Did “Asians Scare Sarah Palin Away” from Hawaii?

By jozjozjoz | Tuesday, December 8, 2009 | 16 Comments

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I never thought that we’d ever have a reason to write about Sarah Palin on this blog, but here it is. With the release of her book “Going Rogue,” come opportunities for her to put a few things out for the record– and for people to correct her.

In the New Yorker review of the book, Sam Tanenhaus writes that Palin’s own father suggested that Sarah left Hawaii because there were too many Asians. Not surprisingly, this contradicts Palin’s own description of her reasons for leaving college in Hawaii after only one semester.

Palin, though notoriously ill-traveled outside the United States, did journey far to the first of the four colleges she attended, in Hawaii. She and a friend who went with her lasted only one semester. “Hawaii was a little too perfect,” Palin writes. “Perpetual sunshine isn’t necessarily conducive to serious academics for eighteen-year-old Alaska girls.” Perhaps not. But Palin’s father, Chuck Heath, gave a different to account [Scott] Conroy and [Shushannah] Walshe [authors of another bio, "Sarah From Alaska"]. According to him, the presence of so many Asians and Pacific Islanders made her uncomfortable: “They were a minority type thing and it wasn’t glamorous, so she came home.” In any case, Palin reports that she much preferred her last stop, the University of Idaho, “because it was much like Alaska yet still ‘Outside.’ “

Two things to note about the passage above:
1) The italics above are from Isaac Chotiner of The New Republic, who was the first to point this out and ask “Why–and readers should weigh in–has this gotten absolutely no media attention?”
2) Most articles about this have been quoting the passage above without the final sentence, the one that reads: “In any case, Palin reports that she much preferred her last stop, the University of Idaho, “because it was much like Alaska yet still ‘Outside.’ ”

It’s that final sentence that I think tells the real story. It’s easy to write a headline like, “Sarah Palin is Racist Against Asians,” but the more accurate headline might actually be, “Sarah Palin Did Not Like Being a Minority.”

I’m no Sarah Palin fan– but I’m coming to the defense of Sarah Palin on this one. I don’t think that Sarah Palin left Hawaii because she was “afraid of Asians” or “racist against Asians.” I think that she didn’t like being in a place where “people like her” aren’t the norm. Railing against Sarah Palin about that– her unwillingness to live in a place where she could learn from people different than her– is a much better discussion than simply pulling the race card. I think the fact of the matter is, an 18-year-old Sarah Palin wouldn’t have wanted to live any place with a lot of people that were different from her– period. Just a guess, and I may not be giving Palin enough credit here, but she probably would have quit school if she’d gone to a school in a predominantly African-American area, too. Does that make her racist? Not necessarily.

When I visited Alaska for a couple of weeks last year for a governmental project I was working on (no, I did not work with the State of Alaska or have any dealings with the Governor herself), I took the opportunity to learn about the population of the state. A lot of people don’t realize this, but as a percentage of the state’s population, there are more people of Asian descent than in many other parts of the U.S. In fact, an Asian American (Scott Kawasaki), is a member of the Alaska House of Representatives. Outside of states with large Asian/Asian American populations, most states don’t have any Asian American representation. Although the vast majority of people in Alaska are indeed white, it’s not as if Hawaii was the first place she’d ever encountered an Asian American!

We all know that as most kids are growing up, they just like to “fit in” to their surroundings. Maybe Sarah Palin hadn’t outgrown that by the time she went off to college? Maybe she never did?

But that doesn’t necessarily make her “scared of Asians.”

Original photo by geerlingguy, used & modified under Creative Commons License

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johnklin

I blogged about Sarah Palin last Fall at:

Asian Americans For & Against Governor Sarah Palin
http://www.8asians.com/2008/10/06/asian-americans-for-against-governor-sarah-palin/
erika888

“she probably would have quit school if she’d gone to a school in a predominantly African-American area, too. Does that make her racist? Not necessarily.”

Uhhh…if she feels that uncomfortable with non-whites being the majority, she is racist, or at least has a rather racist mindset.
There are plenty of white people who live in Hawaii and New Mexico who are in the minority but enjoy living there, have mostly non-white friends and family members, etc. I don’t get why it matters what race the people around you are, and why people are uncomfortable being around fellow humans.
http://www.jozjozjoz.com jozjozjoz

Well, this opens up the whole “What is racism?” discussion, doesn’t it?
paparatti

I don’t think it had anything to do with Asian people either – it sounds more like she flunked out of that college because she spent all her time on the beach and was asked to leave.
paparatti

When you come from a background where you have the privilege of never having to think about your identity, and that changes, you are bound to feel weird. I feel out of place being the only white person at the Christmas table or in a dim sum restaurant on a Sunday lunchtime with my (Chinese) family, and I would hope to god that they’d call me out if I was being an asshole. It doesn’t take a huge amount of empathy to understand how discomfort can happen without any particular discrimination occurring.

I hate defending Palin, this sucks. I wish she’d go away now.
http://www.jozjozjoz.com jozjozjoz

“I hate defending Palin, this sucks. I wish she’d go away now.”

What you said, Natalie.
erika888

I suppose I can empathize somewhat with white people feeling uncomfortable when they’re the minority, since I am a minority in a super-white area of my state. Still, she felt uncomfortable and alienated enough that she didn’t want to be in Hawaii anymore…that’s kind of messed up IMO.
paparatti

For sure. I think the one thing Palin’s history has shown us is that she has exactly no work ethic, and that (with the exception of her special needs baby) her method for escaping challenging situations involves shirking responsibility and handing in her notice of resignation. Even if I can understand her being uncomfortable, that’s not me empathising with her walking away.

I still can’t quite believe that she put that much effort into it though, I’d put $10 on her being asked to leave the school for not turning up to class on a regular basis, just from what her father said.
http://conservasian.blogspot.com/ conservasian

To be honest, I actually believe that Palin preferred Idaho over Hawaii, not because it’s majority white, but because of the similarities in outdoor opportunities. Leaving racial politics out (though I wouldn’t put it past her, like many white people, to be uncomfortable with being a minority) — she and her family are big outdoor enthusiasts. Hawaii _cannot_ compare with Alaska, in terms of what they love doing. Idaho is much more similar to Alaska for outdoor activities. You’d be surprised _just how much_ people value that. The majority of the people I meet in Montana have NO desire to leave because of the rich opportunities they have in fishing, hunting and just being outdoors. I suspect many Alaskans feel the same if they are big into hunting and fishing.
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asian888888

Well, Asians might be the minority “type of thing”, but Sarah Palin is the Moronity type of thing. HAHAHAHAHAHA
asian888888

Well, Asians might be the minority “type of thing”, but Sarah Palin is the Moronity type of thing. HAHAHAHAHAHA
headhunter1946

I experienced some of that when my parents moved from WI to Texas in 1955. I was nine years old and I was the “Yankee” kid. I didn’t have the same accent, I didn’t understand the southern mentality. I had a teacher hovering over me hoping for some reason to have me disciplined because I was the resented “Yankee”.

I was white, middle class, but I was still in the minority and it made me uncomfortable. Unless Sarah could develop a special friendship with some of the local people or fellow college students, she too was the “Yankee”.

If I hadn’t been nine and dependent on my parents, I would have moved away.
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redsmurf

Was she afraid of being a minority in Hawaii? Wasn’t she a minority in Alaska? That makes no sense at all. I lived in Alaska for 2 years, and all you could see was Asian faces. Shouldn’t she have been used to that already?
James1983

“she probably would have quit school if she’d gone to a school in a predominantly African-American area, too. Does that make her racist? Not necessarily.”

Actually, it does

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