Posted by
Sanity 102 on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 6:04:02 AM
We heard the stories about "Haoles" (Whites) and what they did to "our" people. But we were the generation of equals--and the days of second class citizenship was long past.
I began with the view that "America" had the perfect right to make the rules and decide who comes here and for how long. I wanted the wall and I wanted all foreigners carded.
Then the rhetoric got hot and the language ugly.
I started to remember that the people who founded this nation were English "law breakers". And that the four border states was home to Mexicans and that it was the White Americans that came "uninvited and stayed".
I remember the day the Berlin wall came down. It had been such a symbol of tyranny and fear, that when ordinary people pulled and tore it apart with their bare hands, it was as though humanity was scratching and clawing to let light and air through.
And now we, the nation of immigrants, want to build our own wall, complete with barbed wire and guards with orders to shoot to kill.
I've heard all about "losing our national identity" and how we will end up with a multi-cultural population--and I thought "What's wrong with that?"
I come from a state that has lived such a multi-cultural existance for over a century. For the most part, we get along fine. In fact the only time there was strong racial tension was when the Whites declared martial law over a false allegation of rape of a military wife by a local "savage". The papers had whipped up such a frenzy of racial hatred that by the time the truth came out, the courts didn't dare imprison the husband and his friends who had lynched one of the alleged rapist.
I hadn't thought about this well known case (the Massie Affair) in years. It had been made into a couple of movies and numerous books had been written about it. Truthfully, I shrugged it off as something that happened in the PAST...like the KKK's treatment of Blacks before the civil rights movement.
But the anger and hate of many illegal immigration absolutists, their calls for "justice"...the talk about diseases brought by "these" people...their poverty like that in itself was a crime...their lack of education...the "them" vs. "us"...it all sounded so familiar.
**
Several years ago, I got into a very heated discussion in a professional downtown office building. So heated that one of the building guards came over to ask if we ladies needed...uh...some help?
My colleague was part Hawaiian who thought that "our" people SHOULD be given priority to make up for what the Haoles (Whites) did (steal our kingdom). My feeling was that the privileges had to be paid by someone and I didn't appreciate my tax dollars going for privileges for something that happened over a hundred years ago. Then she said something that really set me off; she implied that Hawaiian children needed a leg up to compete against the rich Haoles that got wealthy on our aina (land). I told her that I found it insulting to say that Hawaiian children need help to compete against children of other races.
I told her it was unfair to her other races to focus only on the race that will give her priviledges--a fact that upset HER.
As I said, it was a very heated "discussion".
I've thought about Margaret alot these past few weeks...and this particular incident.
Whole generations have been raised without being angry at the White folks. Margaret, like Jesse Jackson, may have class envy but I doubt if either have experience real racism. For a long time, they were the minority..may still be.
But things are changing...freedom of speech has consequences...and the price of all this anger and hatred for a minority group...may be to remind people of why past generations were angry at White Americans.
**
Now before anyone goes off ... I am not saying that all of a sudden I hate Whites and Americans; that would be kind of ridiculous considering the racial mixture of my family.
What I am saying is that it has taken whole generations to forget the past--and a few thoughtless words said in the heat of the moment to bring it all back.