Finding the Inner Balance (Feature) New Plans in the Works for Houston’s ‘Old Chinatown’ (in National News) APA Suspects Sought in Hate-Related Assault (in Bay Area News) Ultimate Diversions: ‘Warcraft III’: Blizzard Does it Again (in Business) Johnny Damon Key in Ending Yankees Dynasty (in Sports) Hot ‘n’ Sour Dish: Barbie Food, Anyone? (in A&E) Emil Amok: The Great Yellow Hope (in Opinion)

We’re Not Worthy

I first came across Hawaiian activist Haunani-Kay Trask’s work one tranquil summer in Oregon. I was a publishing intern at a small press that published her first book of poetry, Light in the Crevice Never Seen. Trask’s heady mix of tropical image and angry indictment went straight to my head. The next fall I was working in curriculum support in the Philadelphia school district where I helped with professional training for teachers around Pacific Islander history and spent months learning — for the first time ever, since my history books always seemed to exclude it — about the annexation of Hawai‘i in 1893. The Hawaiian sovereignty movement and its dedicated fight against American colonization and the giant evil of tourism taught me a great deal. Many of my early realizations about America’s imperialism came from my interest in the Hawaiian movement. Reading Trask’s words also helped me understand the complexity of imperialism and how my childhood upper-middle class, luxury Hawaiian vacations were part of the system. (I have since vowed never to return to Hawai‘i unless I can go in solidarity with the people.) It’s strange, I feel that Trask has been a real teacher to me even though we have never met.

So, you can imagine my excitement when I heard that Trask was reading at wonderful Asian Pacific American bookstore Eastwind Books in Berkeley. (Read about the event on page 22.) I wish I could relay here the depth of her fierceness and also the depth of her sorrow. Trask stated sadly that the sovereignty movement is in a state of decline, if not completely defunct. All gains that Native Hawaiians had made in the past 10 years — which includes set-asides in schools, jobs and land — have since been attacked by lawsuits from organized conservative groups like the Campaign for a Colorblind America, who call these programs unconstitutional. “You assert that you are indigenous … and they call you racist,” Trask said. “American’s don’t like the idea that they are settlers.”

One of the things I admire most about Trask is her integrity and her unapologetic anger. At her Berkeley appearance she said, “I am in a constant state of rage. [The tourist industry] is the cutting edge of imperial racism. You become the artifact of someone else’s Disney vacation.” I have heard criticisms of Trask that bash her for her unrelenting anger, but I understand it is her love for her home and her people that allows her to take on the anger that has been fueling this struggle. I encourage everyone to look into the Hawaiian sovereignty movement and to really think about the connections between U.S. militarization of places like Hawai‘i and the tourist industry. It is only in the sharing of this struggle that we may lift the burden for each other’s backs.

—Neela Banerjee