08-23-2015, 09:22 AM
quote:
Originally posted by shockwave rider
MT View dude: "The "beatings for speaking hawaiian" seem to be on the scale of a spanking and not real violence. I am sorry, but I do not consider "rapped on the head by a teacher" to be on the same level as "beaten"."
You carefully leave out the deprived of food and not allowed to return home to family as punishment for speaking your own language part of the narrative, can you imagine being punished for speaking you own language by being deprived of seeing your family for months on end? These are exactly the methods used by missionaries in the Native American boarding schools to destroy the Native American cultures and turn the younger generation into what the missionaries defined as "productive citizens". Wrenching children away from their families and culture, and physically punishing them for speaking their own language, is "real violence" to individuals and to a culture. Sorry you were beaten as a child for having the wrong skin color, but that does not justify what was done by the government and missionaries to an entire people to ensure they were the ones in power, and that the Hawaiians would have no voice in government in the new system.
The Hawaiian Kingdom went from non literate, without a written language, to being the most literate nation on the planet in one generation; when the official language was changed to English, and schools imposed an English only policy in the education, they became "illiterate" again in terms of being able to use the language of the government and business. What better way to disenfranchise a whole people than to switch the language from one they read and write to one only the conquering elite use, and then make sure they punished for using the language their families and the Hawaiian Kingdom had used for the business of government? If you can't read, speak, or write in the language of government, you can't participate in that government.
This is the crux of the issue, because the government in question was both the Hawaiian Kingdom and the Republic of Hawaii.
The kings and queens modeled themselves after european royalty. Kamehameha III opened english language schools and made english a preference. Kamehameha himself started the breakdown of hawaiian culture and kapu system. Kamehameha's son and wife practically destroyed the Hawaiian religion.
It is really disingenuous to throw all that blame on the republic when the kingdom was as much as fault. However, you can't blame the kingdom without losing the claim to that kingdom, so it becomes missionary and government.
If that is the worst example one can come up with to show how the hawaiian language was banned by beatings, then it's better to stick with the "beaten for speaking" hawaiian bit.
The funny part is the state of hawaii has been a better steward of Hawaiian language, culture, religion then the Kingdom of Hawaii ever was. If only the sovereignty supporters were 1/10 as critical of themselves and OHA/DHHL then they are of the state.
I do see one side committing a lot of illegal acts, disrepect and falsehoods and it isn't the state.