Not unsurprisingly, when you’re dealing with hundreds of grants and millions of dollars, the details of the grants start to blur. But if you’re paying attention, certain patterns begin to emerge. Like the tendency of some of the Native Hawaiian grants to be aimed at helping more that just the locals they’re claiming to care for.
Consider two of the most recent additions to our grants data: $179,165 to the Nanakuli Housing Corp. for, “designing affordable, environmentally green housing to homestead residents,” and $435,061 to the Waianae Community Redevelopment Corp. for a sustainable, “center for organic agriculture.” The rationale for grants like this is always phrased in terms of how it will help Native Hawaiians continue their culture, break the cycle of poverty, and so on. But notice how both projects cater to the environmentalist crowd with their emphasis on “green housing” and organic, sustainable agriculture. This isn’t about what Hawaiians want or need. This is about helping them on someone else’s politically correct terms. I’m not saying that Hawaiians don’t care about protecting the land or conserving the environment. But this isn’t giving them a choice about how they want to improve their homes or run their local agriculture. This is about using one group to please another.