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A series of webinars will kick off later this week where members of Hawaii’s legal community as well as community leaders will discuss what actions need to be taken to achieve racial equity in Hawaii.
The series, “Confronting Racial Injustice: Achieving Racial Equity in Hawaii” will kick off with its first webinar, “Black Lives Matter & the Hawaii Experience” on Friday, the birthday of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Panelists for the first webinar — including Akiemi Glenn, founder and executive director of The Popolo Project, and Hawaii for Black Lives youth leader Kristen Brown — will discuss how the Black Lives Matter movement spurred by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery resonated with communities across the nation, including Hawaii.
The state Judiciary Committee on Equality and Access to the Courts, King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center and Hawaii State Bar Association Civic Education Committee are sponsoring the webinars.
Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald, who will give the opening remarks in Friday’s forum, said it’s important to start a conversation and do tangible things to improve the system.
The planned events came about after Recktenwald called to the legal community in the summer of 2020 to rededicate themselves to eliminate bias and prejudice in Hawaii in the aftermath of the deaths of Floyd, Taylor and Arbery. Though some work already had begun to improve Hawaii’s criminal justice system through areas such as pretrial reform and prison reform, there is still much work to be done, he said in June.
In an interview Tuesday with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Recktenwald said, “We’re separated from the continental U.S., but we’re not immune to those biases in Hawaii.” The Judiciary has an obligation to examine ways to eliminate biases to ensure “equal justice for all,” he added.
Glenn applauded Recktenwald for tackling the issue of racial bias and prejudice head-on. With demonstrations in 2020 held across the country where hundreds of thousands of people demanded policy changes in their municipalities, Glenn recalled how there were some leaders in Hawaii who wanted to gloss over the issue.
“I think it’s important that as a community in Hawaii we don’t shy away from the reality that there are things that we need to address. I applaud the Judiciary and all the people who are slated to appear in the series for being part of moving that conversation forward for our community,” Glenn said.
Retired Judge Sandra Simms, the first African American judge in Hawaii since statehood, serves as a member of the planning committee for the upcoming events. “We don’t have our heads in the sand. We do have issues here,” Simms said, noting this is part of the reason why they organized the webinars.
The Judiciary plans to hold a roundtable discussion sometime after the end of the webinar series to continue to examine issues and address ways to implement changes, said Judge Rebecca Copeland of the District Family Court of the 1st Circuit, who serves as co-chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee on Equality and Access to the Courts.
WEBINAR SCHEDULE
“Confronting Racial Injustice: Achieving Racial Equity in Hawaii,” a series of five webinars, will kick off later this week in remembrance of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Each of the free events will be held via Zoom at noon.
>> The first webinar to kick off the series, “Black Lives Matter & the Hawaii Experience,” will be held Friday. To register, visit 808ne.ws/achievingracial equity.
The four other webinars will be held on the following dates:
>> “Data & the Criminal Justice System,” on Jan. 29. Register at 808ne.ws/achievingracialequity2.
>> “Civil Rights & Access to Justice” on Feb. 12. Register at 808ne.ws/achievingracialequity3.
>> “Making the Most of Implicit Bias Training” on Feb. 26. Register at 808ne.ws/achievingracialequity4.
>> “Diversity, Inclusion & Empowerment” on March 12. Register at 808ne.ws/achievingracialequity5.
For more information, visit www.courts.state.hi.us.
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