About a year ago I enrolled in a 400-level Hawaiian Studies class entitled "Issues in Modern Hawaii" as an elective for my Poli Sci major. I knew that taking this class would be a challenge because its instructor, Dr. Haunani-Kay Trask, is known locally as a very controversial political activist and she's also the leader of Ka Lahui Hawai`i, an organization that believes in sovereignty for the Hawaiian people. In an article that appeared in the Ottawa Citizen, she was quoted saying that Canadians "are not wanted as visitors to Hawai`i...If 10 Canadians decided not to come to Hawaii because of something I said, I'd be very happy." When Canadians talked about how nice people in Hawaii are to visitors, Trask told an audience in Victoria, B.C., "Of course they're nice to you -- that's their job, they're supposed to be nice to you. That doesn't mean they really want you there."

Okay, so this was my HWST 499 professor. Basically, I knew what I was getting into as I showed up for class on the first day. Each person was instructed to introduce themselves and say a little bit about themselves. When it came to my turn, she asked about my ethnicity. I replied that in addition to being keiki o ka `aina , I was also of Filipino and Japanese descent. As soon as I said "Japanese"...she went off on why Japanese people are bad because "they like to buy up our land and build their stupid hotels."

As a professor, one would assume that he/she would be open to any kind of dissent that could come up in class. Not Dr. Trask. What gets me is how my university could allow a professor like Dr. Trask (and the many closed-minded ones working on my campus) to continue to be on the faculty!!! About two years ago, Porteus Hall was re-named the Social Sciences Building after it was discovered that Dr. Porteus made racist comments about Asian-Americans decades ago! And they let racist professors like Dr. Trask run rampant today!

I dropped HWST 499 2 minutes after class was dismissed that day.