Racism in New Zealand

A couple of months ago I found myself trawling through Facebook. I had just finished watching a Close Up story on a guy I know – Wikatana Popata, who they were calling the new face of Māori protest – and I decided to go and check the story’s feedback on the Close Up page on Facebook. What I found was that this story, like many in the past, had scratched the surface of New Zealand society, and revealed the sickeningly racist underbelly which exists. Subject to a degree of anonymity, Facebook users felt free to comment honestly about their feelings toward ‘Māori’ and ‘the Māori situation.’

Māori were being labelled as lazy beneficiaries who take money from honest tax payers and contribute nothing to society in return. Māori students were targeted as ‘receiving extra money and scholarships’ that weren’t available to non-Māori students. Treaty settlements and the whole treaty settlement process were labelled as being inherently unfair. One comment which was repeated was that Māori shouldn’t be allowed to manage treaty settlements seeing as how in the past Māori exploitation had led to the extinction of the Moa. All of these in response to a story about the new face of Māori protest.

Reading through the comments clogging up my feed I felt a silent rage. How could so much hate and ignorance still exist here in New Zealand? If this was a true representation of people’s opinions why did they feel the need to hide behind the mask of anonymity? Why did people feel entitled to comment on aspects of Te Ao Māori which were in no way relevant to the story?

Both Māori and non-Māori commented on both sides of the debate, but in my opinion ultimately the feedback was anti-Māori. I posted several comments on the feed, but I deliberately chose not to engage in the racist debate. My comments were targeted at Close Up, expressing my disgust at their willingness to allow such racial incitement and hatred to occur all in the name of ‘free speech.’ A few of my friends also