Posts by mark taslov
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Speaker: Happy Race Relations Day, in reply to Rochelle Wilson,
The timing of that attack is significant Rochelle.
Protesters occupied Bastion Point in January 1977 after the government announced a housing development on former Ngāti Whātua reserve land. The reserve had been gradually reduced in size by compulsory acquisition, leaving Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei holding less than 1 ha.
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Speaker: Happy Race Relations Day, in reply to linger,
“but they all look the same” to Stats NZ’s “European” label – which is no more true than for the other (overly) broad clumpings in their poster.
That’s an excellent point linger.
What I’m assuming – as dangerous as that may be – is that based on NZ’s major sources of immigration, superficial perceptions of the homogeneity of the hegemony are unlikely to have been challenged much as yet.
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Speaker: Happy Race Relations Day, in reply to Russell Brown,
In my defence I’ve had a long time to think about it Russell, I saw it when it was first published, and I appreciated it the first time.
The second time I guess the collocation of “race relations” and “happy” wears a bit thin. Honestly I’d be rather more interested to hear what Keith Ng, Tze Ming Mok, Lynn Yum or anyone confronted by racism in New Zealand has to say – directly – without the editorialisation by someone from the dominant race implying ongoing entrenched racism and structural discrimination is something your readership might have somehow overlooked.
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Speaker: Happy Race Relations Day, in reply to linger,
I think you’re splitting hairs unnecessarily there linger. Non-white minorities don’t go around checking people’s passports, there’s nothing notable in the distinctions you’ve made that would necessarily alter a perception of New Zealand as a predominantly white, colonial country administered by a predominantly white Government, generally according to values largely imported from Europe.
You live in Japan, or did, as I understand. If their country were to get a sudden boost of multiculturalism to the extent that it reduced ethnic nationals to 50 or even less than 50%, as an expat there I imagine you’d still have no doubt which ethnicity your パパ is. If many of the new immigrants came from China or the Koreas, things wouldn’t look much different to the naked eye.
Again, this is exactly why I said I’m uncomfortable looking at this through a Pākehā lens, because this post is about race relations, not about cultural distinctions between the Caucasian majority. Bearing in mind that missives (and your chart) have a tendency to group individuals from myriad cultures and ethnicities as one continental group – “Asians”, as in;
"The Asian Invasion"
2013 census, 1,415,550, 789,306 identified as European.
Regardless, even if Caucasian/European/Pākehā were an absolute or even a notable minority, POC generally remain in little doubt exactly which demographic is in the driving seat, both in terms of governance and culture.We need to better address race relations in New Zealand. Disrupting that with arguments that not all our white people were born here feels counter productive.
Here, one of our Neighbours are a Māori family the other is a family from the UK. Both blue collar. No guesses who has the most clout around the community.
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This is what the world needs right now.
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A couple of years back, not long after we returned to NZ, the Mancunian owner of the biggest second hand shop in town came around to drop off some furniture we’d purchased. Sensing a kindred spirit he broke the ice with this advice; “Never employ a Māori woman”.
He waxed long and hard about his theories of the Māori woman; the uselessness, laziness, and unemployability of wahine. Evidently he took the colour of my skin as indication that’s I’d appreciate a hefty dose of racism with my heavy lifting. I was speechless, almost. I just didn’t know where to begin in order to shut it down in that context. Obviously there have been no further purchases.
It wasn’t until I attended the mayoral debate a year later at the local theater, packed to capacity with what looked like 100% Pākehā, that I realised how bad things are in this region. Where were the tangata whenua? Out of sight out of mind.
Deanna Yang’s question “What does a New Zealander look like?” reminds me of a conversation between my mum and my wife, who is from China. She was explaining that the Auckland War Memorial Museum gave free admission to residents so she’d taken along her passport. My mum interrupted my spouse “because I guess you don’t look like a New Zealander…”. There are no words. There was no malice, it was just another example of our entrenched racism, and by golly it’s entrenched.
At school my best friend was regularly called a Curry, like the dish. Among my friends there were a few more Curries, a Coconut, a Gook. And that’s just the most palatable end of the spectrum of the abuse they’ve dealt with since childhood. Students used to ask me if my girlfriend had “a horizontal pussy”, for this is New Zealand and this is how we roll.
On our televisions, Māori channels aside, we have Pākehā channels, where we watch predominantly white people providing a whiter glimpse. Sure there are token minorities, but lets not kid ourselves, If someone asked me to think of a Kiwi TV presenter most of the faces that spring to mind immediately are white. Mike McRoberts, Jenny Suo, Mike Puru, Maiki Sherman, Kanoa Lloyd, these are exceptions not the rule.
Whatever happens, no matter how damaging the structural discrimination and overt racism becomes, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll ever see a bunch of MSM journalists jump on a bandwagon with headlines like “We need to teach our white people about racism”.
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I liked this Vaughn, it’s well put and sincere, but I find it difficult to feel entirely comfortable with the experiences of ethnic minorities being presented through the portal of white. Obviously that’s not your fault – discussion point rather than criticism.
no one of our 220 ethnic groups forms an absolute majority in present-day Auckland
If we ignore Pākehā.
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Hard News: E-cigarettes and the path of…, in reply to Alfie,
That's awesome Alfie, and thanks for the language correction, makes sense.
Much appreciated! -
Hard News: E-cigarettes and the path of…, in reply to Alfie,
If you’re a smoker I urge you to give vaping a try. If it works for you, stop putting money into the pockets of Phillip Morris and BAT
Thank you for your post Alfie, inspiring, I was wondering if you or anyone else might have any recommendations for buying an e-cigarette as I need a new one and choice appears far more daunting now than when I got my last one – also any tips for use/ care etc?
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If your intention is to get people to switch from smoking, then it’s important that the alternative actually works for them. Any current vape seller will tell you that customers returning to complain that their gear isn’t working is quite a burden. A dairy owner’s not going to be interested in offering the necessary advice.
With a lower end price at 1/3 of what one currently pays for a 30g pouch of tobacco which might last a week, they’re replaceable. Making the nicotine e-liquid available domestically outside big cities is needed – it’s probably unrealistic to expect a dedicated specialist store to open in every one horse town. To be most effective it must be at least as convenient to buy the nicotine e-liquid as it is to buy tobacco products. I don’t think you’d suggest that businesses shouldn’t sell petrol unless they can repair your car.
Exciting times!