ʻAʻole SFFA! I Mua Kamehameha!
Two days ago, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), a conservative, anti-Affirmative Action organization based on the continental U.S., announced their attack on Kamehameha Schools Admissions Policy, launching a website “KamehamehaNotFair.org” to mask their white supremacist logic as a “campaign” for stories of “inequality” and “unfair” practices. As an alumna of the K–12 Hawaiian culture-based school, I am not surprised by this latest manifestation of coloniality. This is yet another attack on Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty, and it is completely in alignment with this countryʻs historical oppression of Native knowledge systems and livelihoods. Although the Lāhui Hawaiʻi should certainly be concerned by this attack on an educational institution that serves a significant proportion of Native Hawaiian students, families, and communities, the subsequent outpouring of aloha for Kamehameha Schools is an indicator that Kānaka Hawaiʻi are ready to mobilize and protect their inherent right to self-education.
As expected, SFFA is targeting Kamehameha’s sizable endowment and assets as a means to achieve “fairness” for those “wronged” by Kamehameha’s admissions policy. This makes clear their true intentions. This is a settler move to seize land. It is an attempt to claim resources for Kānaka that are meant to address inequitable realities due to colonization. This is not about injustice toward white students. ʻAʻole SFFA!
In response to this hewa action, Kamehameha alumni launched social media campaigns of their own. Kamehamehaisfair.com began with an intention to educate the public about history of Kamehameha’s founding and to counter SFFA’s false claims. A petition on Change.org was also started to support Kamehameha Schools’ current admissions policy and preserve Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop’s mission and vision.
I am honored, proud, and grateful to be an alumna of Kamehameha Schools – Kapālama. Beyond this ongoing assault about “who” can attend this institution, we, as a Lāhui Hawaiʻi, must also be vigilant of the layered ideologies and discourses circulating online and in homes and schools. We must prepare ourselves for a reality in which white supremacists and colonizers will question “what” is taught at this institution and “how” it is taught. We must remain firm in this moment, knowing that concessions of any degree at this point in the attack will only give way to new forms of oppression in order to eliminate Indigenous education in Hawai’i. We cannot stand by and let this play out only in the courts. We must disrupt while supremacy in our homes by reframing this movement for Pauahi as more than “keeping Kamehameha Hawaiian.” It is about our right to live Indigenous lives and to continue to speak our language and live according to our cultural life ways. It is about transmitting Native Hawaiian values and practices to our children and children’s children.
To the Lāhui Hawaiʻi, this fight is only beginning. We have been waging this war for generations, and we must continue to listen to our ʻike kūpuna for directions on how to win. In the words of Pauahi: “Times will come when you feel you are being pushed into the background. Never allow this to happen. Stand always on your own foundation. But you will have to make that foundation. There will come a time when to make this stand will be difficult, especially to you of Hawaiian birth, but conquer you can — if you will.”
