Unseen And Unheard

James Kawika Riley

Education is vital to social and economic prosperity in the Pacific Islands as well as America. In the United States, various factors have led to racial inequity in college graduation rates. In response, public and private organizations fund scholarships for minority groups who are underrepresented in higher education. African Americans, Native Americans and Alaskan Natives and Hispanics enjoy high levels of eligibility for these scholarships because they are underrepresented. However, Pacific Islanders do not.

Yet U.S. census data reflects the under representation of Pacific Islanders at all levels of higher education. Like the aforementioned minority groups, Pacific Islanders are graduating from U.S. colleges and universities at a lower rate than Americans overall. But unlike those other groups, Pacific Islanders are not seen as underrepresented by most of these scholarships and fellowships.

Sometimes this means that other minority applicants will be selected over an equally qualified Pacific Islander. Other times this means Pacific Islanders are barred from even applying. This cuts the flow of millions of dollars in scholarship money to Pacific Islander students and college hopefuls.

A substantial and growing number of Pacific Islanders now call America home. There are more Samoans and Chamorros in the 50 states than in Samoa and Guam, respectively. America's Tongan population is one-third of the size of Tonga's population. The U.S. census estimates that America's Pacific Islander population is growing over 250 percent faster than the U.S. population as a whole.

Many Pacific Island economies rely on the millions of dollars sent home every year by Islanders working in the United States. For Pacific Islanders at home or abroad, individual prosperity and community well-being is strengthened by opportunities in higher education. Those opportunities should include places in programs for underrepresented minorities.

For some time, classification of Pacific Islanders in the U.S. has been ambiguous at best. Until 1997, the U.S. federal government grouped Asians and Pacific Islanders together, before recognizing Pacific Islanders as a distinct racial group ("Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander"). Classification as a distinct group was a giant step in the right direction for the United States. Still, underrepresented minority scholarships, fellowships, and other academic programs as a whole have been slow to recognize Pacific Islanders as distinct and underrepresented.

If we don't bring visibility to this, who knows if these programs will ever see the unique conditions of Pacific Islanders? We can say that every year more aspiring Pacific Islanders find a college degree unattainable because they cannot afford the cost. Access to scholarships and fellowships would help countless Pacific Islanders graduate, making an immediate impact on their lives, families and communities.

When underrepresented minority programs look past Pacific Islanders, they do a disservice to themselves and us. For the groups they include, these programs help students succeed. Their efforts remove barriers between these students and their dreams. Unfortunately, their misclassification of deserving Pacific Islanders blocks our peoples' access to such opportunities.

On the front lines, Pacific Islander students continue to speak out against misclassification. They should not be expected to stand by passively and let such errors continue. They should be praised for standing up for the interests of our larger community.

If Pacific Islands had access to the wealth of scholarships and fellowships now closed off to them, who knows what kind of progress it would bring? I see one way to find out.

James Kawika Riley is a McNair Scholar at the University of Northern

Colorado. For more information, contact jkr_nhpi_development@hotmail.com