In the uproar over an ethnic slur
printed in the Kalaheo High yearbook,
the school has taken some unfair hits
and the inevitable lawsuit has been filed

By Martha L. Robertson
Kalaheo High School librarian

Recent events have proved what reasonable people suspected all along. It is only about money and a political agenda. For those who have been away on another planet, let me recap.

In Kalaheo High School's 1997 yearbook, a photo of three African-American students has a caption referring to pigs' feet, hog maws, collard greens and chitlings -- so-called "slave food."

Offended by the caption and unsatisfied with the school's apology, two of the students, parents, a guardian and a lawyer took their case to the media.

A July 19 View Point column by Andre Wooten, president of the African-American Lawyers Association (AALA), claimed that "slavery still haunts (African Americans)" at Kalaheo and that "education (is) needed to stop attacks on blacks."

Now, right on schedule, people are being sued. In retrospect, the legal game plan seems clear. Nothing said or done by the acting principal, the yearbook adviser, the Board of Education or the Department of Education would have been enough.

Issuing apologies, handing out stickers to cover the caption, showing empathy with the offended students, expressing regret -- all were judged inadequate. Employing a familiar legal strategy, the lawyers asked for the impossible: a recall of the yearbook. (Why would students who paid about $35 each for yearbooks, now personalized with autographs and messages, voluntarily turn them in? Many students have already left the state.)

Lawyers and clients now say that the offended students have been humiliated, teased, libeled and emotionally damaged, but $28 million will ease their pain.

My sincere advice to the students is this: Rise above the dubious insult. Get over it. Your ancestors were not you, and you are not slaves. Some people succeed despite difficult histories. Others, motivated and strengthened by adversity, succeed because of their difficulties. Choose one of these ennobling paths instead of playing the victim.

That said, of greatest concern to me are statements made about Kalaheo High School. Wooten and others allege the school has irresponsible educators, institutionalized racism and a deficient curriculum. I am compelled to dispute the critics, not because Kalaheo is perfect but because their statements are unsubstantiated, destructive and false. To support this conclusion, I offer nothing except facts, substance and a healthy dose of reality.

Irresponsible educators

Although he has no association with the school and, to my knowledge, has spent no time on campus, Wooten feels qualified to label Kalaheo's educators "irresponsible."

Over the years, we have been given more and more responsibility -- teach, parent, teach parenting, discipline, counsel, cure all social ills, develop SCBM, provide better with less, make decisions, and so on. Somebody must think we're responsible.

Kalaheo's educators made enormous sacrifices to meet their responsibilities. They may be exhausted, but they are not irresponsible.

In this instance, it appears one or more students may have acted irresponsibly. It happens every day -- at home, at school, on the streets -- and many times there is nothing parents/guardians, teachers or the police can do about it.

I do not know who wrote the caption or their intent, whether insult, humor or silliness. I do not know if those offended have ever met the yearbook adviser who is, among others, being held responsible for the caption.

Because I know her, I can say she would never intentionally hurt a fly. She takes her responsibilities seriously, and is no doubt being tougher on herself than are her critics. A person of sensitivity and integrity, she will take this incident very much to heart.

Perhaps the other educators in this drama -- lawyers, parents, guardian, ethnic role models -- could give some thought to their own responsibilities, such as learning the whole truth about "slave food."

For example, they might learn the interesting history of chitlings or chitterlings, "the small intestine of swine, usually fried or in a sauce." As reported by English language scholar Bill Bryson, the word was unknown outside Britain's Hampshire until colonists took it to Newfoundland, where it is today pronounced "chistlings."

The British were eating pigs' intestines long before any Americans. If my memory of Flaubert serves correctly, French country cuisine in the last century included chitlings and maybe it still does.

When my Chinese-Hawaiian father and Scottish-Irish-English mother lived in the South, they ate chitlings and called it "Southern cooking." Since moving to Hawaii, I have seen pigs' feet and intestines in markets, so maybe they are considered local food. Recently, I saw chitlings prepared in a posh restaurant.

Here's what my knowledge and common sense tells me. Some people eat certain things -- chitlings, pigs' feet, tongue, turkey tails, tripe -- because they are poor and these foods are affordable. Others eat them because it is their custom not to waste food. Some people just like them. Other people eat even more intimate animal parts as aphrodisiacs. Is it "defecation" or "delicacy?" The subtleties of language, insult and food evolve in mysterious ways.

Institutionalized racism

Wooten also claims Kalaheo is guilty of institutionalized racism. Given my 30 years at the school, I can assure him he is dead wrong, although he will probably counter that I am in no position to be objective.

Flare-ups occur from time to time, and they are not limited to African Americans. However, when an African-American student walks into a Kalaheo classroom, I guarantee the teacher isn't thinking, "Here is the descendant of slaves." The teacher may be thinking, "This student is from Kaneohe Marine Base," home to many of Kalaheo's African-American students. More likely the teacher is thinking, "This class is way too big!"

A real-life incident illustrates a different aspect of racism. An African-American student ended up in a hospital emergency room after being hit on the head by another African-American student. Why? The attacker was punishing the student for not hanging out on campus with other black students. Instead, the victim was hanging out elsewhere with African Americans, Caucasians, Asians and Samoans.

Who is practicing "disenfranchisement and brutality" in this instance?

Racism comes in all colors. We do not need education to "stop attacks on blacks." We need education to stop attacks on people, period. If there is racism at Kalaheo, it exists because the school is on the third rock from the sun and inhabited by Homo sapiens. Sometimes even African Americans insult non-African Americans. If the AALA demands 100 percent success, it might try another planet.

African-American curriculum

Just to make sure he covers all bases, Wooten adds "deficient curriculum" to his list of Kalaheo's woes. He demands that we teach more African-American history, yet it already gets more attention than the history of any other minority group in America. Sometimes I wonder why the Irish, Chinese, Native Americans or Armenians aren't complaining.

I have been to Africa twice, regularly correspond with friends there, and read a great deal about the continent. If we teach more pre-slave history as our critics demand, I know Great Zimbabwe deserves some attention. But we should also teach how Africans were enslaving other Africans long before the white man came along.

Wooten wants us to learn more about African Americans from notable African Americans. OK, let's include African-American journalist Keith Richburg, who thought as he watched a never-ending stream of bloated corpses float down a Tanzanian river, "There but for the grace of God go I."

Meanwhile, who will decide whose history should be deleted so there is time to teach more African-American history?

Since my domain, the library, supports curriculum, I encourage students and teachers to read "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," Arthur Ashe's "Days of Grace," Richburg's "Out of America" and titles by many other African Americans. Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Zora Neal Hurston, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright and James Baldwin inhabit the shelves. They also appear on required reading lists.

Videos such as "The Promised Land," "Glory" and "Eyes on the Prize" are routinely borrowed for classroom use. Martin Luther King Jr. is the only American of any race who gets his own library display each January. Now that we have a robot on Mars, it might be a good time to read more about Sojourner Truth, featured last year on one of our student-produced "Morning News" broadcasts.

Quite frankly, I think reading good books and watching intelligent videos are a great alternative to hitting people on the head.

Racial sensitivity training

To help Kalaheo's "deficient educators," critics demand more racial sensitivity training because, they say, the DOE hasn't done enough to ensure incidents of racism do not occur in schools. Without reservation, I can assure them the DOE has succeeded beyond their wildest expectations.

Sensitized in the extreme to racial/multi-cultural/political-correctness, educators are often paralyzed. Consider this scenario. (It hasn't happened yet, but after this summer's events, it's quite possible.)

An African-American student comes to the library and behaves inappropriately. I do not know him or how he will respond to the discipline I am obligated to provide. Maybe he is a terrific kid who has just forgotten where he is. Maybe he is a student with "attitude" or emotional baggage of which I am unaware. I stop and think: Suppose he claims that I am picking on him, being racist and discriminatory. What if I'm sued? There will be all these articles in the paper, my entire career in jeopardy. Fearful of consequences, I do nothing.

Similar incidents happen every day. Many teachers ignore students' inappropriate words and deeds because of possible legal retaliation. The students in question know it and use that knowledge to get away with all kinds of inappropriate behavior. The teacher lives in fear; the student cheats himself out of an education.

Tolerance and unity

I can only conclude that Wooten and others who share his views know nothing meaningful about Kalaheo's educators, nothing about curriculum content, and nothing about our degree of racial sensitivity. In my grade book, that adds up to...well, you do the math.

However, if they still want us to "all get along," I propose we stop calling ourselves African Americans or Hawaiian Chinese Scottish Irish English Americans. Let's just be Americans, people or human beings.

I would like to suggest that we get together and eat some chitlings, "trash" fish, seaweed, laulau, tripe stew, sukiyaki, adobo, kim chee, char siu, Yorkshire pudding, jambalaya and assorted dark chocolate desserts, but I might be accused of making light of a serious subject.