When did Hawai'i Know America was Racist?

President William McKinley officiates the wedding while Senator John Tyler Morgan of Alabama, who supported American expansion, stands watch.

Taylor / 1897

When did Hawai'i know that America was racist?  

Did Hawai‘i know that America was racist, when political cartoons of Queen Lili'uokalani as Black and submissive covered newspapers around the world [1] or are we to blame those illustrative hō'ailona (signs) on the 1898 Spanish American War (Taylor)?  

Were we really shocked, when an American in a barber shop in Montreal, Canada stepped ahead of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana‘ole and said "I certainly take precedence over a nigger”, only to be punched and thrown to the floor by Prince Kūhiō [2] (Pacific Commercial Advertiser) (Soboleski)?  

Maybe Hawai‘i learned that other parts of the world had been touched by racism, when five university students entered a café in Geneva, Switzerland and one of the students, by the name of Count von Furstenheim, demanded that the waiter at the café throw out that "black man.” The “black man” Count von Furstenheim was referring to was Prince Kūhiō, who was quietly sipping a beer in the café. Newspaper records [3] indicate that Prince Kūhiō,    

Promptly got up, pulled von Furstenheim's nose, swung him around and kicked him. When von Furstenheim and company then proceeded to gang up on Kūhiō, he acted accordingly with a left uppercut to one of them, a right uppercut to another, and a flurry of punches that knocked all five to the ground. Kūhiō was arrested and paid a fine of 2,000 marks ($500) before resuming his grand tour with Princess Kalanianaole (Pacific Commercial Advertiser) (Soboleski).  

Prince Kuhio flying in Plane

Hawaii State Archives

A half century before that incident, Kamehameha IV, also known as Alexander Liholiho, traveled on a diplomatic world tour with his brother, Lot Kapuāiwa, and cabinet minister, Gerrit P. Judd, to secure recognition of Hawai‘i as an independent country [4]. When they reached Washington D.C., Kamehameha IV was almost removed from a train because the train conductor thought he was a slave. 16-year-old Kamehameha IV wrote in his journal,  

I found he was the conductor, and took me for somebody's servant just because I had a darker skin than he had. Confounded fool; the first time that I have ever received such treatment, not in England or France or anywhere else........In England an African can pay his fare and sit alongside Queen Victoria. The Americans talk and think a great deal about their liberty, and strangers often find that too many liberties are taken of their comfort just because his hosts are a free people (Foerster).  

On a separate occasion in Geneva, New York, at a dinner party with friends of Judd, Helen Kīna‘u Wilder notes in her memoirs that,  

The butler was very averse to serving "blacks" as he called them, and revenged himself by putting bibs at their places. Alexander unfolded his, saw the unusual shape, but as he had seen many strange things on his travels concluded that must be something new, so [he] quietly fitted the place cut out for the neck to his waist. Their hostess was very angry when she found what a mean trick her servant had played on them (Foerster).  

Alexander Liholiho, Kamehameha IV, c. 1860

Cathedral of St. Andrew / 2016

About 10 years before that incident, a 4-year-old named Kalākaua [5] witnessed the lynching of his grandfather, Chief Kamanawa II. Raedeen Keahiolalo-Karasuda shares in "A Genealogy of Punishment in Hawaii: The Public Hanging of Chief Kamanawa II” that,  

The forcing of 800 natives at gunpoint to witness the chief’s lynching was said to serve as an "object lesson to evil-doers". Tragically, two witnesses among the crowd were the chief’s grandsons, 8-year-old James Kapa'akea and 4-year-old Kalākaua, both of whom were brought by their missionary teachers to watch the execution (148).  

Fast forward to 1932 and an American named Grace Fortescue [6], in reference to the lynching of Joseph Kahahawai said "You know, I originally come from the South and where I come from, we have a way of dealing with niggers and that's what this was all about” (The Massie Affair).  

You see, long before special agent Christopher Deedy shot Kollin Elderts (Daranciang), long before the Stanford Prison Experiment (Zimbardo), and before na waimaka o ka lani, or the “tears of heaven” fell upon mourners [7] at Joseph Kahahawai's funeral (Stannard 262), Hawai'i knew that America was racist with a deep (his)tory of punishment and imprisonment.  

Now, here we are in 2020. The…Best…Year...Ever and the ‘eha (pain) and kaumaha (heaviness, sorrow) of George Floyd's death is universally felt. They say there might be a vaccine for COVID-19 in a year or so, but will there ever be a vaccine for racism and its infectious nature?  

I used to question if a nation that was founded on the massacre of Native Americans [8] and the backs of Black slaves could evolve beyond what Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. calls "America's Cultural DNA" (Thomas). I used to wonder if America could progress past this “race thing,” that in some ways is foreign to Pacific Islanders who understood their identity through cosmogonic genealogy. Still, at the age of 243 years old and in respect to ancient and living Indigenous Peoples; America is still a young country.    

Color blindness is not the answer and neither is violence. Our issues, lives, and the complexities of race, ethnicity, justice, equality and equity become entangled in Chi-raqs, police brutality, and the classic “crabs in a barrel” complex in a C.R.E.A.M. world (Wu-Tang Clan). The game of hate is one we play with ourselves and each other and it is a vicious cycle that can only be broken through aloha (reciprocated love and respect), education, and community work.

Me ke aloha a mau pule no ka 'ohana o George Floyd,

Bubzy

Click link, learn more, and donate!  

The Pōpolo Project            

https://www.thepopoloproject.org/

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The Innocence Project

https://www.innocenceproject.org/

End Notes: Hawaiian language words are not italicized in this text as a normalizing process for understanding words and ideas through different portals of understanding and because they are not foreign to the author. English translations are offered within each text and subsequent to all Hawaiian language terms and ideas. 

1 Image courtesy of the Library of Congress. In 1897 the satirical magazine Puck printed this political cartoon depicting “another shotgun wedding, with neither party willing” between Uncle Sam and a female personification of Hawaii. President William McKinley officiates the wedding while Senator John Tyler Morgan of Alabama, who supported American expansion, stands watch. 

2 After the American learned from the hotel manager that Prince Kūhiō was an ali'i, the American said "I didn't know your highness. I got all I deserved. Will you honor me by joining me for a drink?" but there is no record of Prince Kuhio accepting his invitation (Soboleski). 

3 ‘Prince Jonah Kalaniana‘ole, better known here as “Cupid” is well recognized as man who likes to eat but prefers to fight. “Cupid” is making a tour of the world, and the popular young Hawaiian is having plenty to eat and also plenty to fight.’ ‘The young Hawaiian ali‘i is very sensitive in regard to his complexion, and to call him a “colored” person means a scrap, as the records of the Police Court here will show. While on his trip around the world with his charming wife, there are so far two fights to his credit, and his purse is lighter by a fine of $500’ (Pacific Commercial Advertiser). 

4 Starting in 1849, Kamehameha IV ventured on a world tour to Europe, Washington D.C., New York, California, Panama, and Jamaica. Fluent in both French and English, Alexander was well received in European society. <http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?e=d-0ks10-000Sec--11en-50-20-frameset-book--1-010escapewin&a=d&d=D0.6&toc=0> 

5 David Laʻamea Kamananakapu Mahinulani Naloiaehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua was the last reigning king of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i.  “One year after Kalākaua was enrolled at the boarding school, the Cookes took him to the gallows to witness the hanging of his grandfather. In her diary, Juliette Cooke noted that “a man” who was to be hanged had summoned Kalākaua to the old fort (Allen, 1994), but it is quite curious as to why she and her husband kept the 4-year-old at the gallows to witness the execution of his grandfather. Allen surmised that the Cookes’s decision was likely based on a disregard for Kaläkaua’s genealogical standing in relation to the Kamehameha legacy. However, according to documented excerpts from the Cookes’s journals, it is probable that their disdain for Hawaiians influenced their decision as well (see Richards, 1941). What’s more, historical records indicate that Chief Kamanawa II had asked to see his grandsons and not for his grandsons to see him be put to death. The execution left an indelible impression on the minds of Kalakaua, who never forgot the traumatic incident, and Lili’uokalani, who shared in the pain of knowing about her grandfather’s capital execution” (Karasuda 154). 

6 Grace Fortescue was the mother of Thalia Massie. “In the fall of 1931, Thalia Massie, the bored, aristocratic wife of a young naval officer stationed in Honolulu, accused six nonwhite islanders of gang rape. The ensuing trial let loose a storm of racial and sexual hysteria, but the case against the suspects was scant and the trial ended in a hung jury. Outraged, Thalia’s socialite mother arranged the kidnapping and murder of one of the suspects. In the spectacularly publicized trial that followed, Clarence Darrow came to Hawai’i to defend Thalia’s mother, a sorry epitaph to a noble career” (Penguin Random House).<https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/291248/honor-killing-by-david-e-stannard/” 

7 After the casket was lowered into the ground and the mourners were leaving the cemetery it began to rain lightly. Hawaiians call this na waimaka o ka lani – the “tears of heaven” – a sign that the gods are weeping in sympathy. Though little more than a mist, it was foretaste of things to come in the weeks ahead.  After a year of uncommon dryness in the islands, for day after day throughout the next month the skies opened in a deluge that caused rivers and streams to turn a deep red with runoff from the hillsides. It is called uakoko in Hawaiian, “blood rain” (Stannard 262). 

8 German leader, Adolf Hitler, modeled his treatment of Jewish people after the American policies implemented against Native Americans - specifically the Bosque Redondo concentration camp where thousands of Navajo men, women, and children were sent after the Long Walk in 1864 (Indian Country Today).

Sources: 

"Ali'i Sunday - Commemoration of King Kamehameha IV." The Cathedral of St. Andrew. 8 February 2016. https://www.thecathedralofstandrew.org/alii-sunday-commemoration-of-king-kamehameha-iv/>

“Cupid as a Pugilist: Hawaiian Prince In Two Lively Scraps.” The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. 13 April 1901. Lib. of Cong.<https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1901-04-13/ed-1/seq-1/><https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1901-04-13/ed-1/seq-4/>  

Daranciang, Nelson. “Christopher Deedy cannot be retried for manslaughter in Waikiki shooting, federal appeals court say.” Star Advertiser. 7 November 2019.     

Foerster, Brien. The Real History of Hawaii: From Origins to the End of the Monarchy. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013.   

“Hitler Studied U.S. Treatment of Indians.” Indian Country Today. 8 August 2016.<https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/hitler-studied-u-s-treatment-of-indians-pYDkk-692Ei3XkztuwKVhg>    

Keahiolalo-Karasuda, RaeDeen. “A Genealogy of Punishment in Hawai‘i: The Public Hanging of Chief Kamanawa II.” Hulili: Multidisciplinary Research on Hawaiian Well-Being, Vol. 6, 2010.<http://kamehamehapublishing.org/_assets/publishing/hulili/Hulili_Vol6_7.pdf>   

“The Massie Affair.” American Experience, directed by Mark Zwonitzer, PBS, 2005. 

Soboleski, Hank. "Prince Kuhio defends his honor". The Garden Island. 4 October 2015.<https://www.thegardenisland.com/2015/10/04/lifestyles/prince-kuhio-defends-his-honor/>  

Stannard,  David. Honor Killing: Race, Rape, and Clarence Darrow’s Spectacular Last Case. Penguin Books, 2005.  

Taylor, Charles Jay. “Another Shotgun Wedding, with Neither Party Willing.” Cartoon. Puck. 1 December 1897, Volume 42: 1082.<https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/APA/Historical-Essays/Exclusion-and-Empire/Hawaii/>  

Thomas, Cal. "Act against racism, rioting - and toward redemption." Star Advertiser. 2 June 2020, A11.  

Wu-Tang Clan. “C.R.E.A.M.” Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), 1993.  

Zimbardo, Philip G. “Stanford Prison Experiment”. Social Psychology Network, 1971.<https://www.prisonexp.org/>  

Zimbardo, Philip G. The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. Penguin Random House LLC., 2007.

Kanakas and Visual Ethnic Washing

Opper / 1894

I like to read these books because they’re always making up stories, and that’s how they make the world the way they want it…You see, we got to be aware of the stories they’re making about us, and the way they change the stories we already know. –Luther McCurtain, in Louis Owens, The Sharpest Sight

When news surfaced that blue-eyed actor Zach McGowan would be playing the role of lead character, Benehakaka “Ben” Kanahele in the up and coming film Ni‘ihau by director Gabriel Robertson, social media rang in an uproar against what many considered to be “white-washing” Kanahele’s character and mo‘olelo (story) (Gandhi).

While many people may be familiar with the term “white-washing” which refers to the use of a pre-dominantly Caucasian cast to play roles that would clearly and more appropriately be played by actors or actresses of color, Native Hawaiian film representations often experience an array of different types of “washing.” Other forms of “washing” Native Hawaiian representations occur through the use of Asian American actors/actresses to play native roles - also known as “yellow washing.” Hawai‘i host a large Asian population and many of which identify as “local.” As a result, some filmmakers see no problem with casting Asian Americans as Native Hawaiians. However, this act can subjugate both ethnic groups as a way to say “you are all the same” and perpetuates the theme of the “vanishing native.”

In another example of visual ethnic washing, we also have cross-cultural participation. While it can be noted that actors and actresses should be able to perform their talents in spite of ethnic and racial casting, this type of cross-cultural participation in Hollywood works to subjugate a particular native people’s identity with the use of an individual from a similar but different ethnic background. Cross-cultural participation connotes the idea that all native people are alike and dismantles the detailed distinctions among Indigenous people. The use of an actor or actress who identifies with their Indigenous identity can be a way for Hollywood to say - This actor or actress is proud of their culture, serves as a humanitarian and cultural activist, cares for America, and most important, is Indigenous “just like you” as a way to validate their misrepresentation of native cultural subjects.

Lastly, there is actual cultural participation. This refers to the use of an actual Native Hawaiian to validate Hollywood’s misrepresentation of native cultural subjects. However, cultural participation does not equate to cultural validation. Just because one hires a Native Hawaiian for a film project that does not necessarily mean that the project is culturally valid.

For example, if I hire a chef that is ethnically Maori to cook for me, that does not necessarily mean that every dish the Maori chef makes will be a Maori dish. Some days the chef might make Italian food and other days the chef might make Chinese food. While these dishes may be delicious, the dishes are not Maori meals because a Maori was hired and made them. Instead, it is the ingredients and methods utilized that determine whether or not the dish is a Maori dish or inspired by other cultures. In the same way, proper representations of Native Hawaiians can be evaluated as valid through an examination of the sources and methods utilized to produce that character, representation, or film – not necessarily the ethnic background of the director, screenwriter, and actors.

Beyond the woes of silver screen ethnic washing was the concern about how the story of Ben Kanahele and the “Ni‘ihau Incident” would be shared with the world. Some raised concerns about historical inaccuracies in the plot and script of the film (Casino). Others worried about the film’s potential to misrepresent Japanese Americans. Still, other reporters noted how the film’s timing could raise tensions among or about Asian Americans, given the current political climate between the United States and North Korea (Herreria).

Film operates under a series of constraints in the representation of history. The breadth of information that can be conveyed within a single film, in fictional and documentary genres alike, tends to generate what Jane Landman calls “obvious inventions in plot and dialogue, with historical events and characters frequently suffering the indignities of compression or conflation, displacement in time and space, and alteration or misattribution” (Landman 4-5).

The emphasis on Hawaiian (his)tory and certain public figures in Hawaiian (his)tory in American films reshapes a (his)tory extracted and expressed through an American ideology of culture, patriarchy, and presence. The intended nature of this type of propaganda is to monumentalize Hawaiians as an object of the past that can be curated and displayed according to the timing and pleasure of colonization and its innate capitalistic needs.

Modern mass media, including cinema, have played a major part in the production of national symbols. As these symbols become part of each individual through the media, they effectively break down the separation between public and private, local and national (Kilpatrick 5). The film Ni‘ihau runs the risk of sharing a nationalist discourse of a particular type of “Native Hawaiian Hero” which is also tied to American nationalism. This type of message conflicts with the reality that Hawai‘i is currently and illegally occupied by the U.S. government and military.

Writer Neva Kilpatrick once wrote “It seems that when non-native filmmakers tell a story about natives, they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t…Perhaps, this dilemma puts too much of a burden on a profit-driven industry to ask that it carry the responsibility of preserving culture” (Kilpatrick 233). While this may be true, I know that some navigators can see different shades of black within the night sky (Hopkins 74) and as native people learn to navigate the open seas and doldrums of the film industry, my hope is that there will be diversity in the kinds of representations of Kānaka Maoli people.

Me ke Aloha,

Bubzy

Casino, Khier. “Beloved Actress Reads ‘Ni’ihau’ Script, Confirms It’s a Historically Falso Piece of Sh*t” NextShark. 10 May 2017.

<http://nextshark.com/tamlyn-tomita-jenny-yang-niihua-film-whitewashing-script-review/>

Gandhi, Lakshmi. “New WWII Film Stirs Whitewashing Accusations with Casting of Hawaiian Hero” NBC News. 9 May 2017.
<http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/new-wwii-film-ni-ihau-stirs-whitewashing-accusations-casting-announcement-n757026>

Herreria, Carla. “The Casting of a White Actor as Native Hawaiian Hero Cuts Deeper Than You Think” Huffington Post. 10 May 2017.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/zach-mcgowan-niihau-hawaiian_us_5912ac24e4b050bdca60a6a6

Kame‘eleihiwa, Lilikālā. Native Lands and Foreign Desires: How Shall We Live in Harmony? Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1992.

Kilpatrick, Neva. Celluloid Indians: Native Americans and Film. University of Nebraska Press,

1999.

Landman, Jane and Chris Ballard. “An Ocean of Images.” The Journal of Pacific History 45:1

(2010) 1-20.

Morales, Manolo. “Movie under fire for casting Caucasian actor as real-life Native Hawaiian war hero” KHON2. 9 May 2017.

http://khon2.com/2017/05/09/movie-under-fire-for-casting-caucasian-actor-as-real-life-native-hawaiian-war-hero/

Opper, Fred'k B., Illustrator. Bill Nye's Comic History of the United States. By Bill Nye. J.B. Lippincott Co, 1894.

Owens, Louis. The Sharpest Sight. University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.

Ki'i'oni'oni

STAR-ADVERTISER / 1956

One night, I was sitting on the couch and my Samoan father rushed to turn the channel to 60 Minutes. Tonight’s episode? “Samoa and American Football.” My dad watched in adoration while I observed and analyzed the way Samoan males were linked and depicted in terms of the American Sport of Football. N. Bird Runningwater seems to have had a similar experience. A filmmaker of Cheyenne/Mescalero Apache descent, he said,

I remember the first time I had a connection with an Indian on television. I was eight years-old and my cousin Cathy and I were watching a stereotypical cowboy and Indian western. The native characters were dressed like nothing we had ever seen in our world. At one point, two warrior-type characters entered the scene, and when asked by the lead Anglo character how many enemies they had spied, they replied “na’kii.” Cathy and I looked at one another in amazement and began jumping for joy. We ran to tell our family that we had just heard an Indian on television speaking our Apache language. We felt like the world had finally had a glimpse of our lives as they really were, and from that point on, everything would be different. We watched more and more Westerns after that, waiting and hoping that maybe we would see ourselves on television or hear our language one more time. We never did (Hearne, Visualities 47).

In Sherman Alexie’s film Smoke Signals (1998), one of the main characters named Thomas Builds-a-Fire says “The only thing more pathetic than Indians on TV is Indians watching Indians on TV.” The character’s line refers to the irony of “indigenous consumption of the very genres that consistently exclude them” (Hearne, Visualities 43). The titillations prompted by the glimpses of Indigenous culture simulated and broadcast into popular media creates a longing for more of that presence but does not satisfy or remotely equate to the richness of the cultural element obtusely exposed.

Despite the rare example of feature films written and directed by Native Hawaiians such as Keo Woolford’s The Haumana (2013), Native Hawaiians remain underrepresented in the film industry. This could be due to a number of reasons including a lack of funding, education, access and opportunity. However, one could argue that Native Hawaiians are purposely excluded from the film industry in order to continue perpetuating colonial messages through American feature films.

One could also argue that it is ironic that Native Hawaiians are well represented in music, hula, and other forms of entertainment and simultaneously underrepresented in the film industry. Part of the reason why Hawaiian music and hula does not receive the same kind of back lash that certain films about Native Hawaiians sometimes receive is because Hawaiian music and hula is mostly dominated by Native Hawaiians. I would argue that this is because of access and exposure.

My niece was 3 years old the first time she saw me playing an ukulele. She grabbed her cheap, plastic, and pink ukulele and immediately mimicked my movements and the notes I sang to her. This type of exposure to music, hula, and the arts is familiar to many Native Hawaiians and others who are local to Hawai‘i. Due to the fact that our exposure and access to these aspects of entertainment have been readily available and passed on for generations, Native Hawaiians have been able to thrive in these said industries.

In contrast to that experience, film has only been in the archipelago of Hawai‘i for a little over a century. Access and exposure to the craft and education of film and its multiple layers has been limited to none in most Native Hawaiian communities and as a result, Native Hawaiians are not well represented as agents of films depicted in Hawai‘i or about Native Hawaiians. The idea and object of “the camera” was introduced to Hawai‘i so the education that might accompany the craft of film must be introduced and integrated into Hawai‘i’s current education system.

Me ke Aloha,

Bubzy

Some Facts:

·         The first screening of a motion picture in Hawai‘i took place at the Honolulu Opera House in 1897. A year later, an Edison camera crew in transit from Yokohama to California stopped for one day in O‘ahu and shot the first Pacific Island moving pictures: Honolulu Street Scene (1898), Wharf Scene (1898), Honolulu (1898), and Kanakas Diving for Coins (1898) (4). Within a decade, movie theaters like the Orpheum founded in 1906, would be displaying movies on 1234 Fort Street on a regular basis (Schmitt vi).

·         Hawai‘i has served as the backdrop and subject of some of Hollywood’s most viewed films and successful directors. Film directors who have worked in Hawai‘i include Cecil B. DeMille, John Ford, Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood and Alexander Payne (Rampell Intro). The varied tropical terrains of Hawai‘i have been cast as the jungles of Africa, South America, South East Asia and Oceania. 

·         Hawai‘i as a subject or backdrop in American Cinema usually fits into 4 feature film categories and 1 television category –

1 South Seas Cinema (Bird of Paradise and Six Days Seven Nights)

2. World War II-era settings (From Here to Eternity and Pearl Harbor)

3 Hawaii as itself (50 First Dates and The Descendants)

4 Hawaii as elsewhere (Jurassic Park and George of the Jungle)

Film crime dramas in paradise have been relatively few, appearing exclusively in the television arena (Hawaii Five-0, Magnum P.I.)

Sources

Cummings, Denise ed. Visualities: Perspectives on Contemporary American Indian Film and

Art. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press, 2011.

The Haumana. Dir. Keo Woolford. Hula Nation Filmworks, 2013.

Rampell, Ed and Luis I. Reyes. The Hawaii Movie and Television Book : Celebrating 100 years    of Film Production throughout the Hawaiian Islands. Honolulu: Mutual Publishing, c2013. 

“Samoa and American Football” Youtube.com 20 February 2012. 60 Minutes.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A69Z8fCpuAImerican Football>

Schmitt, Robert C. Hawaii in the Movies 1898-1959. Honolulu: Hawaiian Historical Society,        1988.

Schmitt, Robert C. Movies in Hawaii, 1897-1932. 73-82.

Sigall, Bob. "A defunct drive-in theater still evokes moving images." Star-Advertiser. 26 February 2016.

Smoke Signals. Dir. Chris Eyre. ShadowCatcher Entertainment, Welb Film Pursuits Ltd., 1998.

Aloha no!

Bubzy Hawaii / 2018

I stroll around looking for food in the kitchen and then the words “Hey, you should” beam from my older brother’s tongue. He’s chilling in the living room. By this time, I have heard the words “You should” from my family so many times that I unconsciously roll my eyes. I had heard it all. “You should apply to work for the airlines.” You should do this. You should do that. My family can be predictable but sometimes they surprise me. I wait to hear the rest of his suggestion and he says “You should write more.”

I am the writer of my family. I think every family has a writer. You know who I am talking about. They may not be the most outspoken person in the family but they can be clever with words. I tell my older brother “One of my graduate professors influenced the way I write.”

I turned in a paper. I knew it was shitty and my professor knew it needed work. Nonetheless, I still showed up to her office ready to work on editing and she basically told me to stop writing the same eighth grade history report I have written a million times because at the end of the day “You’re writing for your kids.” She knew I did not have kids but she said it anyway because she wanted me to start thinking that way – to start writing that way.

My sister-in-law chimes into my conversation with my brother and says “You should start blogging. If you blogged about half the things you write on social media, you could build a following.” There it is – the “B” word. I hate the “B” word. I think I am one of those odd women who would rather be called a “bitch” than a “blogger”. I am still not really sure what a blogger is but I just do not want to be called a blogger and for that, I probably will be called a blogger.

So here I am - blogging, writing, and sharing - for my kids (which I still do not have and still do not want yet), my family, my community, my sanity and the hope that what I choose to share will provide pieces that will spark and spike mana‘o (thoughts and ideas), laughter, tears, and connection in a chaotic world.

Me ke Aloha,

Bubzy