In this week’s reading, Saranillio analyzed the settler colonialism, which is a call for the actions taken by the white invaders to ensure their dominance in the place they have invaded and suppress the indigenous people and people from other places. As Saranillio stated, settler colonialism “necessitates a discursive regime — underpinned by juridical and military force — that is productive of normalizing occupation and making sense of the genocide that this kind of replacement requires”, serving as a concealation and justification tool for brutal actions adopted by the settlers.
An interesting phenomenon in the Hawaii case is that the Asian Americans also participated in the settler colonialism, did not oppose the oppression to the indigenous people in the beginning, and anticipating to be equal to the whites, as Saranillio wrote: “Japanese plantation laborers submitted a petition that did not oppose the overthrow of Hawai‘i by white settlers but rather demanded their electoral participation in the new settler government, stating that they were the “physical and intellectual” equals of any of the other foreigners. Similarly, in 1894, the Chinese in Hawai‘i sent a petition, signed by hundreds of people, also seeking their right to participate in the new settler government.” However, being “aliens”, they can only find themselves in the place not better than the indigenous people under the “yellow peril” and the discriminatory acts such as the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Being victims of imperialism, the Asian Americans were forced to leave their homes and migrate because their living conditions at home were ruined by the the wars such as the Opium War, the unequal treaties Nanjing Treaty and the Treaty of Shimonoseki, all imposed by the western and Japanese empires. Under this background, they share some commonalities with the indigenous Hawaiians. It was the settler colonialism adopted by the white “elites” that separated them and ensured the optimal benefits of the settlers.
Comparing to the Caribbean and British imperialism we read last week from Goffe, the solidarity between Jamaican Chinese and black people represents a more effective resistance to the settler colonialism. In order to fight against the dominating white powers that usually controls military forces in the colonies, the solidarity between the oppressed people, instead of separation and fighting internally, is especially important.
