House member insults ethnic groups

State Rep. Faye Hanohano — unhappy with the paintings installed in her state Capitol office as part of a public exhibit — used racial and ethnic slurs in a tirade Monday, according to an email from a state exhibit specialist.

Hanohano, who is Native Hawaiian, called the works for the "Art in Public Places" exhibit "ugly" and questioned why the paintings chosen were not from Native Hawaiian artists.

Exhibit specialists who were installing the art said the House member from Hawaii island told them that "any work done by Haoles, Japs, Paranges, Pakes, you can just take away right now."

(The meaning of Paranges in the email is unclear.)

Hanohano also threatened to cut funding to the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, which oversees the "Art in Public Places" program, if she did not get works from Native Hawaiian artists. When exhibit specialists offered to remove the paintings, the House member said she would leave the paintings up until "she gets sick of them," according to the email.

Hanohano (D, Hawaiian Acres-Pahoa-Kalapana), would not comment about the incident Wednesday.

"I don’t want to talk about it," she said.

House Speaker Joseph Souki (D, Waihee-Waiehu-Wailuku) said Wednesday that Hanohano would be sending a letter of apology to the exhibit specialists. The speaker said he has also extended his "sincerest apology."

"I absolutely do not condone this type of offensive language and behavior by anyone," Souki said in a statement. "I have spoken to Rep. Hanohano and emphasized that this is not in keeping with the spirit of the House of Representatives."

Eva Laird Smith, the executive director of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, said she had met privately with Souki on Tuesday to discuss the incident. She said that "if there were racial slurs, there is no tolerance for that."

First elected to the House in 2006, Hanohano, a former corrections administrator, is part of the dissident faction of Democrats who took power with Souki this session. She often speaks in the Hawaiian language on the House floor when lawmakers are debating Native Hawaiian issues, then translates her comments to English. She is chairwoman of the House Ocean Management and Hawaiian Affairs Committee.

Pieces from the "Art in Public Places" collection appear in offices throughout the Capitol.

The paintings installed in Hanohano’s fourth-floor office on Monday depict floral and landscape settings. One prominent watercolor — the one visitors are most likely to see — is "Lychee" by the late John Wisnosky, an Illinois-born painter who was a former chairman of the University of Hawaii at Manoa Art Department.

James T. Kuroda, a senior exhibit specialist, detailed the incident with Hanohano in the email to Smith. The content of the email was forwarded to the Star-Advertiser by a source who asked to remain anonymous.

Kuroda told Smith he would not permit exhibit specialists to return to work in Hanohano’s office.

"On a personal note, as a third-generation Japanese-American born and raised in Hawaii, I am deeply offended, hurt and angered by her remarks. I am old enough to have lived in a time and place where the next thing following the word ‘Jap’ was a punch to the face," Kuroda wrote.

"The exhibit specialist team is a culturally diverse group of highly trained professionals; as such we pride ourselves on our ability to educate and share our love of the arts with the community. I have worked for the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts for over 10 years and have never been subjected to such hateful racist language in the workplace before. This kind of blatant racist language must never be tolerated anywhere in the state of Hawaii, but especially not at the state Capitol. As an elected official, Rep. Hanohano must be held accountable."