Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

UCLA Offers a Scholarship for White People Who Live in Hawaii

A UCLA scholarship for graduate students is “for residents of Hawaii, with preference given to a Caucasian graduate student who is a resident of Hawaii.”

Tatiana Cozzarelli

December 10, 2016
Facebook Twitter Share

Image from UCLA Dept of Physics and Astronomy

As we remember the attack on Pearl Harbor that took place 75 years ago this weekend, it’s a good time to reflect on other ways that the legacies of the 1940s have survived. One minor example is the Werner R. Scott Fund, established in 1945 and offered by the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA). Funded by the estate of a white man who served in the American army in Hawaii, the scholarship awards up to $8000 to students, “with preference given to a Caucasian graduate student”–and not just any Caucasians, but those living in the state of Hawaii. The scholarship’s founding purpose was to serve the “worthy, faithful, and needy Caucasian residents of the Territory of Hawaii.”

While white people are a numerical minority in Hawaii (about 25 percent), Native Hawaiians and other oppressed nationalities and people of color in fact make up the most marginalized sectors of the population. Furthermore, whites came to be in Hawaii overwhelmingly due to processes of colonization, dispossession, and the development of tourism as the primary industry on the islands. In 1893, the United States military invaded and overthrew the constitutional monarchy of Hawaii. In 1896, Native Hawaiian language was banned and in 1959, Hawaii was incorporated as the 50th state.

Cultural Survival, a magazine that fights for Hawaiian soverignty, states, “Our country became a white planter outpost, providing missionary-descended sugar barons in the islands and imperialist Americans on the continent with a military watering hole in the Pacific…Our lands and waters have been taken for military bases, resorts, urbanization and plantation agriculture.”

According to John Osorio, professor of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawaii–Manoa, Native Hawaiians are far more likely to be incarcerated than whites, less likely to own the land they live on, and face greater obstacles in achieving higher education. A 2005 study of income and poverty showed that the adjusted per capita income was $15,554 for Native Hawaiians and $24,819 for non-Hispanic whites, and the overall poverty rate for Native Hawaiians was 16 percent compared to 9 percent for whites. A more recent 2008 study showed Native Hawaiians scored vastly lower on standerdized tests than their white peers. By the 10th grade, only 38 percent percent of Hawaiians receive an average score or better in reading, as opposed to 60 percent of white students. In math, 41 percent of Native Hawaiians score average, as opposed to 60 percent of white students.

We should organize so that no one needs scholarships to study; education should be free. In the meantime, race and ethnicity should be considered in granting scholarships in order to make higher education more accessible to historically and currently marginalized and oppressed peoples.

Despite being a numerical minority, whites living in Hawaii are in no way marginalized. Their legacy is one of violent settler-colonialism.  Native Hawaiians are the ones who are most likely to struggle with poverty, low education levels and incarceration. It’s hard to see this scholarship for Hawaiians as anything but racist in its preference for white students over the most marginalized population of Hawaii.

Facebook Twitter Share

Tatiana Cozzarelli

Tatiana is a former middle school teacher and current Urban Education PhD student at CUNY.

United States

The New Hollywood McCarthyism Emerging Around Palestine

Over the past week, a new Hollywood McCarthyism has emerged: multiple people in Hollywood have jobs and representation over their support of Palestine. We must denounce and fight these attacks which weaken the movement and scare supporters into silence.

Sybil Davis

December 3, 2023
A UAW sign is held next to a "Free Palestine" sign

The UAW Has Called for a Ceasefire. It’s Time for All of Labor to Stand Up.

The UAW International union has joined calls for a ceasefire and is exploring how to divest from Israel. This is a step which should inspire union activists to take up the fight to bring their union into the fight against Israel's attack on Gaza and the struggle against imperialism.

Rose Lemlich

December 2, 2023

A Pause in Genocide Is Not Enough: Jewish Voice for Peace Shuts Down the Manhattan Bridge

Amid a pause in Israel’s offensive on Gaza, Jewish Voice for Peace is showing that the movement for Palestine will continue. Civil disobedience must lead to broad protests which bring all sectors of the movement together.

Samuel Karlin

November 26, 2023
Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdel Hamid, and Tahseen Ahmed wearing Keffiyes. They were shot in Burlington, Vermont, USA.

The Three Palestinians Shot in Burlington Are Victims of Rising Islamophobia

Three Palestinian men were shot in Burlington Vermont while walking down the street. The campaign against Palestine has dehumanized all Palestinians and left them more vulnerable to these types of attacks.

Sybil Davis

November 26, 2023

MOST RECENT

All That's Left, the podcast from Left Voice.

#AllThatsLeftPod: What the Historic UAW Victory Means for the Working Class

In this episode of the podcast, we discuss the historic UAW victory, its shortcomings, and the tasks for the future.

Left Voice

December 5, 2023

Robert Habeck Wrote a Play Praising a Right-Wing Mass Murderer

Germany's Green vice chancellor strikes many as an idealist who has been struggling with the tough realities of government. Yet before he was a national politician, he wrote a play that opens a window into a dark soul.

Nathaniel Flakin

December 1, 2023

The World Kissinger Built Must Die Too

Henry Kissinger died at 100 years old. But his legacy remains in the brutal world system he built and the future generations of imperialist ghouls he inspired. They all must go.

Samuel Karlin

November 30, 2023

Fact Check: Did German Leftists Try to Bomb West Berlin’s Jewish Community Center in 1969?

Answer: No. The bombing was undertaken by West Germany’s domestic secret service, originally founded by Nazis.

Nathaniel Flakin

November 29, 2023