l/637 )(jJ~ 263 HAOLE MATTERS: AN INTERROGATION OF WHITENESS IN HAWAI'I A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DMSION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I IN PARTIAL FULFULLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN POLITICAL SCIENCE AUGUST 2005 By Judy L. Rohrer Dissertation Committee: Kathy E. Ferguson, Chairperson Phyllis Turnbull Noenoe K. Silva Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller David Stannard iii © Copyright 2005 by Judy L. Rohrer All Rights Reserved iv This work is dedicated with respect and aloha to the women who were, and are my inspiration ­ my grandmother, mother, and niece: Estella Acevedo Kasnetsis (1908-1975) Georgia Kasnetsis Acevedo (1938- ) Ho'ohila Estella Kawelo (2002-) v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is impossible to thank all who contributed to this dissertation. I can only send a heartfelt mahalo out into the universe and trust it will light in the right places. For their unwavering support and guidance through this process, I thank my outstanding committee. My chair, Kathy Ferguson has been both friend and mentor, nurturing my theoretical growth, challenging stale thinking, and encouraging curiosity over moralizing. For all the parts of this dissertation that deal with Hawaiian culture and history and so many more, I am indebted to Noenoe Silva for her close read, gentle corrections, suggested sources, and inquisitive questions. Phyllis Turnbull has been my compass, always to the point ("rein itin, Bubba") and unfailingly supportive in times of doubt (''Breathe deeply. There is a god and she is still on our side"). Jon Goldberg~Hiller introduced me to critical legal theory and made the revolutionary s~ggestion that I defend ahead of schedule. David Stannard went beyond the call to help secure a book contract while I was still in the midst of writing. Thank you to Louise Kubo and Shivani (Mala) Chakravorty at the Office for Women's Research humoring me and being my faithful comrades while I completed my coursework. Haunani-Kay Trask went out of her way to show her support from the early stages of this project and gave me powerful inspiration. RaeDeen M. Keahiolalo Karasuda was my number one on~the"groundTeam Judy member, and with Lia O'Neil Keawe, we formed an on-line dissertating support squad. Kathie Kane, Vilsoni Hereniko, Ku'umealoha Gomes, and Neal Milner helped in thinking and rethinking the project. Noenoe Silva's Hawai'i Politics class Spring 2003 became an invaluable intellectual and political community as I prepared for my comprehensive exams and the u.S. went to war vi (again). Thank you to Carole Keala Moon, John Stanley, and Mia Lam who helped me navigate the administrative process, often from 2,500 miles away. Kyle Kajihiro kept it real and provided me with an activist home at the American Friends Service Committee's Hawai'i Area office. His translation of an earlier version of my title (Mis-Representations: Deconstructing Haole Identity and Discourse in Hawai/i) lived tacked above my desk in Moili/ili, Oakland and Goleta and never failed to bring a smile: "No Ack!: Hau fo Brek Daun Awl Da Kain Haole Bu'shit." Lisa Arellano read drafts, asked provocative questions, shared resources, fed mind and body, and provided almost daily support. Carolyn DiPalma gave· sage advice, helped make theory work, and often provided me with many templates to follow. Ruth Wilson Gilmore opened up a whole new disciplinary lens for me by introdUcing me to critical social geography. My deepest gratitude to them. The faculty and staff at the University of California Santa Barbara's Women's Studies program were incredibly generous of their time, wisdom and resources. Their interest in the project and critical support in the last year supplied just the push I needed to ride to shore. Mahalo nui to Eileen Boris, Leila Rupp, Laury Oaks, Grace Chang, Jessica Far, and Lou Anne Lockwood. Francisca James Hernandez was the best fellowship partner a pre-doc could hope for. Mahalo to Maricela DeMirjyn for helping me think through my relationship to my project in the context of postdoc applications and orienting me to UCSB. And thanks to Julie Dowling for befriending me and helping create a small UCSB community.. Vll In addition to the UCSB Women's Studies Program, I received much needed financial support in the form of the following awards: Norman Meller Graduate Award from the UH Political Science Department, Nobumoto Tanahashi Peace Scholarship Award from the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace, and a travel grant from the UH Graduate Student Organization. Good friend Eva Moravcik stepped forward in the eleventh hour and offered her considerable editorial skill proofreading the final copy. My amazing community of friends Provided encouragement, interest, and levity throughout. Thanks to Helen Miller, Nancy Ferreyra, Jill Martin, Terry Boland, Deanna Dechaine, Paul Renne, Stephanie Feeney, Nahua Patrinos, Tim Saunders, Isabelle Izquierdo, Elisabeth Friedman, Ruchel Ramos, Lisa Wahl, Renee Gorevin, Laura Blackman, Tina Marie Fronsdal, Jennifer Lemmons, Sam Diener, Sri Menon, and Bree Sieplinga. Andi Mazzone and Randy Shields helped me feel connected to the world beyond my laptop through gifts, emails, and trips. Betty Mazzone, and the whole Mazzone clan, showed love and unflagging Midwest hospitality providing me much needed respites from the writing. My father, Marv Rohrer, has always believed in me and showed unfailing pride in my work. My brother, Joby Rohrer, and sister-in-law Kapua Kawelo taught me to appreciate the 'rona and the ocean in new ways and gave so much love over the years. Their children,Kanehoalani and Holohila, were more important to me than they will ever know - they embody hope for haole. My mother, Georgia Kasnetsis Acevedo, told me about taking her typewriter into the stacks at UCLA when she was writing her dissertation ­ which is also about issues of racialization and identity - reminding me of my significant technological privilege and the legacy of women scholars before me. viii She also told me stories of her life and the lives of her parents - stories of immigration, racialization, identification, and border crossings. She provided more supportthan an army of R.A.s and was my constant companion in the research, sharing my curiosity, political commitment, and hope for social justice. My partner, Dorrie Mazzone, somehow remained interested in haole me for these long years of reading, rereading, listening, questioning, and believing in me even when I had lost faith. She kept me focused on what was important, showed me so much love, and could always point to the light at the end of the tunnel. This dissertation would not have been possible without her and I am eternally grateful. ix ABSTRACT Haole (popularly understood as white people or whiteness in Hawai'i) ­ now the largest and arguably most powerful socio-political influence in the islands - has gone largely unexamined, especially when contrasted to the extensive interrogation of native Hawaiian identity in both popular and academic discourse. Powerful state institutions including the media, academia, business and government, foment debate over who is native Hawaiian, what rights Hawaiians have, and what Hawaiians want. This singular obsession with Hawaiians has historically deflected attention from haole, normalizing and dehistoricizing the status quo, and working to naturalize haole in Hawai'i. This dissertation changes that frame, inverting the gaze and making haole subjectivity and power the problem. It explores how haole has come to matter: the ways it is reproduced across time and space, and relationally; the power it accrues; the possibilities of rearticulating it differently; and the openings produced in its simultaneity with other identities. By interrogating haole, I illuminate some of the processes behind the Hawaiian-haole paradox, and in doing so, produce a case study of situated whiteness within a neo-colonial American context. As a feminist political theorist, I provoke new cross-pollinations ~egarding how haole matters by creating a problem-specific method utilizing a diversity of texts and theoretical approaches. I consult as my data sources: popular works, public controversies, and debates about haole; academic inquiries into Hawai'i's history and politics; my experience as haole; and legal cases. I analyze these materials through the lenses of Hawaiian history, feminist theory, critical legal theory, whiteness studies, critical social geography and indigenous studies. x The dissertation has five core chapters: colonization and haole hegemony; constructions of haole (by haoles, Hawaiians and locals); production of haole in the law (focusing on the recent Rice v. Cayetano U.S. Supreme Courtdecision); survey of literature and models for destabilizing whiteness; and intersectional and genealogical approaches to rearticulating haole. Structurally, the dissertation builds from historicizing and contextualizing haole, to deconstructing the multiple constructions of haole, to finally exploring possible elements of a genealogical stance toward haole. xi TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments v Abstract ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Contested Colonization: The Establishment of Haole Hegemony in Hawai'i ~ 16 Mapping Hawai'i: Geography, Cartography and Demography 21 Religion 37 Law and Politics 44 Capitalism 54 Lan~age and Communication 58 ConclusIon: Hegemony and Historiography 61 &'s~~:s;~ ~~Jl~n!oirJ;~~e~~~~~~::.:~~.~~~.~~~~~~.~~~~~~~.~~.~ 64 Haole Constructions of Self 68 Native Hawaiian and Local Constructions of Haole 82 Two Contemporary