Jonathan Okamura: There May Be No ‘Black Jobs,’ But What About Micronesian Jobs?

During his recent debate on CNN with President Joe Biden, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed that migrants were taking “Black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs” from Americans, arguments which he repeated at a campaign rally the following day.

Critics, led by African American and Democratic leaders, immediately responded by calling Trump’s remarks racist, insulting and a blatant attempt to gain Black and Latino supporters beyond his base of white conservatives.

“There is no such thing as a Black job,” said Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP. “That misinformed characterization is a denial of the ubiquity of Black talent. We are doctors, lawyers, school teachers, police officers and firefighters. A ‘Black job’ is an American job.”

While Johnson’s response is valid from a colorblind perspective, it’s also the case that work is racialized in America in the sense that occupations are often associated with particular races, both white and non-white, and both statistically and stereotypically. Statistically, being an NBA basketball player could be said to be a “Black job” insofar as they represent about three-fourths of the players.

Racialized employment also occurs in Hawaii where occupations (and other related socioeconomic indices, such as neighborhoods) are associated with particular ethnic groups. Such racialization can be the result of discrimination against certain groups or favoritism toward others.

We need to break free from those racial biases and provide equal employment opportunity, especially to immigrant minorities so that they can support themselves and their families, as some companies already have been doing.

For some time, I have seen what I believed to be predominantly Micronesian or other Compacts of Free Association citizen workers at McKinley Car Wash on Kapiolani Avenue, who seemed to have replaced its primarily Samoan employees of previous decades.

Perhaps starting 40 years ago, Yukio Yoshikawa, who started the business, used to hire Samoans to such an extent that the Samoan community formally honored him for his willingness to give them a chance to work. His gesture of aloha was during a period when Samoans were subject to much racism and discrimination against them, including in employment, arguably more than any other ethnic minority in Hawaii.

To confirm my perception about the current COFA workers at McKinley Car Wash, I spoke with Kurt Yoshikawa, the current manager and grandson of Yukio Yoshikawa. He told me that the reason they have such a high proportion of Micronesians — about 40 of their 50 employees — is because of their “accountability and good attitude, characteristics any employer would seek,” so he has continued hiring them.

To be clear, I’m not arguing that working at a car wash is a “Micronesian job.” They are certainly capable of performing a range of occupations, including in the professions and other white collar work. Instead, I’m emphasizing that it’s great that companies, such as McKinley Car Wash, are willing to hire a lot of COFA citizens, especially important considering their high unemployment rate.

According to a 2018 report by the American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau, Marshallese, who are a majority of COFA citizens in Hawaii, had the highest unemployment rate at 16.9% of all ethnic groups, which was almost three times greater than the state average of 6.1%.

Information on other COFA groups was not provided in the report because the ACS is based on sampling, and the number of those surveyed from the other two COFA nations — Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia — was too small to be included. This is indicative of the very limited population of COFA citizens in Hawaii, who hardly pose a threat to take jobs from local residents; instead, they are filling them and contributing to state tax revenues.

I know of another company that has been hiring COFA citizens. As a regular shopper at the Don Quijote food and variety store on Kaheka Street, over the past several years I have become aware of many of them employed as cashiers and floor staff. As a recovering anthropologist, I couldn’t overcome my desire to ask them some questions about working there.

The examples of hiring COFA citizens by McKinley Car Wash and Don Quijote should be followed by other large companies in Hawaii.

One estimated there are about 50 COFA workers at the store, including many who work late at night restocking shelves.

I attempted to find out if the management at Don Quijote had made some kind of decision similar to that of McKinley Car Wash to employ COFA citizens. I spoke with two human resources department staff members, who were reluctant to acknowledge that such a hiring decision, even implicit, had been made.

They did tell me that the Kaheka Street store has 300 employees, so even if 50 COFA workers is an overestimate, just 30 would be a highly significant number given that COFA citizens constitute about 1.4% of Hawaii’s population of 1.4 million.

The examples of hiring COFA citizens by McKinley Car Wash and Don Quijote should be followed by other large companies in Hawaii. They would probably find that COFA workers are reliable and hardworking employees, who will contribute to their financial well-being and to alleviating the acute labor shortage in the state.

If COFA citizens weren’t proving to be dependable workers, their numbers probably wouldn’t have increased to the extent they have at both these companies and probably others that I’m unaware of.

The state of Hawaii should join those private businesses in providing employment to COFA citizens, particularly as teachers and bilingual school-home assistants in the Department of Education, where they are badly needed to serve the 9,000 COFA students.

To paraphrase John Lennon, all I’m saying is, give them a chance.