During a severe storm on September 13, 2016, the ʻIao river on the island of Maui flooded immensely, causing major damages to the ʻIao Valley State Park. The ʻIao river and valley are considered sacred sites in the Native Hawaiian community because of the historic battle of Kepaniwai between Maui and Hawaiʻi island chiefs that occurred there. In Hawaiian, the word “Kepaniwai” translates as the blocking of water, which was a term used to describe the piles of dead soldiersʻ bodies that blocked the river flow. For years, the water from those streams have been diverted with irrigation systems to provide running water for hotels and condominiums on the opposite side of the island. Native Hawaiians throughout the community have struggled for decades …show more content…
Coneʻs article, “Whose Earth is it Anyway,” he references the phrase “environmental racism,” which Benjamin Chavis created to describe how government and corporate actions intentionally exploit marginalized communities and the environment that surrounds them to further their own interests (Cone, 40). This aspect of environmental racism is present within the actions and statements of the Maui county government because they continue to drain the ʻIao stream for their own corporate gain despite the adverse effects it has on the Native Hawaiian community. Another component that environmental racism entails is the denial of communities of color to contribute to policies and regulations that have negative impacts on them (Cone, 40). Before deciding to remove rocks from ʻIao Stream and dispose of the landfill, Mayor Arakawa did not consider the negative implications that this process would create for the Native Hawaiian community and ignorantly dismissed their concerns. According to Robert D. Bullard in his article, “Environmental Justice in the 21st Century,” governments and individuals in positions of authority are able to designate public spaces that receive protection, which becomes exploitative because these decisions are influenced by their own interests and values (Bullard, 76). Mayor Arakawaʻs statements during this interview serves as an appropriate example of this system of dominance because he claims that the traditions and beliefs of Native Hawaiians are nonexistent due to the omnipresence of Christianity in Hawaiʻi. He asserts his own religious beliefs over the community as an attempt to justify his actions while disregarding and disrespecting the religion of the indigenous community. His decisions and statements exemplify the environmental racism and imperialist agenda that persistently disenfranchises the Native Hawaiian community from their right to access natural resources and practice their cultural
Nydia Velazquez is a representative for New York’s Twelfth Congressional District, which includes parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. In her essay “In Search of Justice,” Velazquez describes several unjust situations that happened in her district. She points out that the residents of Greenpoint, which is the heart of her district, are among the poorest in the country. She argues that large corporations carelessly dump their waste next to poor minorities’ living areas and emphasizes the terrible air conditions in her district. Velazquez believes that minority communities are treated unfairly under the environmental law, which targets large corporations.
The Grassy Narrows people have a long, deeply rooted history in the environmental justices movement. Rodgers (2009) points to a number of environmental justice struggles such as the fight against the harmful effects of mercury poisoning and the Minamata disease associated with it (para. 1-3), the Ontario Hydro dams that destroyed part of the wild rice harvest and degraded the habitat of fish and fur animals, as well as the displacement of the community (due to relocation into prefabricated houses where electricity and running water were promised) and the culture shock it created (para. 4). He also discusses the successful blockade in 2002, which is the longest-lasting blockade in Canadian history (para. 28)—an example that shows how employing legal methods were critical in the struggle against environmental injustices for this community. There are a number of other issues that will be discussed in the following paragraphs; the above are just a few of the injustices the Grassy Narrows community face.
The people of Hawaii and other Pacific Island Nation groups have experienced great injustice from their colonial powers and the acts of imperialism. Lands were seized, cultural practices banned, language lost, and people were even forced to move away from their homes for the purpose of bomb testing. The United States and other countries abroad sent out representatives to do their work for them; in return their future actions would be justified in describing the Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders as savages that need to have wider powers enforced upon them; thus resulting in a tangled web of political mythologies.
In “Dole Street,” Juliana Spahr addresses how Hawaii’s entire history and culture have essentially been integrated into the United States. To further expand upon this, Spahr addresses the education system. Of the four main schools on Dole Street, Spahr states of the elite Punahou school, “after annexation, it became notorious as the haole school, attended mainly by the children who wanted to get their kids out of the multi-ethnic pidgin speaking public schools,” and goes on to assert that “the school casts a large shadow in the psychic imagination of the state” (39). Upon annexation, the native population was unavoidably forced into fighting to uphold the usage of a significant native characterization, the pidgin language. Not only were the natives categorized for establishing inherent identities separate to those of foreigners, but they were also forced into competing within their own culture in order to prevent losing many of the traits that made up their identities. With the gradual loss of simple, yet symbolic, features such as a native language, the significance of identifiable elements within a community starts to decline, eventually resulting in the overall destruction of a distinctive society. Evidently, as Iyunolu Osagie, an English professor, points out, “colonized peoples are poignantly the objects of imperial gaze” (210). Because they cannot maintain stable identities, native populations often manifest their colonial pasts. In addition, in a 1959 ballot, the people of Hawaii were given the ability to vote to either be integrated or to remain a colonial territory of the United States. Among those allowed to vote were settlers and military personnel, a group that outnumbered native Hawaiians. As a result, the Hawaiian Islands became the 50th state of the United States. (Kauanui 643). As this case suggests,
The Hawaiian Islands are well known for their beauty, tranquility, and unique culture that have shaped this state into what we see today. The special bond that the natives have formed between themselves and nature is not exactly one of a kind, but it is something that can truly be admired. Around approximately 300 AD, Hawaii was discovered by Polynesians who arrived by canoe from Tahiti. These migrants brought their polytheistic spirituality and formed a large intricate society with hierarchies consisting of many chiefs. Alongside the ruling of the chiefs, the newborn Hawaiians followed a strict belief system known as Kapu akua otherwise known as the “law of the gods”. The Kapu was a strict set of rules and restraints that dictated all aspects of ancient Hawaiian life, including political. These rules were used as a means to control the lives of lower class and female population in order to honor their gods and maintain balance within their Mana.
In summary, I will explore viewpoints on how race influences environmental decision-making, from a variety of perspectives: International sustainable development groups, national legislatures, and minority groups by interviews with representatives at each level.
Since 1840 the Hawaiian Islands have been an escape to a tropical paradise for millions of tourists. People all over the world encounter alluring, romanticized pictures of Hawai'i's lush, tropical vegetation, exotic animals, beautiful beaches, crystal clear water, and fantastical women. This is the Hawai'i tourists know. This is the Hawai’i they visit. However, this Hawai'i is a state of mind, a corporate-produced image existing on the surface. More precisely, it is an aftermath of relentless colonization of the islands' native inhabitants by the United States. These native Hawaiians experience a completely different Hawai'i from the paradise tourists enjoy. No one makes this as clear as Haunani-Kay Trask, a native Hawaiian author. In her book, From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai'i and through her poetry in Light in the Crevice Never Seen, Trask provides an intimate account of the tourist industry's impact on native Hawaiian culture. She presents a negative perspective of the violence, pollution, commercial development, and cultural exploitation produced by the tourist industry. Trask unveils the cruel reality of suffering and struggling through a native Hawaiian discourse. Most of the world is unaware of this.
One of such being the topic of environmental racism. A sometimes muddled phrase, environmental racism refers to policies and practices that discriminate against people of color (AJ+). A phenomenon evolved from colonialism, environmental racism promotes the reality that our planet and its inhabitants are disposable to the protection of the elite. An obvious example being the constant relocation of indigenous peoples in the American continent. Growing up hearing tales of my grandmother’s life on the Rosebud Lakota tribal lands of South Dakota, I have been instilled from a young age with a deep respect and understanding for the sacred bond between a tribe and its land. This precious land constantly suffers use and abuse by government and private institutions. If one attempts to climb the Vatican or even the Salt Lake City temple, law enforcement swiftly intervenes, yet tourists and outdoorsmen explore sacred lands of the indigenous natives every day of the summer for profit. That profit, monetary gain controls the actions of those with the power to protect communities of color. The pursuit of profit snuffs the importance of protecting equality in our capitalist driven country. The prospect of gaining revenue and resources seems to justify the uprooting or infecting of populations. Just last year, despite heavy pushback from the Sioux, my ancestral nation, the Dakota Access Pipeline runs just a half mile
Native Americans have suffered from one of America’s most profound ironies. The American Indians that held the lands of the Western Hemisphere for thousands of years have fallen victim to some of the worst environmental pollution. The degradation of their surrounding lands has either pushed them out of their homes, made their people sick, or more susceptible to disease. If toxic waste is being strategically placed near homes of Native Americans and other minority groups, then the government industry and military are committing a direct offense against environmental justice. Productions of capitalism and militarism are deteriorating the lands of American Indians and this ultimately is environmental racism.
Professor John Osorio believes in having sovereignty once more, “...I believe that Hawaiians...had the right to create their own nation in the 19th century...and that they have the right today to have that restored” (Hansen, paragraph 18). Professor Osorio supports the idea of sovereignty in Hawaii and he wants it to happen again. Professor Osorio believes that the native hawaiians should have the island’s sovereignty. The idea of sovereignty has caused problems between the haoles and native hawaiians. Native hawaiians want Hawaii to become a sovereign nation but that’s not the only problem, their is also ‘reverse racism’.
MacKenzie, Melody Kapilialoha. (1991). Native Hawaiian Rights Handbook. Honolulu: Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation/ Office of Hawaiian Affairs, p. 24.
Racism is commonly thought of as an act that is synonymous with violence; however, one common form of racism, environmental racism, often takes place without people being aware the events are happening before detrimental activities have been put into action. In Melissa Checker’s book Polluted Promises, she relates that Reverend Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. coined the term environmental racism while stating that there is “deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste disposal and the siting of polluting industries” (Checker 14). This problem is important to discuss, as many groups of people around the United States continue to be impacted by these events every day. Such people include
Park, S. Rozeila. 1998. “An Examination of International Environmental Racism Through the Lens of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste.” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 5 (2): 659-709.
Environmental racism is starting to get attention in the Florida legislature. Low-income; minority ; Blacks ; Hispanics / Latinos ; Asians ; Philippines ; Latin American ; factory owners ; people with money. Environmental racism is something that affects black minority and low-income people around the world. “The state of Florida needs to take at the factors that have caused this”. What this is is that the toxic waste the polluted Florida needs to be checked out.
"Eco-Friendly State Laws and Green Mandates." Black News, Opinion, Politics and Culture - The Root. Web. 14 Dec. 2011. .