HAWAII BRIEFING

RACISM FLAP: A college student who dropped out after a professor suggested Hawaii would be better off without him has returned to the University of Hawaii and filed a grievance.

“Once I got over to the mainland, I realized that it’s just not right that a professor should do that,” said Joey Carter, a senior who will resume his studies this semester.

The Louisiana native had written a column in the school newspaper in September lamenting “Caucasian-bashing” in Hawaii.

Haunani-Kay Trask, director of the university’s Center for Hawaiian Studies, responded with an article telling Carter to leave if he didn’t like it here. “Hawaii would certainly benefit from one less haole (white),” she wrote.

The columns touched off a raging debate over racism in Hawaii. Carter quietly left school, saying he didn’t feel comfortable on campus and had received threats. The philosophy student says he hopes the grievance will result in “a statement that faculty shouldn’t point at a student and condone any kind of racial or sexual harassment.”

In a countermove, five students who support Trask have filed discrimination complaints against the chairman of the philosophy department, who has called for Trask’s ouster as center director. The university has 45 days to respond.

TARNISHED IMAGE?: Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, who has served Hawaii in the U.S. Senate for nearly three decades and has been virtually revered locally, is taking some heat on the home front.

Critical letters have peppered the local papers since the Democratic senator testified before the Senate Ethics Committee last month in defense of colleagues accused in the “Keating Five” savings and loan case. Inouye described the senators as “men of unimpeachable character” and said they acted within the bounds of constituent service.

In a letter to the Honolulu Advertiser, Fred A. Young declared that Inouye had “committed political hara-kiri” with his testimony. “Once the embodiment of virtue and integrity, Sen. Inouye now only sadly embodies the faults and problems of our political leaders,” Gregg S. Sato lamented in a letter to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Only a handful of letters supported Inouye.

The outcry is noteworthy because the state’s senior senator is seldom criticized. His influence in Hawaii politics is legendary, and budding candidates often seek his blessing. Inouye is up for reelection in 1992.

CREDIT JAPAN: Despite the national economic downturn, Japanese tourists and yen-fueled construction have helped keep Hawaii recession-proof so far.

“We never have in the past been affected immediately by slowdowns on the mainland,” said David Ramsour, chief economist for Bank of Hawaii. “In this case, I think the Japanese element will defer the effect even further, probably to the end of 1991.”

Although the number of U.S. visitors to Hawaii stayed flat through November of last year, a 15% surge in Asian tourists made 1990 another record-breaking year for tourism. The state’s unemployment rate dropped to 2.7% in November, keeping businesses scrambling for workers.