In a case that reflects Hawaii’s nuanced and complicated relationship with race, two Native Hawaiian men are scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday for a federal hate crime in the brutal beating of a white man who tried to move into their remote traditional fishing village.
A jury convicted Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi and Levi Aki Jr in November, finding that they were motivated by Christopher Kunzelman’s race when they punched, kicked and used a shovel to beat him in 2014. His injuries included a concussion, two broken ribs and head trauma.
Local lawyers believe this is the first time the US has prosecuted Native Hawaiians for hate crimes. The unique case highlights the struggles between Native Hawaiians who are adamant about not having their culture erased and people who move to Hawaii without knowing or considering its history and racial dynamics.
Tensions began over a dilapidated oceanfront home in Kahakuloa, a small village off a narrow road of hairpin turns and sweeping ocean views at the end of a valley on Maui, an island known for luxurious resorts.
“It was obviously a hate crime from the very beginning,” Kunzelman’s wife, Lori, said. “The whole time they’re saying things like, ‘You have the wrong skin color. No “haole” is ever going to live in our neighborhood.’”
“Haole”, a Hawaiian word with meanings that include foreigner and white person, is central to the case. It’s a word often misunderstood by people who don’t comprehend Hawaii’s history of US colonization and the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by a group of US businessmen, said Judy Rohrer, author of the book Haoles in Hawai’i.
White people who move to Hawaii are unaccustomed to being identified racially and are “not used to thinking about whiteness”, said Rohrer, who grew up white in Hawaii and is now a professor at Eastern Washington University. “We’re used to being in the majority and then we get to Hawaii and all of a sudden we’re not in the majority,…
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