Dog Chapman & other race issues in Hawaii

Dog Chapman, the bounty hunter of European-American ancestry, had a problem with his son dating an African-American woman.

This is what he said

http://starbulletin.com/2007/11/01/news/story01.html

Chapman: Don't care if she's a Mexican, a whore, whatever. It's not 'cause she's black. It's because we use the word "n_____" sometimes here. I'm not going to take a chance ever in life by losing everything I've worked for for 30 years for some f____ n_____ heard us say "n_____" and turned us in to the Enquirer magazine -- our career is over. I'm not taking that chance at all, never in life, never. Never. ... If Lyssa was dating a n_____, we would all say f___ you. And you know that. If Lyssa brought a black guy home ... It's not that they're black. It's none of that. It's that we use the word "n____." We don't mean "you f___ scum n_____ without a soul." We don't mean that s___, but America would think we're meaning that. And we're not taking a chance and losing everything we've got over a racial slur. Because our son goes with a girl like that, I can't do that, Tucker, you can't expect Garry, Bonnie, Cecily, all them young kids ... 'cause I'm in love for seven months, I ... f___ that. ... So I'll help you get another job, but you cannot work here unless you break up with her and she's out of your life. I can't handle that s___. I've got 'em in the parking lot trying to record us. I've got that girl saying she's going to wear a recorder. ...

Dog Chapman needs to be a mature adult already! He should've stop saying the word n----- a long time ago!

And anyone who is against any inter-racial dating is NOT a mature person!

People say "this is just a private conversation". I say "Anything you say CAN and WILL be used against you".

This incident is a reminder to all of us to be mature in everything we say AT ALL TIMES! If you still use racist words in private conversations, you better stop NOW because others will eventually find out! NOTHING is secret anymore!

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This is what Charles Memminger said about Chapman's racist rants.

http://starbulletin.com/2007/11/04/features/memminger.html

"We use the word n---- here," Chapman says on the tape. The "we" part is rather alarming. Like it's just part of a day in the life with the Chapmans: "We do the laundry. We eat lunch. We use the word n----. We vacuum." He tells his son on the tape he doesn't want to see the fact that "we" use that word end up in the Enquirer and then see his career go down the toilet. The I-word -- irony -- doesn't quite capture the fact that that is exactly what is happening.

Cathy Wi said the following idiotic statements

http://starbulletin.com/2007/11/11/editorial/letters.html (scroll to 3rd letter from the top)

I am so sick and tired of how thin-skinned this world has become! So "Dog" Chapman made those remarks. So what? He was in the privacy of his own home. How is this any different from using slurs for any other ethnic group? It seems that whenever the N-word is spoken, we are suppose to cringe and say, "Shame on you racist," yet it's OK to call everyone else names. No, I don't buy that. Why should Dog apologize? Apologize to whom? He's being treated too harshly. There are far worse things one could do.

Cathy Wi
Honolulu

Anytime I hear crap like that, I know that person is a hardcore racist! Cathy Wi is using coded words to express "how dare black people ask for respect".

I'm assuming from her last name that Wi is an Asian person. It's easy for Cathy Wi complain about others being "thin-skinned" because she's in a mostly Asian-American environment. She takes her majority status for granted!

If Cathy Wi is that insensitive towards African-Americans, then I wonder how she feels about Polynesians, Micronesians, Arabs, Mexicans, Russians, etc?

If Cathy Wi was growing up in communities in which Asians were less than 1% of the population, she would be mocked endlessly. People would tell her to "go back to China". They would go up to her face and yell at her in a fake Asian accent. They would call her "slant eyes", "chow fun" and other racist insults! This would happen EVERYDAY! I wonder how thick-skinned will she be then!

2) Even with all the controversies of Dog Chapman's statements, the brutal beating of a European-American couple in Waikele, and the murder of a European-American student in Nanakuli earlier this year, I still thought the most under-reported racial story in Hawaii was the persecution of immigrants.

When a European-American or African-American faces discrimination, they know how to contact the media or sympathetic organizations. However, when an immigrant from Micronesia or Asia faces discrimination, they are reluctant to speak to anyone due to a language barrier. So it gets under-reported!

However, recent articles in the Star Bulletin and Honolulu Advertiser reported on this issue!

The following article report on the return of gang warfare in Hawaii.

http://starbulletin.com/2007/10/28/news/story01.html

State law enforcement, education and human service officials say they offer enough services to stop children from entering gangs, disband current groups and avoid chaos. Although public school fights are up, officials argue they are not as violent or as frequent as in the late 1980s and early '90s.

Deborah Spencer-Chun, who heads Adult Friends for Youth, said employees build relationships with gang leaders to learn about brewing fights. But, she said, they are increasingly unable to answer campus disturbances on time.

"Sometimes it takes a real crisis before anybody responds to it," she said. "People don't want to believe there are gangs in those neighborhoods just like people don't want to say there are gangs in Hawaii. This is paradise, this is where most of our economy comes from tourism."

The following day, the Star Bulletin had another article on the gang issue. This articles mentions more about the alienation some immigrant teens feel in Hawaii schools.

http://starbulletin.com/2007/10/29/news/story01.html

Neglected by parents who work multiple jobs, students from poor families often join gangs because they feel inferior and see no future in education, said Sid Rosen, who retired this year as head of Adult Friends for Youth, a nonprofit that works with gangs in Hawaii. Gangs are formed along ethnic lines but also by students who share housing projects or street blocks, he said.

"They are living essentially in what is an urban ghetto. If you live in Kalihi, you see yourself as being different than someone who lives in Hawaii Kai," Rosen explained. "The rich haoles live in Hawaii Kai and Kahala, and us poor Filipinos live in Kalihi and us poor Samoans live in Kuhio Park Terrace. ... These boundaries get established."

In the past four years, the Susannah Wesley center has seen about 200 student dropouts, most of them immigrants from outlying islands of Micronesia, the Philippines, Samoa or Tonga, said Stanley Inkyo, the center's youth services administrator.

Families bring their children to Hawaii for a better education, but many parents get stuck with low-paying jobs or end up living in the street and unable to help their kids adjust to the new school setting, Inkyo said.

Aggravating the issue is an influx of Micronesian students in Hawaii's public schools which has nearly doubled in the past five years to 2,558, according to the state Department of Education. The department held a conference for 1,000 educators during the summer to help teachers understand and work better with those students.

"One of the things you'll notice here, and I don't think anybody wants to say it publicly, there's a lot of the racial differences, or the ethnic differences that tend to magnify" the gang issue, Inkyo said, saying Filipino students often clash with those from Micronesia. "There's that kind of uneasiness."

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I once mentioned that the most under-reported issue in Hawaii was the conflict between Asian immigrants (many from China, Vietnam and Phillipines) and Polynesians. Since then, I've noticed that Micronesians were having conflicts with Polynesians and Asians.

The Honolulu Advertiser had an article about Micronesians facing discrimination when looking for a place to live

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Nov/12/ln/hawaii711120352.html

They say blatant as well as subtle housing discrimination against new Micronesian immigrants and longtime residents alike continues to go largely unchecked. They also say it goes largely unreported because of fears about coming forward, language barriers and a lack of services to address the need."

It seems to be getting worse," added Maria Narruhn, a founding member of Micronesians United, which has been trying to address housing discrimination, but whose resources are limited.

Narruhn said she knows 10 families who have been turned away from rentals on the market in the last year, and were likely discriminated against. Some of the cases involved the landlord actually saying Micronesians weren't welcome.

She believes two of her own family members were also victims of housing discrimination, including her son-in-law, who inquired about a one-bedroom for $995 and was told, when he looked at the unit, that the rent had jumped to $1,020.

(skipped paragraphs)

The first lawsuit Kokua Legal Services filed as part of the project involved a landlord, who was advertising a two-bedroom unit in 'Aiea. According to court documents, a Micronesian tester at Kokua Legal Services called the 'Aiea landlord to inquire about the apartment and was told it was not available. The landlord also told the caller that he had no other units available, the documents allege.

Fifteen minutes later, a Caucasian tester at Kokua Legal Service called the landlord to inquire about the apartment and was told it was available. The landlord also allegedly told the tester he had other rentals that were empty.

(skipped paragraphs)

Kokua Legal Services filed its second lawsuit as part of the project in September, alleging that two landlords who were renting a North King Street unit for $2,000 a month discriminated against a Micronesian tester, then offered the unit to a Caucasian caller.

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BUSTED! Those landlords need to be publicly humiliated! Those landlords need to grow up, start being more mature, learn to accept diversity, modernity & globalization!

I graduated from a "dropout factory"?

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University researched the graduation rates of various high schools in the U.S.

Those whose graduation rates were less than 60% were labeled "dropout factories".

My high school, McKinley High School was one of them.

http://starbulletin.com/2007/10/30/news/story01.html

A national report is labeling seven Oahu public high schools as "dropout factories," meaning that no more than 60 percent of freshmen make it to their senior year.
Hawaii ranked 11th among the states reporting the most dropout factories in an analysis of Education Department data conducted by Johns Hopkins University for the Associated Press.

The state Education Department disputed the findings, noting that Hawaii ninth-graders tend to fall behind and inflate freshman enrollment. So comparing the number of freshman and seniors at any given year to determine dropout and graduation rates is misleading, said Education Department spokesman Greg Knudsen.

The percentage of isle freshmen who move on to their senior year at the schools highlighted in the report ranged from 45 percent at Nanakuli High and Intermediate to 60 percent at Kailua High. The other schools facing dropout problems include Farrington, Kaimuki, McKinley, Waianae and Waipahu, according to the study released yesterday. Those schools all have a large number of minority and low-income students.

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Going to a school labeled a "dropout factory" DOES NOT mean you're "dumb". It just means too many of your classmates aren't graduating.

1) My alma mater McKinley has a lot of high achievers. There are students who excel in math meets, science fairs, robotics, and other academic areas. Many go on to colleges with great reputations.

However, at the same time, there are other students at the school who are gang-affiliated, as well as wanabee thugs, and other non-achievers. What I mean by non-achievers is those students who don't even try to reach their potential in academics.

I remembered when I attended that school, there were students who were freshmen the same year I was, but by the start of my senior year, a lot of those students were gone! The overwhelming # of those students were non-achievers, so it was obvious that they dropped out of school.

Some of them were already falling behind in middle school. For some reason, they were academically promoted to high school, which tends to grade a lot harder than middle school. So some of them gave up!

2) some have questioned the formula used by the Johns Hopkins researchers to determine what school is a "dropout factory"

Here is a commentary from a teacher at Kaimuki High School (also labeled a "dropout factory")

http://starbulletin.com/2007/10/31/editorial/letters.html (scroll down to the 2nd letter from top)

I am appalled that you published findings from a John Hopkins University report labeling seven Hawaii high schools as "dropout factories" (Star-Bulletin, Oct. 30). If you did your homework, you would have found out that the study assumes that any student who does not graduate from the same high school he or she enters into as a freshman is a dropout. This is so far from the truth. I am a teacher at Kaimuki High School, and we have an extremely transient population. Many students enter as freshmen but later move to the mainland or back to their home country and graduate there. They should not be labeled as dropouts.

Kaimuki High has similar demographics to McKinley (Lot of immigrants, mostly Asians, also has many Polynesians and Micronesians), though Kaimuki High  has more European-Americans than McKinley. McKinley has more Filipinos than  Kaimuki High Other than that, both schools are almost alike.

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And here are commentaries from the principals of Waipahu & Farrington High Schools (also labeled "dropout factories"). Both schools are majority Filipino, with some Samoans and Micronesians. Many of them are immigrants, and many are from low-income households.

http://starbulletin.com/2007/11/04/editorial/commentary.html

Farrington and Waipahu each enrolls more than 2,500 young people. Our students come from diverse cultural and language backgrounds. Approximately 20 percent of our students are learning to speak English while simultaneously endeavoring to meet challenging graduation requirements. Both of our schools receive federal funds because 48 percent to 60 percent of our families have incomes low enough to qualify for government assistance. The Johns Hopkins researchers should be familiar with the multitude of studies that link family income to student achievement. Many of our students face overwhelming personal challenges, yet they persist in working toward a future that will be better than their present lives.

Because so many students enter our campuses with academic deficits, we have developed a number of different paths that support the goal of a high school diploma. We have alternative programs within our schools and off-campus partnerships with others in the community. Some students take more than four years to earn their diplomas, but we do not consider them dropouts. Other students who must spend most of their time with us learning English are not able to complete the traditional high school diploma requirements. However, we work with the Community Schools for Adults that are on our campuses to transition these students to the adult diploma programs. They are not dropouts -- they are overcoming great odds to persist in reaching their goal.

(skipped paragraphs)

As the standards for a diploma continue to move more toward requiring all students to be prepared for entry to a four-year college, we can expect to see an increasing need for alternatives for many of our students. Those who take alternative paths are not dropouts and the schools that support them are not "dropout factories." When we consider those who complete their requirements in more than four years, or who transition to the Community Schools and earn a diploma, our completion rates are higher.

So, based on what the school officials from Kaimuki, Waipahu and Farrington said, Johns Hopkins researchers didn't take into account 1) the large # of students who move in & out of the school districts, 2) the large amount of students who take longer than 4 years to earn their diplomas, 3) the large amount of students who are recent immigrants who trying to learn high school material in a new language.

3) Even with the flaws of the Johns Hopkins research, the good thing about it is that it brings awareness of the problem of students who aren't living up to their academic potential, and awareness of which schools are facing more problems than others.

I work in the educational field to help students live up to their potential. I don't take the Johns Hopkins report personally, it shall motivate and remind me of what I need to do to help our students achieve.