Some people may ask us at the African-American Lawyers Association (AALA) why the parents at Kalaheo High are so upset about a "little joke" told in the yearbook. Well, for one thing, it points up some of the serious problems in the educational system in Hawaii. Slavery still haunts
us at KalaheoThe system should set an example of high goals, a set of morals and values to look up to. The African-American students, whose yearbook photo is the source of the controvery, were attempting to do that. The students were singing a love song at a talent contest at a school function when some other students (for whatever reason) decided to throw "some slime on them."
When the yearbook was published the caption under their photo read, "I like pigs feet! I like hog mollz! Where da collard greens? Who got the chintlinz?" (sic).
While children may be expected to act like children, the reason a teacher is assigned to supervise the yearbook preparation is to protect innocent students from harm caused by the yearbook staffers.
Basically, this is a situation where someone is destructively throwing mud on someone else who is trying to do right, in order to have their private little joke.
However, this particular joke has negative racial connotations.
"Hog mollz, chintlinz, pigs feet," that's slave food. That is food African Americans were forced to eat because the master ate "high on the hog."
The slave was left to eat the pig's intestines and feet -- the parts that touch slime. These are the parts of the pig that contain bacteria and have contact with feces. Basically, the joke refers to eating defecation.
African Americans have come far beyond that. But other people are still trying to drag these students back into the slime, by bringing up slave history.
A key component of institutionalized racism appears when a public school will not let the former caste victims rise above the stereotypes of their ancestors' previous situation of disenfranchisement and brutality. Nothing about slavery was funny.
That's why this kind of racial harassment is illegal under U.S. Constitutional Law under the 13th and 14th Amendments.
This is not the first time a racial slur has been levied at African-American students at Kalaheo High School.
Coach Darrel Smith and Kalaheo were censored after Smith berated students using extremely pejorative words to and about African-American students, who could not defend themselves from this authority figure.
Industries recall defective products every day. Yet Kalaheo refuses to recall the offending yearbook. This type of memento from one's high school years is despicable.
The yearbook slurs emphasize a deficiency in the competence of Kalaheo teachers and administrators. They are obviously not giving students the right information about the history of Africans in America and/or the right guidance with regard to how to get along with all people in this world.
African Americans have been part of the United States since colonial times and are an integral part of the society. Without slave labor, the wealth of the United States would not have been extracted from the land and concentrated in so few capitalists' hands.
We suggest that schools make it a point to include in their curriculum the history of Africa before the introduction of the slave trade. We offer the "A Ripe Idea" video series as one way to introduce a healthy viewpoint with geographical and historical studies to the student body.
When an incident of racism slanders and humiliates minority students, the situation cries out for compensation and amelioration, as well as expanded education. The Kalaheo incident reminded us that the truth about African Americans is still hidden and distorted in a society which supported a very brutal racist slavery economy.
But the truth can set us free.
Andre Wooten is president of the
African-American Lawyers Association.