Hawaii Chief Justice Ronald Moon wants lawyers to consider recruiting people of diverse backgrounds to help deal with incidents of discrimination and bigotry that still plague Hawaii.

Moon told the Hawaii State Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division yesterday that when he returned to Hawaii after graduating from University of Iowa Law School in 1965 to look for a job, Caucasians still controlled hiring practices as a result of the “;Big Five”; companies that had dominated Hawaii.

He said Asian-American lawyers were not being hired by the white law firms that controlled most of the legal business here.

Within a few years those law firms hired a “;sprinkling”; of Asian-Americans, and since then the situation has improved considerably here, Moon said.

Still, “;an ugly part of this country's legacy”; is discrimination and bigotry, and Hawaii has not escaped “;racially or ethnically charged events,”; he said.

Moon, the state's fourth chief justice, who has headed the five-member high court since 1993, veered from his usual speeches dealing with issues such as judicial independence and transparency. Instead, he focused on the controversial issue of bigotry and racism in Hawaii's multicultural community.

In his talk at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Moon said shifting demographics will result in whites becoming an increasingly smaller part of the population in the country. As a result, attitudes based on “;negative stereotypes of certain minorities”; must change, he said.

Moon noted that whites comprise 24.3 percent of the population here, which makes them a minority and, some believe, targets of “;reverse discrimination.”; He cited last year's beating of a Caucasian couple at the Waikele Shopping Center parking lot. A teenager yelled “;f——- haole”; during the incident, Moon said.

He also cited several other Hawaii examples of why lawyers need to be fight bigotry:

» A federal agency found in 2004 that the Hilo High School administration failed to address its coaches' use of abusive, racially charged language, mishandling students and threatening a parent.

» A Honolulu city councilman, Rod Tam, warned developers that “;we don't want wetbacks”; working on city rail projects.

» The chief executive officer of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, Rex Johnson, resigned after it was learned he used his state computer to e-mail “;racist”; jokes.

Moon also cited a court case here that included two jurors making disparaging remarks about blacks. In another case the Hawaii Supreme Court reversed a man's sex assault conviction in 1999 because the prosecutor told the jury that “;every mother's nightmare”; is to find “;some black military guy on top of your daughter.”;

Moon said those examples stress the need to eliminate the “;negative stereotypes.”;

“;I believe diversity and cultural sensitivity are especially relevant in any discussion about human resources in a law office and, in particular, recruitment,”; he said.

Moon also said current problems with providing people access to justice will be compounded with more immigrants who are dealing with “;language barriers, cultural differences and difficulties associated with assimilating into the mainstream of American life.”;

“;I encourage each of you to take stock of the racial and ethnic — as well as gender — diversity within your own law firms, explore cultural sensitivity training seminars and programs, and establish a criteria for recruitment that will promote all of the benefits that will come with diversity and cultural sensitivity.”;