Hawaiian Apartheid - Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State [Paperback]

Kenneth R. Conklin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2007 | ISBN-10: 1598244612 | ISBN-13: 978-1598244618

This book seeks to awaken the public to the dangers of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. A gathering storm of racial separatism and ethnic nationalism threatens not only the people of Hawaii but the entire United States. The Hawaiian Government Reorganization bill, also known as the "Akaka bill" (currently S.310 and H.R.505), threatens to set a precedent for ethnic balkanization throughout America. It seeks to create a racially exclusionary government using federal and state land and money. Hawaii's independence activists want to rip the 50th star off the flag, either by international efforts or through the economic and political power the Akaka bill would give ethnic Hawaiians as a group. This book begins with an in-depth description and analysis of racial separatism and ethnic nationalism in today's Hawaiian sovereignty movement. Then it analyzes historical grievances, and the junk science of current victimhood claims, fueling the Hawaiian grievance industry. The book analyzes anti-military and anti-American activity. It describes the dangers of claims to indigenous rights, and why those claims are bogus in Hawaii. The book analyzes some Hawaiian sovereignty frauds including a billion dollars in Hawaiian Kingdom government bonds, the "Perfect Title" land title scam, and the "World Court" scam. The closing chapter offers hope for the future, describing an action agenda. Ken Conklin, author, has a Ph.D. in Philosophy. He has lived in Hawaii since 1992. He has devoted full time for 15 years to studying Hawaiian history, culture, and language, and the Hawaiian sovereignty movement; and speaks Hawaiian with moderate fluency. He is a scholar and civil rights activist working to protect unity, equality, and aloha for all. He has published numerous essays in newspapers, appeared on television and radio, taught a course on Hawaiian sovereignty at the University of Hawaii, and maintains a large website.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: E-BookTime, LLC (March 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598244612
• ISBN-13: 978-1598244618
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,546,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Apartheid or Redress, January 25, 2008

By 

Robert H. Command "Bobby" (captain cook, hawaii) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hawaiian Apartheid - Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State (Paperback)

It's an incredibly divisive issue, one that inspires, at best, persuasive and thought provoking discourse, and, at worst, intimidation and violence.
On one side is a diverse and divided constituency united only by a feeling that an injustice has been committed against Native Hawaiians by the presence of the United States. On the other side are those who feel the Native Hawaiian independence movement is a self-serving threat to all people in the United States, including Native Hawaiians.
Kenneth Conklin, a retired professor of philosophy, an outspoken opponent of race-based programs, powerful government and private institutions supporting them, and the current drive for sovereignty.
"Hawaiian Apartheid: Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State" is Conklin's self-published treatise on the "growing menace of Hawaiian racial separatism and ethnic nationalism."
In the book, Conklin describes more than 160 federal programs as racially exclusionary. He says the same about the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Department of Hawaiian Homelands.
"Race-based institutions have grown so powerful they now control Hawaii's political establishment," according to Conklin.
Of particular interest to Conklin is the Akaka Bill, which he calls a plan for racial separatist government. "Most support for the Akaka bill comes from Hawaii's large race-based institutions seeking to protect the vast wealth and political power they already enjoy."
However, Conklin said polls show that two thirds of all Hawaii's people, including about half of the ethnic Hawaiians, oppose the Akaka Bill.
"But the political establishment responds to the money and power of the institutions, and fears to go against a swing-vote of the 20 percent of citizens who have a drop of native blood and are regarded (wrongly) as a monolithic voting bloc."
Haunani-Kay Trask, the first full-time director of Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaii and an internationally recognized advocate of Native Hawaiians and other indigenous people, said Conklin's views are those of a typical right-wing settler who only sees things from his perspective.
"It never dons on him that there was an illegal overthrow of our government, and that the United States -- his beloved government -- has recognized that it violated international law by doing so. This is not a story that is hidden."
Trask, who said she has not read Conklin's book but is very familiar with him and his arguments, said Conklin is motivated by some kind of internal psychological problem. "He's what local people mean when they say, `he like be `sum-ba-de,''" said Trask. "He's just a crude person trying to get into the newspaper."
Conklin says "junk-science" victimhood claims of the Hawaiian grievance industry play upon public sympathy for the "plight" of an allegedly poor, downtrodden ethnic group.
"This argument is advanced by flaunting -- actually celebrating -- victimhood statistics which stereotype all members of the group as sharing the same demeaning racial profile, even when most individuals in the group have low racial blood quantum and are neither poor nor downtrodden," Conklin writes.
"Should we give credence to the highly touted victimhood statistics and thereby racially profile ethnic Hawaiians as poorly educated, impoverished, diseased, drug abusers, spouse abusers, likely to be incarcerated?" said Conklin.
"No doubt some are like that. Perhaps too many are like that," he added. "But most are just like everyone else, loving their families, working hard to pay the bills, getting wealthy or falling into poverty according to their efforts and abilities, and proud to be Americans."
Conklin says government assistance should be based on need alone and not race. "If one racial group is really more needy than others, then it will receive the lion's share of government help when help is provided based on need alone."
But Trask said statistics don't lie, and Native Hawaiians continually show up on the low end of socioeconomic statistics.
"Every year the Department of puts out a list, and every year it says our life expectancy is going down? Why is this?" she said. "We were better off as a nation before white people came here."
Conklin said the "evil empire" also uses historical grievances, many of which are false or grossly exaggerated. The historical grievances and victimhood statistics have even been used successfully in court, where judges relied on them to justify racial segregation at Kamehameha Schools under the guise of affirmative action to remedy past injustices or present deficits.
Trask said history does not lie. "Who forced the overthrow? Who introduced the diseases? Who forced the mahele?" she said. "The problem is, history started when Ken Conlklin arrived in Hawaii. If the federal government has recognized the overthrow, then so should he."

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kenneth Conklin eats sacred cows for breakfast, July 6, 2007

By 

JP Muntal "St.Andre Music" (Honolulu,Hi.USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hawaiian Apartheid - Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State (Paperback)

The self-published "Hawaiian Apartheid" is a controversial work which seeks to expose the Hawaiian sovereignty movement as ethno-political activism fueling racial discord.
Conklin is good at denouncing ethnic posturing and its use for political gain. He argues the Akaka Bill would give ethnic Hawaiians what some say would constitute political supremacy and goes to great length explaining how historical spin is used to influence politics. With focus mainly on the manipulation of language to influence public opinion, the chapters devoted to the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy could have made a solid endictment of historical revisionism. Sadly the author chose to spin the US takeover of 1893 as something most Hawaiians welcomed. There is danger in mixing personal bias with history.
Although filled with verifiable facts the section on history is equally replete with personal and often humoristic observations that seem inappropriate.
Nevertheless an excellent observation and analysis of the contradictions of the Aloha state and a thought-provoking view from one side of an ever widening racial divide.

10 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He's just the messenger, May 1, 2007

By 

Jere H. Krischel (La Canada, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hawaiian Apartheid - Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State (Paperback)

Ken Conklin has done an admirable job over the years researching and reporting on the history of Hawaii, and the falsehoods and myths of the native Hawaiian sovereignty movement. His book represents the collection of years of knowledge seeking, and presents source material that directly refutes the claims of victimhood perpetuated by those who would divide Hawaii on the basis of race.

Reading the reviews from people who disagree with his stance but have obviously never read his work is all too typical of the reaction he has gotten for learning and sharing the truth. The truth is, the Kingdom of Hawaii was unified and founded by both Kamehameha and John Young. The truth is, the Kingdom of Hawaii declared all men to be "of one blood" in its first constitution, and treated the races equally over a hundred years before our own civil rights movement in the U.S.

As to the review which denigrates the Morgan Report and mistakenly cites Kuykendall for support, Kuykendall described Blount's report as a "lawyer's brief, making the best possible case for the queen and against Stevens." The historian said the Morgan Report "presented an equally effective case for the Provisional Government and Stevens, and against the Queen." Regarding assertions that no Hawaiian political activist has ever been violent, one must note both the Wilcox rebellion of 1889 and 1895, as well as the recent violent beating of a young white couple in a parking lot in Hawaii by a native Hawaiian and his family. Common? Thankfully not. Inspired by the hatred that Conklin describes? Certainly so.

For those interested in learning the truth, please, read on. You might also enjoy "Hawaiian Sovereignty:Do the facts matter?" by Thurston Twigg-Smith, and "The Unconquerable Rebel" by Andrade.