Sunday, March 05, 2006



Remuera racism

Today's Herald has a simply hilarious story about the reaction of some of New Zealand's richest people to a tino rangitiratanga flag flying in their street:

"It wouldn't matter if it was out at Mangere," one resident in Remuera's Victoria Ave, told the Herald on Sunday. "I'd rather have the British or New Zealand flag, rather than the Maori flag. I'm not a Maori."

But while their shock and horror is entertaining, it also has a darker side:

A recent Maori visitor with a moko appears to have further raised the ire of some on the street.

Others mutter about their concerns about possible gang activity and what might be going on.

Because clearly, all Maori are criminals and gang members, and wouldn't be seen in their neighbourhood unless they were up to no good. Which is revealing both of these people's outright racist attitudes, and of the ethnic makeup of New Zealand's rich being so overwhelmingly white that they would never see a Maori in their street without instantly labelling them as an interloper...

5 comments:

ROTFL!!

Posted by Lewis Holden : 3/05/2006 01:22:00 PM

Knowing people who live there I cringe. It's a bit of a media beatup, but that's fair.

No doubt there are dipsticks down Vic av who would say and think as this resident. It's not representitive though!

Posted by Rick : 3/05/2006 01:57:00 PM

There are tons of scared old ladies (I know one who is about 90) on Vic Ave. Who would really rather keep anyone even vaguely scary looking very far away from them.
And considering all the old people there are probably pleanty of people who are probably no longer sane - you could get a comment about elvis being alive and playing at Erikson if you wanted.

If they actually force him to take it down I'll start getting annoyed.

Posted by Genius : 3/05/2006 04:06:00 PM

Oh grow up IS. I live around the corner, and I smile when I walk past this house. The owner is an iconoclast, the complaining neighbours pedantic and childish. For you and the newspaper in question to claim some kind of racism is as bad as the neighbours who don't see the humour in the iconoclasm of Mr Murphy.

As for my neighbourhood, its a mishmash of several ethnic groups - I ought to know because politically I know its demographics reasonably well. Get over your simplistic assumptions, you blog well on liberal matters, but unfortunately lapse into hatespeak without even knowing it sometimes.

I almost think you enjoy imagining about how evil the wealthy. Sad really. Trouble doesn't come from a wallet size or skin colour, but from the heart.

Posted by Aaron Bhatnagar : 3/05/2006 08:30:00 PM

it's interesting to find which places we aren't all new zealanders in. we aren't all new zealanders in remuera. in east auckland, it's all us and them, as ever

Posted by Anonymous : 3/05/2006 10:43:00 PM