did not annex Hawaii for 5 years after the overthrow of the monarchy.
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