Editor’s note: Kadara Marshall was a three-sport athlete at Waiakea who was the sole black participant on many of the teams she played on growing up. She was inspired by the death of George Floyd and the protests that followed to speak up about the Black Lives Matter movement.
A Letter to Hawaii:
Although it is not the job of black people to educate others who are unaware of the struggles we go through, I find the dire need to be a black voice to the Hawaii community during this time.
I grew up here, born and raised. I am very empathetic toward the lack of education our public school’s system provides.
I was not educated properly about my history, black history, so I know that you were not either.
Did you know:
• The concept of white privilege/justification against brutality of blacks originated, in 1676. After Bacon’s rebellion, the governor pardoned only the white rebels, giving 30 lashes to participating slaves, and any other slave that raised their hand at a white.
• The Salem witch trials depicted witches as a black entity. Black people became the face of criminality in 1692.
• President Abraham Lincoln ran on an anti-slavery platform out of pure necessity. He did not support black equality or voting and was not going to challenge Southern slavery. The South was still afraid of its revenue being taken away, so they left the North regardless. Then the Civil War. Blacks ran away from the South to the North to fight against their owners (they were originally turned away due to the Fugitive Slave Act), but then it was amended so blacks could now more easily and willingly sacrifice their bodies for a nation that did not regard them as human. Then, since black lives were even more necessary to achieving a white agenda (aiding another white guy to remain in power), Lincoln declared all slaves then and thenceforward free – but only the slaves under rebel control. So … definitely NOT all slaves. I said all this to say: Lincoln, by happenstance, emancipated slaves. If running on an anti-slavery stance wasn’t essential to him having a shot at becoming the most powerful man in the nation, he would not have even considered it.
• The first form of policing in this country came about through slave patrols. Anyone could join the force and if any blacks were caught and presumed to be a runaway, they could be beaten.
Did you know these things?
I didn’t either.
When we exclaim that black lives matter, we don’t mean it to overshadow your life.
We exclaim it because for many, many years our lives have in no way shape or form mattered.
It could even be argued that between being forcibly shipped across an ocean (after being ripped from our villages and stuffed to the brim in dungeons), to being enslaved on plantations, to being enslaved by the criminal justice system, to being hunted in our very own streets, black American lives have … never … truly … mattered.
Since the first slave ship touched North American soil, we have been fighting to be seen as worthy of deserving basic human rights. To, at the very least, matter.
Hawaii is all about aloha and treating everyone as family.
So:
I understand the compulsion to combat that with all lives matter, but the black community is asking for empathy. To please understand the history of our lives in a country we were brought to. We know that others experience bad things as well. But as the very people that built this nation, we figure the very least we could be given in return is to be seen, heard and not live in a country with systems precisely created to keep us down.
I understand that we live thousands of miles away in a reality that uses the concept of aloha to treat everyone as equals. But in the continental U.S., black bodies are ruthlessly killed in the streets because we are not viewed as equal. Due to this VERY important cultural distinction the use of all lives matter can NOT be used as a blanket statement.
I understand that it is hard to educate yourself further on an issue that seems so detached from the immediate reality we live in in Hawaii, which is why I hope this can start that journey for you.
That being said:
With the lack of education of black history, I kindly ask that until you become educated enough to have factual stimulating input, you listen to black voices first.
Ignorance is not bliss.
Even if it is meant in the most sincere way, stating that all lives matter instead of black lives matter is detrimental to the immediate livelihood of black Americans.
Please hear us.