Kill Haole Day

Kill Haole Day is an annual event that has occurred in some Hawaiian schools. On the last day of school before summer vacation, non-white students are said to harass and sometimes attack white students.[1]

In his 2009 book, lawyer and former Hawaiʻi governor Ben Cayetano wrote that "Kill Haole Day" began as a news story headline about an incident between haole and local (not just Hawaiian) students. After that, "whenever there was a fight or an incident between haole and non-haole students, the news media," and newspaper editorial boards, "repeatedly reprised 'Kill Haole Day' in their news stories." [2]

In 1999, School Superintendent Paul LeMahieu said he was aware of "kill haole day" but not aware of any recent incidents. Also, in 1999, it became an issue for hate crimes legislation.[3]

Newspaper columnist Lee Cataluna wrote in 2010, "In terms of actual, first-person, eyewitness accounts of Kill Haole Day, no one had any [incidents] that happened in the last three decades. Not one teacher, not one police officer, not one victim or perpetrator."[4]

On December 31, 2008, the U.S. Department of Education released a report that concluded there was "substantial evidence that students experienced racially and sexually derogatory name-calling on nearly a daily basis on school buses, at school bus stops, in school hallways and other areas of the school."

The report also concluded that school officials responded inadequately or not at all when students complained of racial harassment. Students who did complain were retaliated against by their antagonists.[5]

See also

References

  1. Community Relations Commission. "Kill Haole Day". New community. 7–8: 267. ISSN 0047-9586. OCLC 615546790. My students talked of the High Schools' 'Kill Haole Day' when a day in the school year was dedicated to roughing up the whites.
  2. Cayetano, Ben. Ben: A Memoir, From Street Kid to Governor (Watermark, 2009), p. 531
  3. "'Kill haole day' linked to hate-crime bill".
  4. Catalune, Lee (November 23, 2010). "Responses refute existence of any recent 'Kill Haole Day'". Honolulu Advertiser.
  5. Southern Poverty Law Center,. "Hawaii Suffering From Racial Prejudice".


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