Harlan's comment raises ire in Hawaii
(October 5, 2010) A spontaneous comment made by a play-by-play announcer on a nationally televised NFL football game Sunday has struck a nerve in Native Hawaiians all across the country including here at home.
The Tennessee Titans and Denver Broncos were in the midst of dog-fight on national television when play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan found himself describing a gesture made by Tennessee coach Chuck Cecil. "Oh the Hawaiian peace sign given by Chuck Cecil," said Harlan during the broadcast. Cher Gillespie, a native Hawaiian who lives in Denver, says she was stunned by what she heard. "He just gave him the Hawaiian peace sign. And to me as a native Hawaiian that is just ridiculous it's very derogatory and I think that someone needs to let the announcer know that that's really not okay," said Gillspie. "I have three children who was watching the game as well and for them to hear an announcer in the NFL say that I cannot even express what I had to do to let them know that that's not okay and that is not the Hawaiian peace sign that they need to proud of their heritage." "Here is a national commentator attributing what is essentially is white man's sign of great disrespect to Hawaiian people," said University of Hawaii Hawaiian Studies Professor Lilikala Kameeleihiwa. This isn't the first time a comment made before a national audience has grabbed the attention of Native Hawaiians. In July, Michael Savage, one of talk radio's most popular hosts with an estimated 10 million listeners tuning in to his syndicated show every week, spent several minutes talking about his time in the islands. "I don't know how they're going to make a living, they're going to kick the white man out then what they going to have cannibalism again, oops sorry," said Savage. Our calls to CBS were not returned. "This is a time to educate everybody everywhere about the Hawaiian people the Hawaiian culture," said Gillespie. "That kind of racial profiling is not acceptable anyway, if he had said it was a black hand signal he would fire today," said Kameeleihiwa. "So we're not asking for him to be fired we're asking for an apology." The NFL fined Coach Cecil $40,000 for the gesture. Read more at
KHON2 where this story was originally published.
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