Massie Affair Min Seo Kim Per 3
Ethnic tension negatively impacted society in the past in such event as the Massie case. On 1/8/1932, in Hawaii, Grace Fortesque, the mother of Thalia Massie, and Thomas Massie, the husband of Thalia Massie, murdered Joseph Kahahawai. Kahahawai was a Hawaiian man, who was one of the 5 suspects that was falsely accused by Thalia Massie for assaulting and raping her. Even though, Grace and Thomas was sentenced for 10 years, their punishment was commuted to an hour of tea time because of some say under pressure from the president. Due to ethnic tension, all 5 suspects were deduced to be having dark skin, Grace and Thomas got away with murder, and anti-white racial hatred became common. …show more content…
In the past, white people had overwhelming credibility compare to those with darker skin. The color of Thalia Massie’s skin allowed the society in the past to believe that her accusation of assault and rape was trustworthy. However, the reality was that Thalia Massie was mentally unstable and that her accusation was completely false. Moreover, the actions of Thalia Massie’s mother and husband murdering Kahahawai were defended by Admiral Yates Stirling, and 5 suspects with dark skin were believed to be guilty, simply because of their skin color. This demonstrated how skin color determined people’s reliability in the past despite who they really are and the evidence that proved the fact to be