The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-10-04
THAT COLOR LINE.


nearly his last ditch when he falls
back upon the color line to try and
animate the Hawaiian against an
nexation. 1t is hopeless task he
has undertaken and it is almost
pitiful to see his efforts at galvaniz
ing into life some sort of bugaboo.
At one time the Hawaiian was
going to lose his lands, at another
time he was going to have no vote,
yet again he was to be driven to the
wall by a flood of roughs and ras-
calls, and to be generally trodden
under foot. Each of these grisly
specters has been laid, and now
comes the color line fraud. To help
it out a few isolated cases of
snobbishness are trotted out,
but the thousands of cas:s where
no color line is drawn are lost sight
of completely.
is very little compliment that
the Hawaiian's false friends pay
him when they compare him with
negro. The Star considers the
Hawaiian as superior to the negro.
The negro of the United States is
the descendent of an enslaved race,
a race too, that was not only en-
shaved in America, but had already,
in many instances, been enslaved in
Africa itself. In point of fact many
of the negroes brought to America
only exchanged African slavery for
American. Then the negro mind
is stepped in superstition. Add
generations of slavery and super
stition together, and it takes years
and generations to make a thorough
ly balanced freeman out of any race,
and the negro by his own acts keeps
alive prejudice against himself. 1t
is difficult to rid himself of his
heredity. Time will do it, and edu-
cation will help it, but it cannot be
done in moment. by act of Con-
gress or by proclamation. The
negro could be made legally free,
but the hereditary traits take years
to eradicate.
This is the race that the white
royalist is forever comparing the
Hawaiian with. Now the Hawaiian
is very different person. He is a
freeman, and he is descended from
freemen. He has had and has
superstitions, but they aae on a par
with the superstitions of the Euro
pean. Indeed you will find in many
parts of Europe people far more
superstitious than the Hawaiian.
Superstition is ingrained in human
nature and it takes much breeding
and much education to free the
mind from it. But tue superstition
of the Hawaiian and the European
is not the degrading superstition of
the negro.
And yet, in spite of his heredi-
tary disabilities, the negro is we'll
received in the United States. There
are eminent jurists who are negroes,
the same race has supplied Congress
MN and Legislators. Negroes have
risen high in the church, and
recently negro has made a great
mark as poet, and has in conse-
quence become the lion" of many
drawing rooms.
But where there has been hesita-
ton with regard to the negro. there
has never been hesitation with re.
gard to the Hawaiian. In his
intercourse with the Hawaiian the
white man has always stood on an
equality with him. Socially the
Hawaiian of good standing takes
his footing as white man. And
what is true of the intercourse here
is true of the intercourse in the
United States. Hawaiians have
travelled over the United States far
and wide, and have always met the
courtesy due to their position in
society. Hawaiians have served in
American ships and have there
been treated as the equals of the
rest of the crew. Nay more, HI =
waiians have been put in charge of
Americans and Europeans and
there has never been murmur
about the appointment, and there
would have been if the Hawaiians
had been regarded as interiors in
stead of equals.
A man in the United States can
claim respect for what he is. The
Hawaiian will have the same chance
of winning that respect as any one
else The color line will have
nothing to do with the matter
This attempt to raise race preju-
dice is very despicable and shows 10
what desperate straits the royals S
are driven. There is no doubt