I used to have a white Hawai’ian roommate back in the early 90’s when I was living in Los Angeles. His brother was a professional surfer. Somehow this fact has never before come up on this blog. In any case, pretty much everything I know about Hawai’ian culture that doesn’t come from Hollywood, comes from talking to this roommate of mine. As an illustration, one memorable story was about a time when his brother made the mistake of stealing a wave from an ethnic Hawai’ian gentlemen who didn’t take too kindly to it. He literally knocked my roommate’s brother unconscious and left him to drown in the ocean. According to the story, this never would have happened between two ethnic Hawaiians. Yes, they were both natives of Hawai’i, but white people did not steal real Hawai’ian’s waves. In other words, even though Hawai’i is a chill place with many ethnicities that seem to get along very, very well, that doesn’t mean that there is no racial or ethnic tension.
So, that’s the first context. The second context is that racial tensions emerge most openly and most profoundly within the Democratic Party in areas where the party is totally dominant. When John Street was mayor of Philadelphia, white neighborhoods had their snowed plowed last, and when Frank Rizzo was mayor of Philadelphia, black folks had their neighborhoods plowed last. You will see tensions between black and Latino candidates in New York City or Asian and Latino candidates in California.
So, it’s significant that Hawaiian Governor Neil Abercrombie, who is white, chose to ignore Sen. Daniel Inouye’s dying wish that he be replaced by Rep. Colleen Hanabusa and chose his Lieutenant Governor Brian Schatz, instead. Brian Schatz is Jewish, and about as white as that implies. Hanabusa, like Daniel Inouye, is a Hawai’ian of Japanese descent. Hawai’i’s other senator, Mazie Hirono, was actually born in Japan. So, that’s a whole other element to this. There are Japanese-Hawaiians, Hawaiian-Hawaiians, white Hawaiians, and even Kenyan-Kansan-Hawaiians.
Rep. Colleen Hanabusa is going to run for Daniel Inouye’s seat against the incumbent, Brian Schantz. I have no idea who will win, but I suspect that it will create some tensions on the islands.
From a progressive point of view, I don’t see much to pick between them, and that also might make it less of an ideological battle than an ethnic one. There are a couple of somewhat sketchy things in Hanabusa’s past, but nothing that looks too major.
As of now, I have no dog in this fight. We are going to have a lot of turnover in the Senate soon, and next year is going to be very interesting. Most eyes will not be on this primary, but it could matter quite a bit. Sen. Inouye served in the Senate for 49 years. Sen. Daniel Akaka served in Congress for 36 years.
So, keep your eyes open.
