Anti-Kanaka is a form of racism that is specifically damaging for Hawaiian people, however you may ask yourself how is this possible? the reason is the racism affects different races in different ways. Anti-Kanaka is the name for a specific king of racial prejudice directed towards Hawaiian people. There is a tendency to place all ethnic people together for ease, laziness, or ignorance. While a person may self-proclaim themselves as (Anti-) may be useful in certain stances of situations it shouldn’t be used in reference of a race. For example, referring to a Hawaiian wahine (women) who is a Kanaka-Maoli as a immediate connection of race to the “Hawaii Sovereignty Movement” may place her in a position that she may not actually be in and can undermine her specific lived experiences as being an American.
A few self-proclaimed Anti-Kanaka explains their idea…The concept of anti-Kanaka pushes against the association that all Hawaiians have the same lived experiences and can be placed under the Hawaiian Sovereignty community and the connection of by blood all Hawaiians are associated with Hawaiian Nationalism. All racism is “Hewa Haumia” (filthy immorality), but Anti-Kanaka still is a identity of self identification for a kind of racism that affects Hawaiian groups. When listening to these “Anti-Kanaka” it is interesting to hear about racism as a whole being bad, but racism to them within the Hawaiian community is a bigger uncontrolled problem, all the while conveying a form of racism to let other Kanaka know. “Those Kanaka Maoli who are more priveliged in knowledge have to feel how we feel” -Anonymous. Hawaiian people who are accused of a lack of their “Hawaiianess” by a social group are most likely to be criticized of their knowledge and ostracized within a group. Pale-skinned Kanaka Maoli in Hawaii are said to be gatekept and interrogated more than brown-skinned Kanaka Maoli and even less for those that appear more Polynesian in appearance. Those who were Kanaka residents and lived on the U.S. continent were more likely to be alienated and removed to those who have moved abroad. All of these examples shows that racism affects Kanaka Maoli in different cases, some more significant, and some less. Someone may not even care about their Hawaiianess, but some who have never known about their genealogy, connection, or culture it can be a deep blow to their identity of who they are when being gatekept. While this hasn’t been heard as a common courtesy to not speak, but to listen it isn’t brought up usually, however it does spark a clearer understanding the different forms of racism Kanaka Maoli face outside and inside the Hawaiian Community. “These barriers of Hawaiianess, Localness, Political Correctness to entry prevents us from understanding and practicing fundamental cultural values on a equal footing.” -Anonymous. Anti-Kanaka racism is the specific exclusion and prejudice against people who are visibly or perceived to be of Kanaka Maoli descent. A Hawaiian who is retired says “That is what people would commonly say Hawaiian on Hawaiian action, they can’t connect with each other, they only fight each other, like having a warrior have the higher ground with no Aloha”. This creates a negative attitude towards: Sacred things, Hawaiian activists, Blood Quantum theorists, and . Anonymous says “Anti-Kanaka goes way past da feelings, negative attitudes, and harsh words.” Anti-kanaka racism is a belief of how people with financial power make their decisions, how government policies are made, or how state services are delivered, in ways to distance themselves from the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement according to a Kanaka who didn’t want their name to be released to the public, due to fears of online bullying. While it can be a Kanaka who doesn’t want to associate of someone with the same race it also is a way of Non-Kanaka to have no association to the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement as a whole. Local-Kanaka, Mainland Kanaka, Pale-Kanaka, and Locals have been “othered” throughout Hawaii and the annexation of Hawaii was a major catalyst for this. After Hawaii was taken over from the Republic of Hawaii there was a deep Americanization of Hawaiians to become more American. At this time is when people had a internal conflict with themselves to adopt Western ways by abandonment of Hawaiian language and culture for success or preserve Hawaiian ways by abandonment of English language and culture to meet poverty. This would come to the decision of assimilation that many indigenous cultures have undergone with a violent history from the continental U.S. and Kamehameha Schools model of being based on the Indian boarding school (Carlisle Indian School). While awareness of these events of forced European-American lifestyle was in the past those interested in History and Culture take a special focus as someone who likes it. But, when that is forced on a person who has different beliefs from another person instead of discussing it and leads to passive-aggressive hostility as “Hawaiian Kuleana” or calling it the American idea of “Hawaiian Freedom” from Religious groups of Kanaka there really is no escaping it. Either be humble and let them throw rocks and you and take it or fight against it and put them in their place with the exact same words they using on us he says. Blood quantum racists branded those who identify with more than just their Hawaiian blood or as Hapa to be “Tested” and evolved to being “not Hawaiian enough” he explains. Kanaka Maoli who were mixed and moved to Nevada and Florida still face the same prejudiced beliefs in the modern day from within the Hawaiian Community, especially online. This would lead Hapa to also be tested of all their ethnicities to prove to those of higher blood quantum their racial authenticity through blood quantum racism practices according to the Anti-Kanaka group. This would lead people to think that some people are more authentic to Hawaii than others based on their residency and educational privileges. Some Kanaka believe that certain Hui are more trust worthy and harder working than others and that has had consequences in the social spaces of long-discredited arguments of one another that have to be endured. It even goes as far as telling one group they have a lower IQ to state that there is a stereotype that a Kanaka pointing finger perpetuating a stereotype of a Kanaka to another Kanaka is just not right all for the sake of being the one who is morally higher and a display of their intellectual superiority. It is important to note that not only non-kanaka are capable of anti-kanaka racism, but even people from within the community that hold anti-kanaka beliefs. Colonial construction has its roots in such race thinking with a hierarchy Hawaiian system based on race: Kanaka supremacy can be identified as similar to American supremacy where human lives in our society are divided on education or practices and upbringing as layered life experiences and opportunities are still dependent on racial backgrounds as the gateway he explains. What has to be seen is that our racial Hawaiian hierarchy in social circles places Hawaii Kanaka at the top and places farther away lesser informed Kanaka at the bottom, and those that haven’t past the “Test” of Hawaiianess are at the bottom. Himakamaka Hawaiians are those who believe they are above others regardless of their race and heavily way their opinion on such a testing method of more Hawaiian then or who qualifies as how Hawaiian and pushes the idea that the persons trust worthiness is less as well as facts of their opinion due to their not being included to divide Kanaka and Non-Kanaka. Unsurprisingly Americans see the internal strife in social meaures and outcomes of banding Kanaka together to pay a high penalty of those who feel less than included with words like “Unity” and “Fight for the Hui”. Even if all things were equal he states the Hawaiians are still a vulnerable group to social injustice, police arrests, negative mental health outcomes, alleged inferiority, and academic exclusion. Non-Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement groups benefit from anti-Kanaka, not only the Haole and Malahini, which expands to unincluded races that have not been taught about anything authentically Hawaii. Any racial group has the capacity to be anti-kanaka and that is difficult discussion to have for many of us as it is a painful inflicted by our own Kanaka and because it is not being discussed is what provokes me into the beliefs of Anti-Kanaka motivations that dismissal and being thrown away are part of their motive against less Hawaiian acting Kanaka. Hawaii Kanaka are often times complicit in the oppression of their own people and blaming only the foreigners and Americans for racism that they claim doesn’t exist within the community in Hawaii. Kanaka also have a stake in perpetuating the systemic injustice of the Kanaka experience and are not shy to reproduce it under the banner of the Flag of Hawaii as I experienced post-Mauna Kea. If to be Kanaka in the blood and bones is to attribute social strategies of Colonial rule of race against a person through a social structure of power then anti-Kanaka will continue to exist in secret as to being shamed in public will only give more opportunity for the Hawaiian Sovereignty movement to burn another Hawaiian at the stake. I for one am not afraid to be used as that burning example of Kanaka Hypocrisy of claiming to have higher moral standards and beliefs to which ones own behavior does not conform to based on race is equally as racist as the idea of Anti-Kanaka he states.
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