{"id":150313,"date":"2021-10-22T15:05:17","date_gmt":"2021-10-23T01:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=150313"},"modified":"2021-10-27T15:38:17","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T01:38:17","slug":"philosophy-deptartment-apologizes-to-late-professor-trask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/10\/22\/philosophy-deptartment-apologizes-to-late-professor-trask\/","title":{"rendered":"Philosophy department apologizes to late Professor Trask"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 5<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Following the death of University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at M\u0101noa Professor Emerita Haunani-Kay Trask<\/strong><\/a> in July 2021, the 东精影业<\/abbr> M\u0101noa philosophy department<\/a> issued condolences and a public apology for an incident in 1990 widely covered in the media.<\/p>\n

Members of the department called for Trask\u2019s termination in a very public dispute over the use of the word “haole” (loosely translated to foreigner), It started after a student editorial in school\u2019s Ka Leo O Hawaiʻi<\/span><\/em> newspaper said \u201chaole\u201d was equivalent to the N-word. In response, Trask authored an editorial defending the use of the word while highlighting Hawaiʻi<\/span>‘s colonial history and suggested the student could leave Hawaiʻi<\/span> if they did not like it.<\/p>\n

At the time, there was push from some 东精影业<\/abbr> faculty to remove Trask, but a formal decision was made to retain her. <\/p>\n

“The Department began to revisit the 1990\/91 events in fall 2020 when a Native Hawaiian with a PhD<\/abbr> from the 东精影业<\/abbr> M\u0101noa College of Education asked to submit a proposal for a course on Hawaiian Philosophy,” explained Tamara Albertini<\/strong>, 东精影业<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Philosophy chair and professor. “In that context we found out that the clash from 30 years ago had left lasting wounds among Native Hawaiian faculty and students. We instantly knew that we had a moral obligation to reach out. The passing of Dr. Haunani-Kay Trask did not prompt the apology. It was already in the making. However, we understood that we could not postpone making it public.”<\/p>\n

The posthumous apology stated:<\/p>\n