Michelle Malkin and Hawaii

I sometimes wonder what the outsider’s opinion of Hawaii is. We sometimes see it depicted in movies, where kanaka maoli are reduced to background figures or buffoonish clowns. Recently, I’ve been following the talk show pundit, Michelle Malkin and read her opinions of Hawaii. She certainly has no love lost for our islands.

According to “The State of Hawaii Moves to Censor a Cartoon,” an article written by Michelle Malkin, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement is, a “grievance-mongering movement.” Of course, this doesn’t take into account of history, facts or reality. In fact, this is a classic right-wing smear: call your opponent some crazy, vile epithet and you will reduce them to mumbling idiots. For example, there is always the trap, “Hey, have you stopped beating your wife?” If you answer, “I haven’t,” you look like an idiot. If you answer, “no,” you look like an idiot. This is what Malkin is doing. Reducing the Hawaiian Sovereignty movement to “grievance-mongerers” is Ms. Malkin outlining the narrative. We can either respond with epithets ourselves or ignore it and try to set her straight. Of course, she won’t be interested in hearing what we have to say. Her mind is made up.

In a more recent article entitled, “Nuttiness in Hawaii: Ethnic separatists take over palace” by Michelle Malkin, Native Hawaiians are described as secessionists and ethnic separatists. First, the sovereignty movement cannot be described as secessionists, the premise of the movement is that the Hawaiian Kingdom was never overthrown, that it still exists to this day. You cannot secede from something you are not a part of. Secondly, “ethnic separatists?” The kingdom of Hawai`i was not built on separation, it included everyone, including haoles. However, she claims that these separatists “took over a historic palace…” The way she writes it, Iolani Palace is just some palace, like there are hundreds of them scattered throughout Hawaii. Clearly, she doesn’t really understand what has occurred. Instead, she takes large quotes from Malia Zimmerman’s report, and then regurgitates her opinion over the report. She sums up her “report” by saying, “P.C [Political Correctness)] virus isn’t contained to the Mainland.”

Despite what Ms. Malkin’s opinions are about Hawaii and the sovereignty movement, she is just a tip of the iceberg when it comes to people’s opinions about Hawaii. The comments left on her blog are equally as vile, if not surpassing it altogether. The opinions of her readers degenerate into sad name calling. If we, the students of Hawaiian Studies ever want to understand how we are perceived, please read the comments in her blog. One person wrote, “There [In Hawaii] is a separatist movement encouraged by the weak-minded and apologetic-for-all-things western, but western civilization did not achieve its dominance and brilliance through timidity and surrender.” A link from Malkin’s blog led me to this nugget, “Yet another inferior culture having a go at the fallen children of giants.” Levi from Queens

This is what we are up against. We must realize that we have to come together because people like Michelle Malkin, people who have access to powerful media outlets, are out to destroy us and will not relent until we give up. So, don't give up.

Michelle Malkin
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"Ethnic grievance-mongerers"


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