Secession and Unequal Treatment in Hawaii

So what is up with Hawaii? Well, next week the U.S. Senate is to consider a bill, S. 147, that would "provide a process for the recognition by the United States of the Native Hawaiian governing entity."

And what does that mean you ask? Well, exactly what this would entail is unclear, but its seems to allow the one quarter or so of Hawaiians who can show native ancestry to choose to be governed by a different set of laws from their neighbours (One might ask why since median household income is $52,000 making them slightly better off than white Americans).

The bill's author, Hawaii Senator Daniel Akaka, says that native Hawaiians have been denied the degree of self-determination that has made Native American reservations such happy places. But unlike Native American tribes, which have been separate political entities since before the American Constitution was framed, native Hawaiians live intermingled with those whose ancestors arrived more recently (Statehood was not imposed on native Hawaiians by force. In 1959, they voted for it by a two-to-one margin). So, under the new system, could you have two shops side by side, one of them paying taxes, and one exempt because its owner has a drop of native blood (Back in 1984, only 4% of native Hawaiians were classified by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs as pure native Hawaiian)? Asked that question by a caller to a Hawaiian radion station, Robert Klein, a lawyer for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which is promoting the Akaka bill, replied: "I don't know. We would need to see how that will play out in the negotiations."

Although it seems the bill would violate the Constitution of the United States, supporters say it would help improve racial hormony. "The opposite is more likely," says Rubellite Kawena Kinney Johnson, a local academic and prominent native opponent of the bill. "Different laws for different races," is a system with an inglorious history. It could also pave the way for other ethnice groups to demand new rights based on perceived historical injustices. Latinos could make a case that they would be better off had the United States not beaten Mexico in the war of 1846. And don't even get started on blacks.

In an unguarded moment, Mr. Akaka admitted that his bill could lead to independence for native Hawaiians. Amid the ensuring uproar, he retreated, while carefully keeping that option open. The threat of secession could help the new racially exclusive native authority squeeze more concessions out of the federal or state government.