Haunani-Kay Trask, a Native Hawaiian
nationalist leader and professor of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawai’i
argued:
Modern
HawaiiI, like its colonial parent the United States, is a settler society: that
is, Hawai’i is a society in which the indigenous culture and people have been
murdered, suppressed, or marginalized for the benefit of settlers who now
dominate our islands. In settler societies, the issus of civil rights is
primarily an issue about how to protect settlers against each other and against
the state. Injustices done against Native people, such as genocide, land dispossession,
language banning, family disintegration, and cultural exploitation, are not
part of this intrasettler discussion and are therefore not within the
parameters of civil rights. (1)
There are multi-ethnic group in Hawai’i. In
Hawai’i, Hawaiians, whites, Japanese, and Filipinos make up at least 20% of the
population. However, people in Hawaii are divided into two groups, “indigenous”
and “settler” from the political point of view.
Indigenous people are defined in terms of
collective aboriginal occupation prior to colonial settlement. They are not to
be confused with minorities or ethnic group within states.
On the other hand, “Settlers” go for the
purpose of taking over and establishing dominance.
On a closer view, “settlers” are various
ethnic-group and classes. Historically, Caucasians are distinguished from the
other groups, especially Asian people, such as Japanese, Filipinos, Chinese and
Koreans. Caucasians are masters, Asians are slaves.
Asian laborers came to work on the sugar
plantations. Laborers were themselves living in poverty and were exploited by
the Caucasian plantation owners and supervisors. The Asian laborers were
accomplices with the Caucasians in the success of an economic system which
deprived natives of land and political power.
And now, several generations later, the
descendants of those Asian settlers, along with other Asians who newly arrive
as first-generation settlers, have substantial wealth and political power of
their own which makes them sometimes as powerful as the primary (Caucasian)
masters of native oppression.
For example, Japanese make up 40 percent of
the legislature, but only 20 percent of the population in Hawaii. Hawaiians
make up 20 percent of the general population, but only 10 percent of the
legislature.
Asian settlers called themselves “local”. “Locals”
have lived in Hawaii for a long time. “Local” concept is neutral, but this is very
political. “Local” people have a right to exercise control over the land, the
economy and the political system. No matter who he may be, they have lived in
Hawaii for a long time, they have a right. This is typical settler colonialism
logic.
Eiko Kosasa reminded us of Fanon’s
statement: “The colonial world is a world cut in two.”
“Nateive” comes first:”Settler”follows it
and supports it from behind. (31)
Fujikane concluded:
The essays in Asian Settler Colonialism identify Asians as settler in order to
bring about a shift in political consciousness, to identify the problems posed
by Asians settler ideologies and practices that reflect their desires for a
place in the settler state. For the larger, long-term vision of Hawaiian
self-determination to be made a reality, the Native and settler contributors in
this volume call on Asian settlers in hawai’i to reexamine their interests
within the U.S. settler state and to hold themselves and their communities
accountable for their settler practices. Only through such accountability and
anticolonial interventions can we find a way to great social and political
justice. (36).
Asian settlers can and do support Hawaiian
independence--in fact, it is our responsibility as settlers to work to end the
conditions of settler colonialism.
"Heteropatriarchy and the Three
Pillars of White Supremacy" by Andrea Smith
How “Whit Supermacy” manage to keep its
power?
White supremacy is constituted by separate
and distinct, but still interrelated, logics. There are three pillars as Slavery/Capitalism,
Genocide/Colonialism, and Orientalism/War (67)
1) Slaver/Capitalism is logic of slavery.
The logic is the another of capitalism. That is the capitalist system
untimately comodifies all workers- one’s own person becomes a commodity that
one must sell in the labor market while the profits of one’s work are taken by
someone else. (67)
2) Genocide/Colonialism is the logic of genocide.
This logic holds that indigenous people must disappear. In fact, they must
always be disappearing, in order to allow non-indigenous people rightful claim
over this land. The pillar of genocide serves as the anchor for colonialism-it
is what allows non-Native peoples to feel they can rightfully own indigenous
people’ land. It is okay to take land from indigenous peoples, because
indigenous people have disappeared. (68)
3) Orientalism/War is the logic of Orientalism.
The logic of Orientalism marks certain peoples or nations as inferior and as
posing a constant threat to the well-being of empire. This logic is evident in
the anti-immigration movements within the United States that target immigrants
of color. Consequently, orentalism
serves as the anchor for war, because it allows the United State to justify
being in a constant state of war to protect itself from its enemies. (68)
In present, black/white binary is central
to racial and political thought. However, if we look at only this binary, we
may misread the dynamic of white supremacy in different context. (71)
“The family’ is no mere metaphor but a
crucial technology by which modern power is produced and exercised.” (72)
Patriachy rests on a gender binary system
in which only two genders exist, one dominating the other. Consequently, the
colonial world order depends on heteronormativity. Just as the patriarchs rule
the family, the elites of the nation-state rule their citizens. (72)
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