Zooming in on racism in Hawaii

COVID-19 leads Mackey Marianist Lecture to celebrate its 25th Year lecture online with an added screen discussion

By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald

Racism in the U.S. has been a hot topic in 2020 and made for a timely focus for this year’s 25th Mackey Marianist Lecture.

Father Alapaki Kim gave the talk, “Racism in Hawaii: A Faith Response,” which was prerecorded on Oct. 5 with an Oct. 11 YouTube premiere due to COVID-19 social distancing precautions. As of Oct. 26 it had 473 views.

Father Kim is the half-Hawaiian, half-Korean pastor of St. Rita Parish in Nanakuli, which is a mostly Native Hawaiian parish on Hawaiian homelands.

While acknowledging that racism affects all races, his hourlong talk largely focused on recapping Hawaiian history from the time of the monarchy through the present day and the challenges Native Hawaiians have faced. Some of the many points he touched on included the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian government when Queen Liliuokalani was ruler, the prevention of the Hawaiian language being taught, taking away choice lands promised for Hawaiian homelands and giving them to developers instead, and the more recent controversy over telescopes on top of Mauna Kea on Hawaii island.

Father Kim, who is fluent in Hawaiian, touched on the racism his own mother faced as a child and how it led her to avoid speaking Hawaiian for many years. He also mentioned how he saw native Hawaiians he knew on Hawaii island pushed off their own land because of new National Park Service restrictions which prevented the residents from cultivating food, which they had always done before.

The priest urged lecture attendees to fight racism in their own way.

“As Christians, we are called to stand for equal rights in racial issues and religious issues,” Father Kim said. “Jesus tells us that the greatest commandments are to love God and to love one another. He also says if you say you love God but you hate your neighbor, you’re a liar.

“We must love our brothers and sisters, that’s a requirement. If we don’t love them, we can’t love God.”

After the lecture, the prerecorded video paused for offscreen discussion time in small groups that was not seen. Father Kim then answered about eight questions on racism including its intersection with the church in Hawaii such as when hula was temporarily forbidden from being done at Mass.

More discussion

A follow-up Zoom discussion with Father Kim on the topic of racism in Hawaii was held Oct. 20 at 4 p.m. and open to the Chaminade campus community. It allowed for more questions, which were submitted live via chat.

Father Kim talked about how Bishop Larry Silva supports the idea that “Hawaiian culture is the host culture … and all parishes have to reflect something of the host culture.”

He also discussed how people’s abilities to combat racism will vary.

“Not everybody can walk through Waikiki and protest, but maybe somebody can get up and pray,” Father Kim said. “But to sit back and do nothing is not an option.”

When asked by someone in the discussion on how to approach racism as people of faith, the priest said to make sure that you don’t come at it as “the great white hope.”

“Don’t come in and tell them what to do,” he said. But if you’re asked for your opinion or to help, you can.

And when asked how people can “speak words of life,” Father Kim said that when someone sees racism they should step in to correct it by saying something, not by yelling but calming correcting, as long as the situation is safe.

“You try to be positive,” he said. “Don’t yell. Once you yell, the curtains go up and they’re done with you.”

The annual Mackey lecture honors the late Marianist Father Robert Mackey, Chaminade University of Honolulu’s founder and first president. It’s jointly sponsored by the Marianist Center of Hawaii, St. Louis School and Chaminade.

To watch the full 2020 Mackey Marianist Lecture go to https://youtu.be/w5a0b6gvX8A.