  I decided today that I’m a racist. Not in the typical sense. For those who don’t know, New Zealand has two main racial groups. The native people (the Maori) and everyone else, imported some centuries later. New Zealand was colonised by Europeans – I shouldn’t need to elaborate on the atrocities that were committed to the Maori people, it’s a story that played out all over the globe as the world empires of the day overran the native people who happened to reside on the land they wanted. Nor do I deny that, as a nation, they deserve at the very least recognition for those crimes. And some form of recompense. So why do I say I’m a racist? I was reading the newspaper today. (Online, natch.) And I tripped over a link that made me angry. Furiously, coldly, white-hot, angry. And I note, I have Maori friends. I have friends from most areas of the colour spectrum – not because I try, but because I pick my friends for their personalities, not their colours. However, Maori is the topic at hand, so. I’ve been on maraes, attended more powhiris than I can remember. A few tangis, too. Back in school, I had a pretty decent command of the language. Never had to use it since, so I’ve forgotten most of what I knew. I have no problems with any of the individual Maori I’ve ever known (barring the usual interpersonal disagreements also known as life). Half my relatives and cousins are Maori. I’ve spent a lot of time with their extended whanau. No problems there. I have a hell of a lot of problems with some so-called Maori Policy, though; the policy that apparently represents the Maori people in the political arena. I don’t argue that people of different ethnic origins often have different needs. For instance, the medical world. My genes predispose me to heart issues. Pacific Islanders have higher incidences of diabetes. If you’re Irish, you don’t tan. Asians tend to be of shorter stature than Europeans. Some racially-based policies are necessary, in any government of a multi-cultural society. Which, correct me if I’m wrong, is what New Zealand is supposed to be. I was born in New Zealand. That grants me full citizenship here. Once I turned 18, I had the right to vote. The same legal rights as any other citizen of my country. So, why do I feel like I’m being relegated to the second class? I went through school the only child of a widow. We were broke. And I was one of the lucky ones – when I went to uni, I managed to acquire a scholarship that was based purely on academic merit. I worked damned hard for my education. (And don’t get me started on the mess that is NCEA.) Simply by the trick of my birth, however, I was ineligible for well over half the available scholarships in my school year. Half of the ones I was eligible for were only due to my sex. In the last few years, New Zealand has seen many, many legal battles over the Treaty of Waitangi. Again, I stress, I do not deny the claims to recompense that the Maori, as a people, have. They were foully treated by the European colonists. It’s the more extreme claims that get my goat. The seabed and foreshore claims, where the Maori people claimed exclusive rights over the seabed and foreshore areas of NZ. Remember where we’re an island nation, with a lot of business invested in fisheries, tourism, and similar water-related ventures? The commentary from a leading politician, who was thrilled that the Maori have such high rates of teen pregnancy, because that way they’re ‘browning up the nation’. The cases which are just starting to trickle into court, where the Maori claim control rights over our fresh water sources. The concept that Maori should have a special say in our immigration policies, because they’re the tangata whenua. Why is my opinion somehow viewed as being worth less than that of a Kiwi of mixed Maori-and-other background (there is statistically no such thing as a pure-blooded Maori, as far as I’m aware)? I don’t care if your ancestors are brown, white, red, yellow, purple or green. Were you born here? Alternatively, do you have legal citizenship? Great! We’re equal then. I was born in New Zealand. I have worked hard to get where I am, and will continue to do so. I pay my taxes, I don’t break the law, I’m a good citizen. In every census I’ve been old enough to legally complete myself, I’ve put my ethnicity as “New Zealander”. I was born here. I don’t want my inherited skin colour to make any difference to the way I’m treated by the Government that I help to elect. It doesn’t work that way, of course. 11 Responses to “Why I am a racist” |
         
|
Sounds to me like the only racists mentioned here are the political groups… not you.
Yep, I agree what I see here is reaction to racism and inequality, not racism.
Question: what’s the percentage of Maori population in NZ? And how many people speak the language in daily conversations? (yeah I could find this somewhere on the web…)
Oh, and I am sorry to say that I got a bad impression about Maori since I saw a travel guide show where they said that Maori get offended if you don’t pronounce their name right because they consider that example of ethnocentrism… now… please… I speak 3 languages and I try to learn the 4th I’m still not sure that I could pronounce many words right except for my native tongue, why people can’t get their heads out of their asses and realize that not everybody is supposed to know how to pronounce words in a foreign language? I know that in my country if some stranger mispronounce something at most some people might laugh but they don’t get offended. Getting offended in general and is this special case is a clear sign that you talk with an _____ (fill in the blanks)
I think you are living in a country where the reaction to a history of racism is more racism, this time favoring the previously oppressed. It happens in the U.S. too. Unfortunately, the idea that you can “make it up” to the oppressed group by giving them a turn at being the privileged group does nothing to eliminate the fundamental problem of racism, which is basing your treatment of people on their color and/or ethnic heritage rather than on their actions as individuals.
The best example I think in this case is Obama, the candidate for US presidency, he’s considered black on appearance (which in itself is a racist remaining in the society) but I think his ancestors owned slaves. If blacks get some “historical compensation” will Obama get compensated too, for what? Or he needs to get money from a pocket and put it in the other? I think that any kind of compensation that goes before somebody was born is a bad idea.
There’s approximately 15% of our population who are Maori, as far as I recall.
Words from the language have fallen into common use in NZ English. Having said that, it’s reasonably rare for conversations to be carried out in Maori, as opposed to “The odd Maori word peppering the sentences”.
His father is from Kenya, his mother’s family roots go back to Kentucky and apparently there is some indication that some of her ancestors were slave owners. I liked the response Obama’s spokesperson gave:
An Obama spokesman did not dispute the information and said that the senator’s ancestors “are representative of America.”
“While a relative owned slaves, another fought for the Union in the Civil War,” campaign spokesman Bill Burton said last night. “And it is a true measure of progress that the descendant of a slave owner would come to marry a student from Kenya and produce a son who would grow up to be a candidate for president of the United States.”
There are many, many people in this country who would consider Obama ‘black’ just on the basis of his skin. Same with Tiger Woods, the golfer, even though his mother is from Thailand, he generally isn’t referred to as “half Asian” or “half Thai.”
I don’t want to be judged on the basis of what my parents or grandparents or great-grandparents were, or where they grew up, or what they did. That’s stuff I have NO control over. I’ll take responsibility for my own actions, but not for the actions of people who died before I was born. I think any kind of racism is really about laying blame rather than holding people accountable for their own actions, and I’m not in favor of that on any level.
I can’t agree more with you :-) Thanks for that quote.
Thanks Mahal :)
A good way of judging these things is to invert the situation and see if it still sounds good.
As an example: when applying to university, I had a look at the scholarships available. There were 10 applicable to my particular course (Electronic Engineering), of which 6 or so were only available to women.
Now, think of a female-dominated course. Are there men-only scholarships available?
Why is one acceptable and the other not?
The accepted answer to that, of course, is that it’s trying to encourage women (lesser represented in the EE field) into said industry.
You can probably guess whether I feel this is a good way to go about it.
While useful for those individuals I wonder why should we even try to encourage women in fields that they don’t go after, should we encourage them to take up garbage disposal for example? They do look under-represented over there… Not that I complain, I’d like to have more women around, but why encourage them to do something they (most of them) don’t feel inclined to do? And who said that a 1-to-1 sex ratio is something we should shoot towards? Some women will probably say “yes but I wouldn’t have been able to follow my dream w/o such kind of help” But why some guy’s dreams should be shattered only in the name of attaining a more balanced sex ratio? Who said that that is something “good” that in order to be attained discriminations become “acceptable”, it doesn’t seem very acceptable to me.
Oh, and by the way when you receive a grant it might not look like there’s some discrimination committed, but consider that:
1. those money come from some other people.
2. those money could have gone to other people on better (hopefully) criteria rather than absence of Y chromosome.