Aloha WFN Community,
History helps us trace the threads that connect communities across time. In Hawai‘i, those threads are woven from many shared histories.
Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian Language Month) and Black History Month are both honored in February. The suppression of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) was an economic strategy that displaced Hawaiians from leadership roles and made English fluency a gatekeeper to opportunity. Similarly, current public-sector layoffs signal that rising unemployment among Black women is systemic. Cultural erasure/language loss and labor exclusion have always traveled together.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data revealed that more than 300,000 Black women left the federal workforce last year, a staggering loss that highlights how public-sector layoffs disproportionately affect Black women. Black women entered 2025 with a 5.4 percent unemployment rate and ended it at 7.3 percent, the highest in four years. The departures themselves speak volumes, even when little is publicly said about it.
Economic instability compounds racial disparities in maternal health outcomes, where Black women already face high risks of pregnancy complications and mortality.
This year, we are focused on collaborating with mentors who turned this displacement into leadership.
Where in your community are people being left out? And how did this layered month help you notice patterns of exclusion in your own neighborhood?
For me, this month made me notice patterns of exclusion by highlighting the power of visibility. I attended the Super Bowl and saw my birth country’s flag—Guyana—on the field, and heard Ricky Martin sing Benito’s song “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawai‘i”. It reminded me how music can honor and uplift communities that are excluded.
For the Greater Good,
Aleeka Kay Morgan
Nurturing Wāhine Fund
Founding Executive Director