Hawai‘i State Youth Commission

In July 2018, the Hawai’i State Legislature signed into law the formation of the Hawai’i State Youth Commission (HiYC). In recognizing the role of the youth and the unique challenges that they face, the Commission was created to “advise the governor and legislature on the effects of legislative policies, needs, assessments, priorities, programs, and budgets concerning the youth” (H.B.1716). With members appointed by the Governor, Senate President, and Speaker of the House, 15 Youth Commission members from the ages 14-24 would have a position and opportunity to provide input on the policymaking process and uplift youth voices in Hawai’i.

Over the years, the HiYC has contributed to the legislative process by organizing community advocacy projects and giving testimony on bills within priority areas of education, public health, economy/tourism, and the environment.

Logan Yogi

Logan Yogi is the current chair of the HiYC and has been involved in the Commission since its inception.

From first joining the Commission as a high school student at Punahou School, he is now a second-year at Creighton University studying Political Science. He has just recently been elected as the Chair, previously serving as Vice-Chair and Treasurer in his previous terms. As a young Asian American from Hawai’i, this page discusses his background and context that inspires his political actions and consciousness, providing insights to Hawai’i youths’ relationships to identity within the context of Hawai’i and later the mainland.

Background

Move to Nebraska

In the interview with Logan, we discussed his educational journey from O’ahu to Omaha, Nebraska in the Midwest. We shared similar experiences in coming from a community with majority Asian Americans to a place where Asian Americans are the minority.

Creighton University:

Urban Honolulu:

While Logan mentioned not thinking about the impact of these demographics before enrolling at Creighton, he discussed his experience with microaggressions and other comments in the Midwest, leading to him thinking about race and ethnicity significantly more than from when he was in Hawai’i. He also finds that the mainland, or continental United States, is increasingly polarized in the divide between Democrat and Republican. Logan talks about this struggle when first arriving to college and trying to belong when the space is polarized in specific beliefs and only has a small group of others from Hawai’i. He described how important it was to him to “branch out” and find new and different communities that he has at least some commonalities with. He credits these values to growing up in the diversity of Hawai’i and finding that diversity is something he needs. Logan finds value in listening from and communicating with others from different communities, backgrounds, and perspectives – one of the reasons why he chose to study on the mainland. For Logan, his group consciousness is not based on ethnicity or race, as some studies have examined, but he seeks to understand and build solidarity through the shared experiences that do exist and surpass their differences. These values overlap with the results from May Lin’s study of Asian American youth activists and their focus on “non-binaristc forms of activist group consciousness” to “bridge gaps between racial positioning, experiences, identites and ideologies” (2020). In some ways, it makes sense that Logan’s perspective is similar to the activists in this study given that the sample was from California, another majority Asian American community. 

At the same time, Logan finds that he has started to consciously think about the people around him’s race and ethnicity since coming to the Midwest. Similar to the Illinois General Assembly’s first Korean American representative, Sharon Chung, making his racial or ethnic identity known through his political activism or just general actions were not things that Logan had prioritized. Chung had noted being seen as a “figurehead” despite her intentions not to be, and Logan finds himself also as a “spokesperson” for Hawai’i when he is at Creighton (Yin, 2022). 

Logan’s experiences growing up in Hawai’i contextualize his perspective on race and identity. The values of his family influence the decisions that he makes, with community also playing a role in the issues that he chooses to advocate for.

Highlight Issue and Identity

For many growing up in Hawai’i, cultural practices and the omnipresent beauty of nature have instilled a care for the environment. Logan speaks to these aspects of growing up in Hawai’i in relation to his passion for environmental policy. The influence of Logan’s grandparents, the beauty of Hawai’i, and the significance of diversity to him were frequently mentioned in his explanation of how his political consciousness formed and continues to grow. As a second year in university, Logan’s passions and interests are open to change as he learns and experiences new settings throughout his educational and professional career. For now, he highlights the environment and education as the issues that he’s long been devoted to and also recently found new significance in.

Significance:

What Logan’s Background and Political Consciousness Tell Us…

About Diversity and “AANHPI”

About Hawai’i and its Youth

About Ways of Engaging in Politics

As someone also from Hawai’i, it’s difficult to frame and critique Logan’s call for solidarity knowing the context he comes from and also the context he is in now. This calls into question the significance of place again, but it is complicated when people move or find significance in places that they are temporarily in. However, it is important to recognize the trends of liberal multiculturalism that are evident in Hawai’i. Logan’s frames diversity as the key solution for people to understand the extent of issues and create change for them. While diversity is important, what are the struggles for people who still face barriers in diverse areas, such as Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians in Hawai’i.  Fujikane and Okamura’s Asian Settler Colonialism refers to this idea with Japanese American settlement in Hawai’i Fujino and Rodriguez (2019). This is visible in the creation of the term “Asian American Pacific Islander” where the grouping together of diverse communities can ignore the disparities that exist within in. we can see the functions of liberal multiculturalism in assuming that Hawai’i’s community and cultural diversity created a space where it could be assumed that the experiences of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were similar enough to be grouped together. Chung (2022) also about the ways this can lead to racial color blindness, indicated in Logan’s initial outlook which limitedly considered race.

Logan’s framework of understanding policy issues in relation to race exhibit a liberal multicultural perspective in how he chooses which issues to prioritize. By focusing on the issues that affect “everyone” and implicating race in a few policy issues, the broad scope on community limits the ability to investigate the structures and barriers affecting marginalized people.

In his future career prospects, Logan is aware of race and the implications of race in policy, but his solution leans toward diversity rather than a radical change of the systems and structures that uphold racism. Another way of contrasting this is positioning Logan’s study and work in the Commission against NAKASEC’s fight for liberation through the refusal of participation in the political sphere (Rubio, 2019). This leads to questions of the significance of political action in forms of office, like the Hawai’i State Youth Commission. Logan’s faith in the state to enact change leads him to seek out different perspectives to understand the best decisions to make when in that position, whereas NAKASEC’s refusal to compromise and re-definition of ‘citizenship’ led to disengagement in legislative campaigns. The limits of state solutions are demonstrated in the limited capabilities of the Youth Commission, with some campaigns being restricted by bureaucracy or supervisors, despite being in a position to represent the youth’s interests. Furthermore, the perceptions of the issues Logan cares about are not inherently racial; for him, the environment affects every single human being and education is also something every human should have access to. While he recognizes the inequalities within each issue based on race, his overall focus on the environment and education is influenced by his own (direct or indirect) experiences with each issue and his background influences how he theorizes solutions or change through legislation or policy, limiting his options to the confines of the state.

 

Alt Text

Alt Text only for the slides embedded. Images uploaded should have image descriptions already.

Title Image. Dark green background with light green leaves in the upper right corner and bottom left corner. The upper left corner has a sketch of a flower in black on top of a white rectangel. A streak of cardboard is digitally collaged across the middle with the text “Youth Political Consciousness in Hawai’i” and a subtitle stating “Through Conversation with Logan Yogi.” There is a photo of Logan to the right underneath the title. The photo is framed in white and Logan is smiling and wearing a school uniform.

Background

1. Dark green background with a design of a palm tree in white in the bottom left corner. There is a large white rectangle in the middle with an image of two people, Logan Yogi and Hana-Lei Ji, both smiling/laughing. There is a title underneath the image that says “Logan’s Background.” There is a white arrow to the right of the title that is pointing to the right, indicating the user to click through the slides.
2. Light brown background with two pieces of darker brown paper digitally scrap booked onto the top left and bottom right of the page. The heading says “Logan’s Family and Schooling.” There is a line of text starting with “Family from Okinawa and Japan” with a black arrow pointing to “Raised by Grandparents” which then points to “Punahou School” and finally pointing at “College in Nebraska.” There are a series of four photos above the text, the first from the left is a black and white photo of farmers on a sugar cane planation in O’ahu. The text underneath the photo read “Immigrated for plantation work.” The second photo is a photo of a bay in O’ahu with the mountain and cliffs visible over water that is dark green. The text underneath the image reads “Spent a lot of time outdoors.” The third photo is of Punahou School in O’ahu with a grand front entrance and palm trees lining the front sidewalk. The text underneath reads “High School and involvement in debate and HIYC.” The last photo is of Creighton University in Nebraska at sunset time with one of the building’s towers overlooking the campus. The text underneath reads “2nd year student at Creighton University.”
3. The title of the slide says “O’ahu” and underneath reads “Environmental Context Growing Up in O’ahu.” The first photo is from The Medium and shows the city of Waikiki on the edge of the ocean, contrasting the urban landscape and beach. The second photo is from Go Hawaii which depicts a white sandy beach with palm trees lining the sand. The third and fourth photo are from The Nature Conservancy, the first depicting Native Hawaiians farming kalo, taro root, in a valley with the sun setting in the background. The fourth photo depicts an older adult and child standing on the rocks of a historic fish pond with a cloudy sky in the background. The text at the bottom of the slide reads “Tourist vision of Hawai’i vs. Conservation vision of Hawai’i by Native Hawaiians.
4. Dark green background with a white rectangle. The title reads “How Logan’s Background Led to his Political Consciousness.” There is a video in the middle of the slide showing an interview between two people, Logan Yogi and Hana-Lei Ji.

Highlight Issue and Identity

1. The first slide has a dark green background with a white rectangle in the middle that contains all the text. The title of the slide says “Life Passion”. The text in the rest of the rectangle says: “As he was raised to appreciate the environment and his surroundings, his care for it translated to advocacy once he was old enough to learn about the dangers being posed to the environment. He mentioned how studying more about everything happening with climate change can be “very overwhelming.” However, his role in the Youth Commission has allowed him the space and collaboration to look more into the causes and solutions of environmental issues. With his goal to become an environmental lawyer, he hopes to translate his understanding of environmental policies and how varying actors are thinking about the environment into action when in a position with more authority.”
2. Beige color background with a white rectangle to the left containing text. There is a photo on the right that is digitally scrapbooked with a digital piece of black tape posting the image of the City of Okolona on the slide. The photo is of a highway with lots of cars and a statue to the left overlooking the highway. The title on the rectangle says “‘Place’ and Issues.” The text underneath is: Logan recently went on a mission trip to Okolona, Mississippi. There, he learned that about half of the people in Okolona are not able to read. The cycle of illiteracy led him to think more about how communities fall behind on civic education. Thus, education become more forefront in Logan’s mind after seeing the significance in Okolona.
3. Dark brown background with light green leaves in the top right corner and bottom left corner. There are a series of white rectangles that resemble post-it notes, taped to the slide. The title on the largest rectangle says “Logan’s Reflections” and the text beneath says “In political sphere, aware of the impact on race in issues, like education, but personally wishes to not be as aware of race in his social life. Education and diverisity of perspectives understood as the foundation for change. The next white box to the side contains text is in smaller print and says ““Need Diversity” Coming from Hawai’i, learning from others perspectives is critical for Logan” and the white box contains text that says “Diversity in education becomes increasingly important to understand that “we are all facing the same thing””. 
4. The background is a light beige color. There is a white large rectangle containing all the text. The title is highlighted in black and in white text, reading “Group Think”. The text below is in black and says: “When asked about the perception of group consciousness, Logan talked more to the negative aspects of “group-think” in its impacts on polarization.

   Group-think as being bad for diversity:

   • Group-think prevents sharing and learning from different perspectives.
   • Logan sought to take college classes about communities and cultures around the world and concluded that polarization stands in the way of tackling the large-scale issues that impact all of us.
   • Logan mentions issues like economic poverty, environment, education, and incarceration as examples of issues being faced around the world, but his framing of shared experiences goes beyond the definitions of solidarity that rely on or utilize racial classifications. Tseng-Putterman highlights the calls in Claire Jean Kim’s book for “cross-racial solidarity” and “interracial unity” (2023). On the other hand, Logan’s call for solidarity seeks for every individual to recognize ways we are all fighting similar battles and should work together to face them.”
5. The background is in dark green. The box in a lighter color contains the text and an image in the right corner. The image is from the a New York Times Op-Ed. There are head shots of six individuals that are in black and white. The title of the slide says “Liberal Multiculturalism.” The text beneath says:

Liberal multiculturalism “emphasizes cultural recognition, representation, and identity as the dominant form of anti-racism without considering how the everyday lived practice of culture and activism produces new radical knowledges of addressing structural inequality” (Chung, 2022).

People from Hawai’i can fall into the same narrative of sharing Hawai’i as a “mulitcultural paradise.” Logan’s characterization of diversity and its significance in educational spaces comes from his experiences from his home but are also intertwined with values of liberal multiculturalism.

Significance

1. Brown background with a series of shapes in black. There is a large rectangle encompassing interlinking circles. There is a circle in the middle of the page that encompasses the word “literacy.” The circle around that one is labeled “Education” which is in green and the word “Race” is in white below it. The “Education” circle has five circles that are connected below it with three labeled as “Policy Issue” and one labeled as “Immigration” and the other as “Criminal Justice”. The word “Race” in white is in the “Immigration” and “Criminal Justice” circles. There is text in white above to the left that reads “Race as a factor that affects certain policy issues”. The text in green to the right reads “Environment + Education as being more over-arching areas that affect ‘everyone.'”
2. Dark brown background with light green leaves in the bottom left corner. There is a sheet of light brown paper digitally scrapbooked in the upper right corner with doodles of lightning bolts, scribbles, and text bubbles in black on top of it. There is a white text book in the upper left corner. The text on top is in black that reads “Future Questions.” The white text book says “Questions that are important to continue reflecting on as youth in Hawai’i learn and grow to engage civically and politically.” There are three white text boxes below, resembling post-it notes that are ‘taped’ to the slide. The first box on the left has text that says “How do positions of power shift in relation to location? What is the response to changing location, like moving away from the community you grew up in as many youth in Hawai’i do?” The second text book in the middle says “Who or what communities are you a reflection of? What responsibility do you have to represent them? How does it impact your political consciousness and actions? ” The third text box on the right says “How can we start deconstructing the idea of “racial/multicultural paradise” in places with high levels of diversity? How does one not convey the idea that racial consciousness is tiring in the process?”

 

Bibliography

Bentley, Amy. (2018). “Hawaii’s not all beaches: Take a History Tour.” The Press Enterprise. https://www.pressenterprise.com/2017/09/01/hawaiian-history-tour/

Chung, Brian Su-Jen. (2022). “‘We Think About Our Children First’: Asian Skilled Professionals, Liberal Multiculturalism and the Borders of Educational Inequality in Fremont, California.” Amerasia Journal, 48:1, 44-57, DOI:10.1080/00447471.2022.22152271

City of Okolona (2020). https://www.cityofokolona.com/

Climate Ready O’ahu. (2020). https://www.climatereadyoahu.org/

“Creighton University.” (2020). DataUSA. https://datausa.io/profile/university/creighton-university#:~:text=Students%20enrolled%20at%20Creighton%20University%20in%20full%2Dtime%20Undergraduate%20programs,or%20Latino%20Female%20(5.75%25)

“Creighton University | A private, Jesuit university.” (2023). https://www.creighton.edu/

Everitt, Rory (2015). “O’ahu, Hawaii – Discovering City and Nature.” Medium. https://medium.com/@rory_everitt/o-ahu-hawaii-discovering-city-nature-bb4da0603d9f

Fujino, Diane C. & Rodriguez, Robyn M. (2019). The Legibility of Asian American Activism Studies, Amerasia Journal, 45:2, 111-136, DOI: 10.1080/00447471.2019.1687253

H.B. 1716. 2018 Hawaii, 2018 29 Legislature. (HI. 2018).  https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/sessions/session2018/bills/HB1716_CD1_.html

Lin, May (2020). From alienated to activists: expressions and formation of group consciousness among Asian American young adults, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46:7, 1405-1424, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2018.1495067

Punahou School. (2023). “Academic Profile.” https://www.punahou.edu/about/academic-profile

Rubio, Elizabeth Hanna (2019) “We Need to Redefine What We Mean by Winning”: NAKASEC’s Immigrant Justice Activism and Thinking Citizenship Otherwise, Amerasia  Journal, 45:2, 157-172, DOI: 10.1080/00447471.2019.1682921

The Nature Conservancy (2022). “From the Mountains to the Sea: Hawaiians are reviving traditional land management practices to restore a watershed on the island of O’ahu.” The Nature Conservancy, https://www.nature.org/en-us/magazine/magazine-articles/oahu-watershed/

Tseng-Putterman, Mark (2023). “The Fact of Non-Blackness: On Claire Jean Kim’s ‘Asian Americans in an Anti-Black World.’” Los Angeles Review of Books, https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-fact-of-non-blackness-on-claire-jean-kims-asian-americans-in-an-anti-black-world/

“Urban Honolulu, HI.” (2021). DataUSA. https://datausa.io/profile/geo/urban-honolulu-hi/

Winter, Damon (2019). “Want to be Less Racist? Move to Hawaii.” New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/opinion/sunday/racism-hawaii.html

Yin, Alice (2022, October 9). For Asian Americans, their moment in Illinois politics was a ‘long, long time’ coming. Chicago Tribune. https://www.proquest.com/chicagotribune/docview/2722790291/A891EE98C0A84EC1PQ/1?accountid=12861