Stereotypes In Sista Tonggue

Humans are competitive creatures by nature, constantly attempting to out due one another, whether it is being more attractive, more successful, or more intelligent. It seems that some will go to extreme measures to be considered the “best” at something, even if that means tearing people down one by one. Being deemed “superior” gives a sense of power, which power is unfortunately what seems to run society. Caucasians used their “power of intelligence” to keep superiority over non-Caucasians and grouping those as “inferior” through the use of language. Lisa Kanae addresses the stigmas attached to Hawaiian Creole English (Pidgin) within her book, Sista Tongue, while embracing and supporting the use of Pidgin.
Caucasians established plantations within the Hawaiian Islands during the mid 1800s, which caused a huge demand for workers. People from different countries flooded into the islands looking for work, such as Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino immigrants. Therefore Pidgin was born- a new language which, allowed communication between workers. Pidgin flourished between the plantation workers and has successfully
These stigmas appeared in newspapers to academic publications within the state of Hawaii. One publication by Madorah E. Smith in particular, shows how far Caucasians took their “power”. Madorah finds that among the non-haole children within the islands of Hawaii to be retarded. Those whom are deemed to be retarded are considered to be “limited in emotional and intellectual development” according to the Webster Dictionary. Children are being categorized as “retarded” because of being raised with a different primary language other than English. These children are being compared to haole children whom were raised within a home where only Standard English was