Say Anything Blog

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine asked me if I’d heard anything about Congress designating native Hawaiians has having “special status” under the law.  He wanted me to post on it, and I said I’d look into it and probably write something.  We parted joking about how the Hawaiians should run in terror from “special status” designation given how American Indians have been treated under that designation.

Well I didn’t get around to posting on the subject, but today the Investor’s Business Daily has an editorial covering the issue.

Last Wednesday, the House voted 261-153, with an incredible 39 Republicans in the majority, to approve the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, sponsored by one of Hawaii’s two representatives, Democrat Neil Abercrombie.

The other, Democrat Mazie K. Hirono, says: “This is a historic vote and one that helps to perpetuate righteousness by righting a historic wrong.”

The bill would essentially classify “native Hawaiians” as the rough equivalent of an American Indian tribe, with similar rights to form a separate governing entity with the power to negotiate with state and federal governments over issues such as control of natural resources, lands and assets.

But under the definition of “tribe” established by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, “native Hawaiians do not qualify as a tribe.” The people who make up a tribe must be geographically isolated as a group like, say, the Navaho or Cherokee nations.

The 400,000 or so “native Hawaiians” are interspersed among the general populations of all 50 states. And, unlike American Indians, native Hawaiians didn’t have their lands taken by force but willingly joined the United States.

We’re not sure what “historic wrong” Rep. Hirono wants to righteously correct. This bill, and a similar one sponsored by Hawaii’s other senator, Democrat Daniel Akaka, was spawned by a historically flawed resolution passed in 1993 and signed by President Clinton.

It apologizes for America’s aiding and abetting the overthrow a century earlier of the Native Hawaiian government of Queen Liliuokalani — in effect stealing Hawaii from the Hawaiian people.

Except it didn’t happen quite that way.

This sounds to me like rent-seeking using revisionist history.  But regardless, it seems to me that designating “special status” to Americans of certain races doesn’t exactly live up to the “all men are created equal” principle this country was founded upon.  And, granted, throughout our history that principle has been something we struggled with. 

But we do not promote equality by making some demographics more equal than others.