Race and Labor in Hawaii

Question 1

HI

Answer 1

• annexed as US territory in 1898 (also when Philippines and Guam)
• prior, was an independent queendom
• became the last US state in 1959
• HI incorporated into US econ as ag producer, esp sugar
• sugar was a major cash crop in HI with major labor requirements

Question 2

Oligarchy

Answer 2

• political and economic power concentrated in the hands of a very few
• led by Haoles (Haole Oligarchy)
• Haole took on racial classification as oligarchy made up of European Americans who were leaving whaling industries or were New England missionaries/their descendants
• Haoles inserted themselves into power structures of HI monarchy
• elite, few in number, sugar plantation owners

Question 3

Haole

Answer 3

• means “without bread”
• connotes a stranger, without families or ties to the land – an outsider
• wasn’t initially a racial position until oligarchy formed

Question 4

Privy Council

Answer 4

• how European Americans got economic and political power as advisors and agents of HI monarchy
• Privy Council was imported by oligarchy; claimed HI needed foreigners to advise the monarchy
• claimed loyalty to the king, but was just gaining power
• focused on foreign policy and privatization of land (critical for control)

Question 5

The Great Mahele (1848) Under Kamehameha III

Answer 5

• redistribution of lands
• introduces land ownership to HI for the first time
• Kamehameha thought it was a way to keep foreign pressures away from HI
• he thought Hawaiian people owning the land would help them improve their financial situations and therefore the HI economy

Question 6

Land Privatization Impacts

Answer 6

• critical for control in HI was control over land
• Hawaiians didn’t understand privatization of land bcs previously, all land was communal
• they didn’t understand the laws governing land ownership
• this broke the traditional connection to land
• oligarchy got land instead, and native HI were dispossessed of their land

Question 7

Settler Colonialism

Answer 7

• settling on native people’s lands and eliminating the native
• a form of imperialism (takeover of territory, appropriation of resources, exploitation of labor, etc.)
• oligarchy took ownership of land and eliminated HI cultural practices, traditions, and language
• alienated Hawaiians from society
• also, a lot of Hawaiians died because of the diseases that the Haoles brought with them

Question 8

Sugar Importance

Answer 8

• major demand for sugar
• sugar produced in HI, Caribbean, Louisiana
• HI entered capitalist global market bcs of sugar
• demand for sugar facilitated sugar plantation growth in HI

Question 9

Bayonet Constitution (HI Constitution of 1887)

Answer 9

• forced on HI by economic powers (oligarchy) and US government
• limits legislation by limiting voters to white people
• AAs have no power to vote
• shifts power from HI monarchy to white oligarchy
• leads to overthrow of HI monarchy in 1893
• oligarchy now has economic and political power
• Queen Liliuokalani protests overthrow as illegal when she writes to US gov’t

Question 10

Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association (HSPA)

Answer 10

• William Hooper created 1st sugar plantation in 1835 and experimented w/ different labor types
• whaling industry paves way for sugar plantations and labor needs
• plantation-based economy

Question 11

Sugar Production: Sugar is King

Answer 11

• sharp contrast to CA situation
• CA has abundant different crop types w/ different growing seasons and regions
• HI only has sugar, a cash crop

Question 12

Hawaiian Shirt Stereotype

Answer 12

• associated w/ leisure, relaxation, paradise, diverse celebration of culture from mainland’s perspective
• this is a segmented history
• under the surface is the history of settler colonialism, criminalization of HI cultural practices, enforcing settlers’ edu, alienating HI from the land
• destruction of native HI economic and political autonomy
• Asian American settlers’ complicity in maintaining settler colonialism power imbalance

Question 13

HI as a Naval Foothold

Answer 13

• the only naval foothold for US as they go to Guam and Philippines
• important strategic position

Question 14

HSPA

Answer 14

• represents 5 major sugar production companies
• descendants of missionaries are plantation owners
• Dole (the pineapple guy) holds a bunch of power
• need for cheap labor, and HI natives seen as ill-suited for dictates of new capitalist economy bcs they continue to live off the land and cannot be disciplined the way he wanted them to
• native HI population also decimated by disease
• president of predecessor of HSPA said to use “coolie” labor

Question 15

“Constant Surveillance”

Answer 15

• hallmark of sugar plantation work
• regimented system of labor
• couldn’t talk while working, had to keep backs bent to show you were working

Question 16

Asians as the Labor Force

Answer 16

• some Puerto Ricans and Portuguese, but these were too expensive; often became lunas
• Asians were seen as labor force that could be disciplined
• a lot of Asians were looking to escape instability of their home countries
• brought some Koreans, but this was abruptly halted in 1905
• Filipinos were the last group to arrive
• Asian-dominated and highly-populated sugar plantations in HI

Question 17

Abolitionist Perspectives

Answer 17

• new ways of knowing and being within structures of power and domination
• “to restore both the criminal and victim to full humanity and to lives of integrity and dignity in the community”

Question 18

HI vs. CA

Answer 18

• Asian majority population in HI
• on US mainland, migrant labor employers didn’t want the laborers to have families bcs they moved around too much
• store owners had families because those built up the ethnic economy
• in HI, it was very settled and family life was a central aspect of life (All I Asking)
• more even sex ratio in HI
• facilitated plantation owners’ control because they needed a reliable, stable workforce that was content and able to be controlled

Question 19

Exclusion Movements

Answer 19

• Asians on US mainland were targets of exclusion movements, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act
• makes Asians the scapegoats for the flaws and shortcomings of the capitalist system (race is used as a wedge to divide and conquer working class)
• in HI, no white working-class exclusion movement bcs Asian population was majority
• structures of production create own structures of control
• planters depend on Asian laborers
• the true enemy is capitalism and capitalist owners

Question 20

Contract Labor System

Answer 20

• recruiters in Asia (often missionaries connected to HI missionaries)
• plantations paid for passage to HI, and workers sign contract to work on plantations for 3-5 yrs and pay off passage during that time from their wages
• plantation owners provided food, edu, and meds for kids
• hard to get out of debt bcs costs kept piling up

Question 21

Indentured Servitude

Answer 21

• unfree labor: shadow slaver
• free labor: you can leave jobs you don’t want
• indentured servitude: period of service under contract
• you can’t leave if unhappy w/ terms of contract
• if you can’t pay off your passage, contract is easily extended

Question 22

Lunas

Answer 22

• lunas ensured workers kept working and used whips to ensure compliance
• shielded plantation owners from dealing w/ workers
• discontent shifted from plantation owners to middlemen/lunas
• lunas often Portuguese, Puerto Rican, native HI
• once again an attempt to divide the working class

Question 23

Stoop Labor

Answer 23

• 5am-4:30pm 6 days/week
• “stoop labor”: Asians seen as naturally inclined for stoop labor bcs they’re shorter

Question 24

Racial and Ethnic Hierarchy in Work

Answer 24

• divided along race and nationality
• skilled labor positions only for Americans or those able to become citizens
• unskilled labor positions were majority Asians, Puerto Ricans, Portuguese, native HIs

Question 25

Racial and Ethnic Hierarchy in Housing

Answer 25

• also a way to keep workers divided and prevent them from coming together under class interests and overthrowing the system
• made sure they were all suspicious of each other
• kept each ethnicity in separate housing camps

Question 26

Paternalism

Answer 26

• what plantation owners and lunas would use
• pretending to care and take care of the workers as long as the workers are compliant and obedient
• if disobedient, you were fined, and this sunk you further into debt and made your contract that much harder to work off
• strict discipline goes hand in hand w/ paternalism bcs workers are seen as children who need firm, loving hand of plantation paternalism