Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The Birther Summit in Honolulu: Day 1

We spent a very long (and hot) day talking with many people on the island and filming several scenes with the “big check” that will be compiled into a video once we get home. There was one conversation, however, that I want to share with you tonight. We spent at least a couple hours at the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children today. I got a call this morning from a reporter with the Honolulu Civil Beat who wanted to interview us, so he met us at the Medical Center. His story should run tomorrow.

After that interview, we went into the records office, and Miki asked to file a form to get her son's birth records. While she was filling out the form, I happened to overhear a woman who was sitting at a desk say something about the “race” field on a birth certificate she was preparing. I asked her if this was the office that responsible for filling out the birth certificate information for babies born there, and she said that it was.

Because she had just asked something about the “race” field on the birth certificate she was working on, I asked, “Back in 1961, would anyone have ever entered 'African' as the race of a parent?” She said, “No, back then they probably would have listed a black person's race as 'negro.'” I asked, “So, the word 'African' wouldn't have been used, because that is a nationality and not a race, right?” And she responded, “Right. Nowadays we can use 'African American' though.” To which I added, “But, the word 'African' by itself has never been used as an entry for race?” And she simply said, “No. Never.”

And there you have it . . . from the folks at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children.

Dean Haskins 
Executive Director, The Birther Summit

4 comments:

  1. The interesting thing about the "Race" block on Federal forms is that for decades the artful dodgers have claimed
    non-discrimination.I can understand the need for a "citizenship" block but have never understood the need for a "race" block,that is of course ,if we don't discriminate.

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  2. When I opened your web site last night and today I got a Virus warning. Stated that The post and email is a known virus site and that you had links to it on your site. Looks like Google is up to their old tricks again. I got a similar warning some time back about Orly's site. It was never proven and they had to remove the warning. I just wanted to give you a heads up. I have been visiting your site from the beginning and few times a day to boot and have never had any problems with your site or any site you have linked to. Keep up the great work and never give up hope. Jerry

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  3. Did Dean then proceed to ask why Obama's birth certificate had "African" written on it? I mean, "never" and "sometimes" are completely different words.

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  4. Excellent job and reporting.
    Mahalo from the Islands, we're quite aware.

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