I've recently moved to Tauranga from Wellington and I have been shocked with how comfortable people here are with being the worst. Like, happy to be just enough racist that most of their friends would laugh, but still get annoyed if they called racist. I got sent a video of that quiz - the most shocking things is not that they did that, but that no one called them out. The quiz organizers celebrated them. The other quiz goers didn't put a stop to it. It's disgusting and it makes me very very ashamed to be a Kiwi. Taika Waititi was right - NZ is racist AF.
Tauranga does seem to have this strange, really conservative underbelly. I mean, my experiences writing about Bethlehem College and the way they responded kinda sums it up.
Stuck in the dark ages a little.
Sam Uffindel another current tell.
But yeah - just a lot of white, well-off people there I guess. Doing their thing.
Frankly, the hate speech laws need to be extended to this kind of behaviour too. I was driving behind a while back that had somehow managed to swing ‘HITLER’ as it’s rego.
Oh, wow. I just ran HITLER through https://www.kiwiplates.nz/create/ and it says it's not available. Thought maybe it was automatically saying "no", but then it suggested a bunch of variations using "1" instead of "I" etc.
I just read a comment below from Lance saying it hasn't been legally issued - which seems to make logical sense. So a horrible fake?
You can apply through Waka Kotahi to investigate/remove an offensive number plate however, the plate you saw was most likely a fake plate. The plate HITLER (or H1TLER, H1TL3R or any other iteration) has not been legally issued in New Zealand.
Some "sovereign citizen" nazi asshole, betcha. Wait till you see it parked then bolt cutter off all four valve stems. My question: is the internets a net benefit, or net negative for humanity at large?
Yeah, we've talked about it before, how in the "Good old days" it was fun and people were generally nice (and flame wars seem somehow quaint, and also fun). The issue for me is the rise of the mega corps, and not in the fun and happy SkyNet way. These are actually using their powers for evil!
I can’t believe it. Alcohol and drinking in NZ create an environment where basic values and manners go out the window. The very basest behaviour is brushed off or ignored because there’s drinking going on. I am so embarrassed for our country.
I have a little theory that we rely a lot on politeness in order to avoid dealing with bad interacitons...but when we're in our cars we are shielded from personal contact and so all that repressed unpoliteness comes out in horrible, dangerous ways. Alcohol too, probably, does the same by lowering our inhibitions about being unpolite.
Further reporting that the quiz team has now "apologised." It's not very convincing though.
And the quiz organiser "regrets it did not have a procedure in place to ask the team to leave when it arrived at the event." While it would be good to have a policy regarding offensive costumes and team names this is also an absolute cop out, because even if the possibility of this happening never crossed your mind you should not let people dressed as the KKK attend your event.
Hmm yeah drinking is totally an excuse, I remember those times I had a couple of beers and then sewed up a set of racist group costumes and organised props and a theme name and then stuck with the whole stupid plan for an entire evening
'The government you elect is the government you deserve.'
Or to put it more directly, we are who we vote for.
David Seymour would call the whole thing '...just a bit of a joke' and counsel us to just stop being so sensitive. Luxon is too busy trying to be elected to indulge his baser tendencies, but it's fair to say they won't be too far below the surface.
Take a moment and think about what they are selling us -
Tough on crime = tough on brown people
Crime involving rich white people is positively celebrated - case in point Sam Uffindell (for those of you not privy to NZ politics he got elected after assaulting another young man in an exclusive boarding school with a chair leg - not arrested mind, elected!)
Boot camps for youth offenders = we'll beat a love of justice into the brown people
I mean bugger the evidence, it has never worked before, and given they haven't a new idea between them, is pretty much guaranteed not to work this time either.
No phones in schools = young people aren't responsible enough to think for themselves
God forbid that young people learn to love in a world awash in technology when it is better to have them pretend it's 1936.
NZ history should be taught in schools = NZ history began with Captain Cook
We are all one people as long as those people are white, or at the very worst a very very light beige.
We are who we vote for. Racist, narrow minded, provincial bigots convincing themselves that privilege is something other people have.
Sadly his deputy, van Velden is looking like she will win the electorate I live in. I've been reading her statements on crime and I felt sick to my stomach. Saying kids committing crimes need to learn real consequences, as if many of them didn't already live a much harder life full of consequences from colonialism and racism. Her narrow privileged view shines through and her lack of empathy and understanding makes her dangerous.
As someone from the US who now is a NZ citizen, I find all of this so disheartening. I have black family members and if they come visit I want them to be in a safe place. And then shit like this happens, but it's 'just a joke' 'where's your sense of humour'. Just never thought racism was funny, but apparently that makes those of us who call it out 'uptight'. Ugh ugh.
Politics aren't a joke. The guy from ACT literally joked about blowing up the Ministry of Pacific Peoples and he called trans rights 'the tyranny of a minority over the majority'. These are people's LIVES.
I'm with you. And that guy from ACT, David Seymour, went a step further than that. In the same podcast he says if they're the next govt, they'll revisit the laws that support transgender rights (Human Rights Act and Births Deaths and Marriages Act) and support segregated spaces for "biological women". The majority support transgender people's rights, this is so hideous and harmful and people just turn the other cheek.
It used to be that most Kiwis were simply too polite to intervene when stuff like this happened- now they are either afraid or ambivalent. Shame on those dressing up, shame on the quiz masters, and shame on those that sat and let it happen.
I find it so disorienting when I am confronted by something like this that I am too gobsmacked to say anything in the moment. But surely the quiz master had enough time to call them out as fuckwits, certainly not give them a prize for their fuckwittery.
In (what I hope is) positive news, there has been a lot of chat around this after the story broke. People are having the conversations, there have been apologies (not sure how sincere, but I am an optimist), and bystanders like me are able to examine how to better call out this shameful behaviour.
On the other hand, it is disturbing that there are people who think that racism is okay, with mention in the KKK story of how election billboards of Te Pāti Māori are being targeted in specific fashion, eg the word "Māori" cut out and moko kauae painted over (racism meets sexism, how quaint, and yet how sadly perennial).
There was a shoutout to David from Newshub, btw. I'm glad they are finally giving due credit, as there is a special circle in Hell for plagiarists. Not as deep in Hell as the one for racists, of course, but there's still one there.
I feel you - it's a social thing and it is deep in our bones. But we gotta be brave and stand together and go "That's not cool. We don't do that here."
We can do it loudly, or gently. Both are workable.
New Zealand has headed down some very nasty rabbit holes during and post-Covid. A horrible, smug arrogance seems to have emerged in certain right-wing, misogynistic sectors of the population, who seem to think they have the right to be as threatening and insulting as they like, especially to women and anyone whose ethnicity isn't the same as their own. And the sheer bloody stupidity of voting for the coalition from hell (National and ACT) when people are already watching our health services and education system falling apart due to lack of staff, which is due to lack of money and shitty working conditions, is mind-boggling. Why is it not obvious that voting for a bunch of right-wing moralists who seem to have come straight out of a Dickensian novel, and who are only interested in tax cuts to benefit themselves and their mates, building more expensive roads, and putting lots more people expensively in prison, will end in disaster for all but the wealthy?
I agree except to say this has always been part of NZ society. The myth of our egalitarian, good kiwi bloke/Sheila and a fair go nation has always been just that - a myth.
As an immigrant to New Zealand what I noticed was the absolutely casual style of the racism. It’s not hate or from a place of malice ( although I’m sure some of it is) but just a blissful ignorance that would be amusing if the topic wasn’t so serious.
Unfortunately it’s a difficult subject to talk about because a high proportion ( too high) of New Zealanders respond with “can’t you take a joke?” or tell me, that as an immigrant, I don’t understand.
I'm so sorry. It's so gross, right? And the "it's just a joke" thing drives me WILD. I tweeted a copy of this Webworm, and there were a lot of comments talking about how we can't take a joke. Ugh.
In reality getting a restraining order is a real hassle very expensive, you require a lawyer and lots of proof. So please don't be blaze and simplistic about it.
It is tricky, but I do get their point about there at least being a "path" to go down IRL. Whereas Musk on Twitter is just going "nothing I can do here! Go at it!"
I love your work David but I really hate this headline because to me it sounds like NZers as a group are wearing KKK outfits and black face whereas I’d like to think the majority (like me) would find that disgusting. The fact that both teams you talk about won prizes is of course worrying and I have no doubt, like all countries, we have our share of Neanderthals but I do continue to hold onto the belief that that’s a minority.
PS Your comments about Luxon and Seymour are on point!
I hear you and of course I do not want to insult every NZ Webworm reader - as I'd be very surprised if any Webworm reader donned an outfit like this!
But - I guess my point was I felt really passionately about this headline - as if it's happening, and being awarded, we have this huge problem we all need to get very angry about. We aren't all doing it, but we can be part of the solution.
By knowing this happened, and by sharing that it happened - and WHY it is so wrong and unacceptable.
We aren't all doing this, but together we can stop it.
Umm that WHOLE ROOM sat and watched that happen, played trivia with them, sat by and let them get awarded for it, and let them walk out WEARING KKK HOODS. So.... racist enablers weren't the minority in that room aye.
The part where no one said anything is unreal to me. I am in historical KKK land and this would not fly here in a public place. There would be people that wouldn't say anything or quietly think it was funny, but there would also be people like me raising hell over it.
If the majority truly found it disgusting then these events wouldn't have gone ahead, or at least would only have those particular groups participating.
Instead, the majority sat there and let it happen. Because NZers don't like to rock the boat, or ruin our laid-back, cruisy vibe.
Agree... all participants needed to threaten a walk out. Not good enough to sit there are let it happen. Even one brave soul making a stand could have dramatically changed the events. And... I’m in Central Otago... wine country...diverse mix here thanks. No way in hell I’d sit there and ignore those situations.
I agree most NZers probably won’t say anything but there is a difference between that and agreeing with it. I’m not saying that’s right but I don’t think you can turn that into endorsing it
I hear you - so - share this piece. Say how disgusted you are. We gotta shout this shit from the hilltops so it stops happening. We can all do our part.
David..the challenge I have with sharing your piece is I find the majority of it important and challenging. However your comments on Luxon. I know you have your issues with Christianity but I also understood you respected diverse thought. So what if he is a Christian (or whatever faith someone may have). So what if he once attended the Upper Room (and who cares about Craig Hellman’s rants anyway!..it’s a tiny church ) Why is it bad to have morals? As a Christian it makes it hard for me to share the piece without writing a ‘please excuse David’s view on politicians who may be of faith but it’s Ok..he’s not a racist!) Or maybe this is a great example of ‘ I really enjoy someone’s thinking in one area of life but not in others).
To be clear, what I find so disingenuous about Luxon is how he is publicly distancing himself from things he very clearly believes. I find that dishonest.
Morals is an entirely different thing. Being attached to the Upper Room says a lot about the breed of Christianity you embrace - and to say that has zero bearing on your politics is just - incorrect.
It's misleading, dishonest, and just *wrong* I guess.
It's definitely up to you what you share - but I guess I'd throw in that if a comment about Luxon's Christianity is stopping you sharing a piece about a horrid, racist event in our own country - then I'm not sure one cancels out the other, if that makes sense?
Anyway - thanks for reading. And to be clear - no issue with Luxon being a Christian. I do have an issue with him pretending it doesn't play into his politics.
Hi David. Thanks for the comments. Maybe there is a lens I was applying reading your comments. When I discuss your piece (and I am) I have to add that (depending on my audience) I disagree wth your views and tone on Luxon.
Its a long time since the Heilmann statements were reported and I can't even remember what he may or may not have said but my understanding is that Luxon has not attended that church in quite some time before they were made I don't agree with everything that is said in my own church - many Christians can exist in an environment where some stuff makes sense and others doesn't.
So curiously - what does "being attached to the Upper Room say about the breed of Christianity you embrace?"
An alternate take is that anyone professing any belief in magical thinking is suffering from mental illness and should be disqualified from holding public office. I would and do endorse that.
Yes you can. If you allow violence to grow in NZ and I get brutalized bc of it you think how you FEEL about it matters? That's the praxis of white supremacy where white feelings matter more than brown bodies.
These people make me vomit, and really angry. They know EXACTLY what they are doing, and they will be the bullies like Seymour - arriving late for maximum impact, daring anyone to say anything to their pathetic white arses. They have been given permission to be like this, the narrative is trotted out via commercial radio, tv and press everyday. They titter and egg each other on in the brave world of social media, and we sit there stunned into silence because we know it will get REALLY ugly if anyone calls them out. They rely on it. We are so farked if National/Act win the election. All bets will be off and we will regress to something unimaginable
This is fucked… has literally made my stomach feel sick… there needs to be laws around public displays of racism, antisemitism and homophobia etc. I was at my daughters orthodontist appointment recently and unknowingly, they had a hitler documentary on, I had to ask them to turn it off… I couldn’t sit there and pretend that watching Nazis in a children’s waiting room was ok… do better is right, the staff, the other attendees- the partners and friends when they were told what costume they were doing?!? … the standard you walk past is the standard you accept!!
And thanks be to the BIPOC activists who have led that work in the USA so USA can have the language to be louder.
We have access to that language as well but get accused of importing American ideas when we use it (ignoring of course that the colonial racism we allow to remain is also an import).
We DID use it up to them 80s then abandoned it in favor of watered down Treaty education and as a result we are behind the USA AND UK in critical race theory education and behind them both in hate speech and hate crime protections.
All the while projecting an outward facing optic of progressive race relations to the world.
Sometimes we can learn a thing or two from American loudness!
I am glad there is discussion happening about not sitting on our hands and actually saying something. Seeing this story spread around the news and social media - I have SOME hope that people can have pre-thought about what to do when this shit crops up again.
Although the "loud American" archetype isn't so much at play here. It's not a loudness borne out of being American that we should learn from, it's a loudness borne out of the Civil rights struggle which HAD to be loud in order to break free of the extreme racism of the likes these people were emulating in their costumes, borne out of lost Black and Native lives to sanctioned violence, and in the creation and development of that liberational rights-based language, at every step they have faced violent and brutal resistance from "loud" white America in order to get their society to a space where these acts are reviled (even during the global rise in white supremacy that we see now).
So I think it's important that when we reflect on who we need to learn from, we are explicit in saying it's BLACK America we need to learn from or FIRST Nations Americans we need to learn from not loud Americans in general. Same when people disparage the language of anti-racism as being "American". What they are hating on is Black American discourse and expertise and it's not just anti-American xenophobia they are acting on, but Anti-blackness as well.
I'm seeing a LOT of accountability discussions directed at the people who were in the room, and I think that is really important. I also think the "settler culture" of NZ needs deconstructing here bc that has been overlooked and it's really close to the heart of the issue here, as it was when Kimbolton wanted to hold a "Settlers Day" on Waitangi Day.
If we want to understand the psyche at play in the Kaimai Settlers Committee and in that room on that night, especially with a hope to overcome it, we have to understand settler mindsets, and how that presents in white New Zealand identity. It's actually quite a treasured, and vehemently protected aspect of white NZ identity.
Like, I start talking about the violence of settler-colonialism and so often white NZers wind up leaping to a defence of their white settler ancestors, and think I'm attacking their right to belong? It's like they think their right to belong is based on meritous ancestry rather than Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Which is why Antiracism is so important as it often is what stands in the way of learning about and honouring Te Tiriti.
I'm American and I've lived in four different countries on three continents in the past ten years or so. I'm actually currently working on moving to New Zealand. And I'm very aware of all of America's many, many problems. But I will say that I've been the most surprised by racism in other countries, things that Americans would organically balk at just don't hit the same in the UK, in Japan. I remember having a conversation with an Australian man in Tokyo who just casually used the n word and I choked on my drink before explaining to him that he could never use that word, ESPECIALLY in America and he just shrugged. It's honestly bizarre sometimes and very disheartening.
There is some really weird racist shit that comes out of NZ and Australia. But hey - we welcome an American who will call that shit out - especially as many kiwis appear happy to say nothing!
Ughhh this makes me feel so....ick and ashamed 😞 I love a quiz night as much as the next person (I attended one in Nelson 2 weeks ago) but I have to believe that if someone dressed in offensive costume I would make some kind of stand - walk out at the very least. Seeing people dressed in kkk or black face costumes would completely ruin my night. I’m saddened that others could carry on enjoying theirs as if this wasn’t totally offensive 😔
Driving to Wellington and back this weekend from New Plymouth I concluded that National and Act have a lot more money for signs than Labour, and most are in farmers’ fields. The “Let’s take back our country” ones from Winston give me uncomfortable vibes, not to mention Act with that smug grinning face and “Let’s end division based on race”. We know what that really means.
I am really worried about what’ll happen if they get elected, and what it tells us about the voters.
Nope I'll never stop .... calling then out loudly, pointing and remarking at racist comments and behaviours that hurt and damage people. Coz if one person points and comments then it gives voice and courage to others who are scared to do it alone and suddenly there are two, four, eight that are pointing and calling it out. And we are not alone anymore. I'm going to use my vote to do the same thing. And I'm going to hope my fears are just fears .......
I've recently moved to Tauranga from Wellington and I have been shocked with how comfortable people here are with being the worst. Like, happy to be just enough racist that most of their friends would laugh, but still get annoyed if they called racist. I got sent a video of that quiz - the most shocking things is not that they did that, but that no one called them out. The quiz organizers celebrated them. The other quiz goers didn't put a stop to it. It's disgusting and it makes me very very ashamed to be a Kiwi. Taika Waititi was right - NZ is racist AF.
The Nats being comfortable that Sam Uffindel will win them the Tauranga seat tells us all we need to know about the place.
Uffindel is just a void. So gross. So Tauranga.
Disgusting man!!
Tauranga does seem to have this strange, really conservative underbelly. I mean, my experiences writing about Bethlehem College and the way they responded kinda sums it up.
Stuck in the dark ages a little.
Sam Uffindel another current tell.
But yeah - just a lot of white, well-off people there I guess. Doing their thing.
Frankly, the hate speech laws need to be extended to this kind of behaviour too. I was driving behind a while back that had somehow managed to swing ‘HITLER’ as it’s rego.
Oh, wow. I just ran HITLER through https://www.kiwiplates.nz/create/ and it says it's not available. Thought maybe it was automatically saying "no", but then it suggested a bunch of variations using "1" instead of "I" etc.
I just read a comment below from Lance saying it hasn't been legally issued - which seems to make logical sense. So a horrible fake?
You can apply through Waka Kotahi to investigate/remove an offensive number plate however, the plate you saw was most likely a fake plate. The plate HITLER (or H1TLER, H1TL3R or any other iteration) has not been legally issued in New Zealand.
Some "sovereign citizen" nazi asshole, betcha. Wait till you see it parked then bolt cutter off all four valve stems. My question: is the internets a net benefit, or net negative for humanity at large?
Net benefit I think. I have to stay in that camp. Communication. A more level playing field.
But I hear you. It's a good question.
Yeah, we've talked about it before, how in the "Good old days" it was fun and people were generally nice (and flame wars seem somehow quaint, and also fun). The issue for me is the rise of the mega corps, and not in the fun and happy SkyNet way. These are actually using their powers for evil!
Also, I shouldnt conflate "antisocial media" with "the internets". Though some days, man, some days!
whaaaaaaaattttttttttt
Yep, deeply unsettling vibes. Mount Maunganui also home to that racist museum. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300570733/kiwi-seaside-town-hosts-rhodesian-museum-where-a-racist-regimes-war-is-honoured
Oh, that place. Jesus. I'd forgotten that was at the Mount.
That is very disturbing
I can’t believe it. Alcohol and drinking in NZ create an environment where basic values and manners go out the window. The very basest behaviour is brushed off or ignored because there’s drinking going on. I am so embarrassed for our country.
I have a little theory that we rely a lot on politeness in order to avoid dealing with bad interacitons...but when we're in our cars we are shielded from personal contact and so all that repressed unpoliteness comes out in horrible, dangerous ways. Alcohol too, probably, does the same by lowering our inhibitions about being unpolite.
😪
Good to see this story spreading, and being expanded on. Thanks to Stuff and Newshub for giving Webworm shoutouts - and linking through. Appreciated.
Newshub: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/08/kiwis-urged-to-call-out-unacceptable-behaviour-after-outrageous-kkk-costumes-at-community-quiz.html
Stuff: https://www.stuff.co.nz/bay-of-plenty/300954076/men-dressing-in-ku-klux-klan-costumes-for-quiz-event-sparks-outrage
ODT: https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/kaimai-quiz-night-outrage-over-ku-klux-klan-costumes
RNZ: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/496212/kaimai-quiz-night-attendees-disgusted-over-group-s-ku-klux-klan-costumes
NZ Herald: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/kaimai-quiz-night-attendees-disgusted-over-groups-kkk-costumes/2S7YR2G6NZAGXBGZP7XL25TH3I/
Further reporting that the quiz team has now "apologised." It's not very convincing though.
And the quiz organiser "regrets it did not have a procedure in place to ask the team to leave when it arrived at the event." While it would be good to have a policy regarding offensive costumes and team names this is also an absolute cop out, because even if the possibility of this happening never crossed your mind you should not let people dressed as the KKK attend your event.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/bay-of-plenty/300954412/quiz-team-apologises-for-kkk-hoods-as-iwi-condemn-their-actions-as-shocking-and-disgraceful
Amazing the organisers did nothing due to no complaints.
I imagine it's all posturing now it's been called out. Easy to imagine they really give zero shits, beyond the negative feedback they are getting.
Hmm yeah drinking is totally an excuse, I remember those times I had a couple of beers and then sewed up a set of racist group costumes and organised props and a theme name and then stuck with the whole stupid plan for an entire evening
Totally, could happen to anyone right. 😂
We have no fucking clue.
Thomas Jefferson was right.
'The government you elect is the government you deserve.'
Or to put it more directly, we are who we vote for.
David Seymour would call the whole thing '...just a bit of a joke' and counsel us to just stop being so sensitive. Luxon is too busy trying to be elected to indulge his baser tendencies, but it's fair to say they won't be too far below the surface.
Take a moment and think about what they are selling us -
Tough on crime = tough on brown people
Crime involving rich white people is positively celebrated - case in point Sam Uffindell (for those of you not privy to NZ politics he got elected after assaulting another young man in an exclusive boarding school with a chair leg - not arrested mind, elected!)
Boot camps for youth offenders = we'll beat a love of justice into the brown people
I mean bugger the evidence, it has never worked before, and given they haven't a new idea between them, is pretty much guaranteed not to work this time either.
No phones in schools = young people aren't responsible enough to think for themselves
God forbid that young people learn to love in a world awash in technology when it is better to have them pretend it's 1936.
NZ history should be taught in schools = NZ history began with Captain Cook
We are all one people as long as those people are white, or at the very worst a very very light beige.
We are who we vote for. Racist, narrow minded, provincial bigots convincing themselves that privilege is something other people have.
M
On point.
Whenever I hear Seymour talking about crime I want to throw my head against the wall. Not a great road to be taking New Zealand down.
Sadly his deputy, van Velden is looking like she will win the electorate I live in. I've been reading her statements on crime and I felt sick to my stomach. Saying kids committing crimes need to learn real consequences, as if many of them didn't already live a much harder life full of consequences from colonialism and racism. Her narrow privileged view shines through and her lack of empathy and understanding makes her dangerous.
Very 60’s
As someone from the US who now is a NZ citizen, I find all of this so disheartening. I have black family members and if they come visit I want them to be in a safe place. And then shit like this happens, but it's 'just a joke' 'where's your sense of humour'. Just never thought racism was funny, but apparently that makes those of us who call it out 'uptight'. Ugh ugh.
Politics aren't a joke. The guy from ACT literally joked about blowing up the Ministry of Pacific Peoples and he called trans rights 'the tyranny of a minority over the majority'. These are people's LIVES.
Seymour is... not good.
I also think of this story about an American who had to travel all the way to New Zealand to ever experience someone calling them the N word: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/american-woman-in-palmerston-north-called-racist-slurs-while-walking-home/JAOJHU5ASBFLBB4LL6WAFMPVCY/
I'm with you. And that guy from ACT, David Seymour, went a step further than that. In the same podcast he says if they're the next govt, they'll revisit the laws that support transgender rights (Human Rights Act and Births Deaths and Marriages Act) and support segregated spaces for "biological women". The majority support transgender people's rights, this is so hideous and harmful and people just turn the other cheek.
These are our lives.
<3
It used to be that most Kiwis were simply too polite to intervene when stuff like this happened- now they are either afraid or ambivalent. Shame on those dressing up, shame on the quiz masters, and shame on those that sat and let it happen.
Kiwi politeness and social anxiety does play into this, for sure.
I have been guilty of not speaking up about things, in person, at the time in the past (that is very messy phrasing, sorry!)
I think as we all gain more confidence to say "SCREW THIS" then this stuff will happen less and less.
I find it so disorienting when I am confronted by something like this that I am too gobsmacked to say anything in the moment. But surely the quiz master had enough time to call them out as fuckwits, certainly not give them a prize for their fuckwittery.
The quiz masters were quoted as saying that no one complained, which is why they didn’t do anything 🤯
What a piss-weak excuse for being too cowardly/complicit to kick them out as soon as they walked in the door 😡
Really piss-poor.
In (what I hope is) positive news, there has been a lot of chat around this after the story broke. People are having the conversations, there have been apologies (not sure how sincere, but I am an optimist), and bystanders like me are able to examine how to better call out this shameful behaviour.
On the other hand, it is disturbing that there are people who think that racism is okay, with mention in the KKK story of how election billboards of Te Pāti Māori are being targeted in specific fashion, eg the word "Māori" cut out and moko kauae painted over (racism meets sexism, how quaint, and yet how sadly perennial).
There was a shoutout to David from Newshub, btw. I'm glad they are finally giving due credit, as there is a special circle in Hell for plagiarists. Not as deep in Hell as the one for racists, of course, but there's still one there.
I consider myself pretty vocal when I see something I disagree with but there are definitely situations I’d be afraid to stand up in
I feel you - it's a social thing and it is deep in our bones. But we gotta be brave and stand together and go "That's not cool. We don't do that here."
We can do it loudly, or gently. Both are workable.
For both of these situations, I' d go for the loud approach.
New Zealand has headed down some very nasty rabbit holes during and post-Covid. A horrible, smug arrogance seems to have emerged in certain right-wing, misogynistic sectors of the population, who seem to think they have the right to be as threatening and insulting as they like, especially to women and anyone whose ethnicity isn't the same as their own. And the sheer bloody stupidity of voting for the coalition from hell (National and ACT) when people are already watching our health services and education system falling apart due to lack of staff, which is due to lack of money and shitty working conditions, is mind-boggling. Why is it not obvious that voting for a bunch of right-wing moralists who seem to have come straight out of a Dickensian novel, and who are only interested in tax cuts to benefit themselves and their mates, building more expensive roads, and putting lots more people expensively in prison, will end in disaster for all but the wealthy?
I agree except to say this has always been part of NZ society. The myth of our egalitarian, good kiwi bloke/Sheila and a fair go nation has always been just that - a myth.
As an immigrant to New Zealand what I noticed was the absolutely casual style of the racism. It’s not hate or from a place of malice ( although I’m sure some of it is) but just a blissful ignorance that would be amusing if the topic wasn’t so serious.
Unfortunately it’s a difficult subject to talk about because a high proportion ( too high) of New Zealanders respond with “can’t you take a joke?” or tell me, that as an immigrant, I don’t understand.
Oh, don’t worry, I understand.
I'm so sorry. It's so gross, right? And the "it's just a joke" thing drives me WILD. I tweeted a copy of this Webworm, and there were a lot of comments talking about how we can't take a joke. Ugh.
Yikes to both those costume occurrences. Truly awful. Feeling some despair at the potential of a Nat/Act govt here. Nothing good can come of it.
And yes you can block a stalker in real life. It's called a restraining order.
I read somewhere that in order to have a social media app available on Apple’s App store, the app must have the ability to block users.
In reality getting a restraining order is a real hassle very expensive, you require a lawyer and lots of proof. So please don't be blaze and simplistic about it.
It is tricky, but I do get their point about there at least being a "path" to go down IRL. Whereas Musk on Twitter is just going "nothing I can do here! Go at it!"
I love your work David but I really hate this headline because to me it sounds like NZers as a group are wearing KKK outfits and black face whereas I’d like to think the majority (like me) would find that disgusting. The fact that both teams you talk about won prizes is of course worrying and I have no doubt, like all countries, we have our share of Neanderthals but I do continue to hold onto the belief that that’s a minority.
PS Your comments about Luxon and Seymour are on point!
I hear you and of course I do not want to insult every NZ Webworm reader - as I'd be very surprised if any Webworm reader donned an outfit like this!
But - I guess my point was I felt really passionately about this headline - as if it's happening, and being awarded, we have this huge problem we all need to get very angry about. We aren't all doing it, but we can be part of the solution.
By knowing this happened, and by sharing that it happened - and WHY it is so wrong and unacceptable.
We aren't all doing this, but together we can stop it.
Umm that WHOLE ROOM sat and watched that happen, played trivia with them, sat by and let them get awarded for it, and let them walk out WEARING KKK HOODS. So.... racist enablers weren't the minority in that room aye.
The part where no one said anything is unreal to me. I am in historical KKK land and this would not fly here in a public place. There would be people that wouldn't say anything or quietly think it was funny, but there would also be people like me raising hell over it.
If the majority truly found it disgusting then these events wouldn't have gone ahead, or at least would only have those particular groups participating.
Instead, the majority sat there and let it happen. Because NZers don't like to rock the boat, or ruin our laid-back, cruisy vibe.
Agree... all participants needed to threaten a walk out. Not good enough to sit there are let it happen. Even one brave soul making a stand could have dramatically changed the events. And... I’m in Central Otago... wine country...diverse mix here thanks. No way in hell I’d sit there and ignore those situations.
Good on you. It's not easy being disruptive.
I agree most NZers probably won’t say anything but there is a difference between that and agreeing with it. I’m not saying that’s right but I don’t think you can turn that into endorsing it
I hear you - so - share this piece. Say how disgusted you are. We gotta shout this shit from the hilltops so it stops happening. We can all do our part.
https://www.webworm.co/p/nokkk
David..the challenge I have with sharing your piece is I find the majority of it important and challenging. However your comments on Luxon. I know you have your issues with Christianity but I also understood you respected diverse thought. So what if he is a Christian (or whatever faith someone may have). So what if he once attended the Upper Room (and who cares about Craig Hellman’s rants anyway!..it’s a tiny church ) Why is it bad to have morals? As a Christian it makes it hard for me to share the piece without writing a ‘please excuse David’s view on politicians who may be of faith but it’s Ok..he’s not a racist!) Or maybe this is a great example of ‘ I really enjoy someone’s thinking in one area of life but not in others).
To be clear, what I find so disingenuous about Luxon is how he is publicly distancing himself from things he very clearly believes. I find that dishonest.
Morals is an entirely different thing. Being attached to the Upper Room says a lot about the breed of Christianity you embrace - and to say that has zero bearing on your politics is just - incorrect.
It's misleading, dishonest, and just *wrong* I guess.
It's definitely up to you what you share - but I guess I'd throw in that if a comment about Luxon's Christianity is stopping you sharing a piece about a horrid, racist event in our own country - then I'm not sure one cancels out the other, if that makes sense?
Anyway - thanks for reading. And to be clear - no issue with Luxon being a Christian. I do have an issue with him pretending it doesn't play into his politics.
Hi David. Thanks for the comments. Maybe there is a lens I was applying reading your comments. When I discuss your piece (and I am) I have to add that (depending on my audience) I disagree wth your views and tone on Luxon.
Its a long time since the Heilmann statements were reported and I can't even remember what he may or may not have said but my understanding is that Luxon has not attended that church in quite some time before they were made I don't agree with everything that is said in my own church - many Christians can exist in an environment where some stuff makes sense and others doesn't.
So curiously - what does "being attached to the Upper Room say about the breed of Christianity you embrace?"
An alternate take is that anyone professing any belief in magical thinking is suffering from mental illness and should be disqualified from holding public office. I would and do endorse that.
Wow! David often talks about the constructive place this is. Sadly Bob you are proving him wrong.
Faith based politics is as bad as faith based engineering, or faith based science, or faith based economics.
You be you and I'll be me. Thank you very much.
The "She'll be right" philosophy might work on the farm but...
Yes you can. If you allow violence to grow in NZ and I get brutalized bc of it you think how you FEEL about it matters? That's the praxis of white supremacy where white feelings matter more than brown bodies.
By remaining silent in the face of actions like this - especially if you're Pākehā - you are implicitly endorsing what is happening.
Or, you just happen to live in Tauranga or Christchurch. The latter gives it's racist and bigotry culture a name, at least.
(Waiting for someone to say " I live in Christchurch and I am not from Tauranga")
These people make me vomit, and really angry. They know EXACTLY what they are doing, and they will be the bullies like Seymour - arriving late for maximum impact, daring anyone to say anything to their pathetic white arses. They have been given permission to be like this, the narrative is trotted out via commercial radio, tv and press everyday. They titter and egg each other on in the brave world of social media, and we sit there stunned into silence because we know it will get REALLY ugly if anyone calls them out. They rely on it. We are so farked if National/Act win the election. All bets will be off and we will regress to something unimaginable
This is fucked… has literally made my stomach feel sick… there needs to be laws around public displays of racism, antisemitism and homophobia etc. I was at my daughters orthodontist appointment recently and unknowingly, they had a hitler documentary on, I had to ask them to turn it off… I couldn’t sit there and pretend that watching Nazis in a children’s waiting room was ok… do better is right, the staff, the other attendees- the partners and friends when they were told what costume they were doing?!? … the standard you walk past is the standard you accept!!
Quite a weird thing to be playing in a dentist's office!
I would bet you those people don't think of themselves as racist, and would be offended if you referred to them as such.
I think a lot of countries have similar social and political problems as the US, we're just louder about it.
Welcome back! I hope your all stocked up, just in case.
I have a few jugs of water aside :)
NZ water?
LA water :(
Sparking H2O... that self-load ?? 😉
We like 3Waters.
;-)
And thanks be to the BIPOC activists who have led that work in the USA so USA can have the language to be louder.
We have access to that language as well but get accused of importing American ideas when we use it (ignoring of course that the colonial racism we allow to remain is also an import).
We DID use it up to them 80s then abandoned it in favor of watered down Treaty education and as a result we are behind the USA AND UK in critical race theory education and behind them both in hate speech and hate crime protections.
All the while projecting an outward facing optic of progressive race relations to the world.
Sometimes we can learn a thing or two from American loudness!
I am glad there is discussion happening about not sitting on our hands and actually saying something. Seeing this story spread around the news and social media - I have SOME hope that people can have pre-thought about what to do when this shit crops up again.
Maybe.
Although the "loud American" archetype isn't so much at play here. It's not a loudness borne out of being American that we should learn from, it's a loudness borne out of the Civil rights struggle which HAD to be loud in order to break free of the extreme racism of the likes these people were emulating in their costumes, borne out of lost Black and Native lives to sanctioned violence, and in the creation and development of that liberational rights-based language, at every step they have faced violent and brutal resistance from "loud" white America in order to get their society to a space where these acts are reviled (even during the global rise in white supremacy that we see now).
So I think it's important that when we reflect on who we need to learn from, we are explicit in saying it's BLACK America we need to learn from or FIRST Nations Americans we need to learn from not loud Americans in general. Same when people disparage the language of anti-racism as being "American". What they are hating on is Black American discourse and expertise and it's not just anti-American xenophobia they are acting on, but Anti-blackness as well.
I'm seeing a LOT of accountability discussions directed at the people who were in the room, and I think that is really important. I also think the "settler culture" of NZ needs deconstructing here bc that has been overlooked and it's really close to the heart of the issue here, as it was when Kimbolton wanted to hold a "Settlers Day" on Waitangi Day.
( https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/482889/manawatu-ngati-kauwhata-to-meet-with-settlers-day-event-organisers )
If we want to understand the psyche at play in the Kaimai Settlers Committee and in that room on that night, especially with a hope to overcome it, we have to understand settler mindsets, and how that presents in white New Zealand identity. It's actually quite a treasured, and vehemently protected aspect of white NZ identity.
Like, I start talking about the violence of settler-colonialism and so often white NZers wind up leaping to a defence of their white settler ancestors, and think I'm attacking their right to belong? It's like they think their right to belong is based on meritous ancestry rather than Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Which is why Antiracism is so important as it often is what stands in the way of learning about and honouring Te Tiriti.
Well, I was born in Christchurch and moved to Taurunga and I am not a racist and neither are my South African friends.
/s
I'm American and I've lived in four different countries on three continents in the past ten years or so. I'm actually currently working on moving to New Zealand. And I'm very aware of all of America's many, many problems. But I will say that I've been the most surprised by racism in other countries, things that Americans would organically balk at just don't hit the same in the UK, in Japan. I remember having a conversation with an Australian man in Tokyo who just casually used the n word and I choked on my drink before explaining to him that he could never use that word, ESPECIALLY in America and he just shrugged. It's honestly bizarre sometimes and very disheartening.
There is some really weird racist shit that comes out of NZ and Australia. But hey - we welcome an American who will call that shit out - especially as many kiwis appear happy to say nothing!
Ughhh this makes me feel so....ick and ashamed 😞 I love a quiz night as much as the next person (I attended one in Nelson 2 weeks ago) but I have to believe that if someone dressed in offensive costume I would make some kind of stand - walk out at the very least. Seeing people dressed in kkk or black face costumes would completely ruin my night. I’m saddened that others could carry on enjoying theirs as if this wasn’t totally offensive 😔
I’m gobsmacked that no one complained or challenged them or at the very least walked out.
Driving to Wellington and back this weekend from New Plymouth I concluded that National and Act have a lot more money for signs than Labour, and most are in farmers’ fields. The “Let’s take back our country” ones from Winston give me uncomfortable vibes, not to mention Act with that smug grinning face and “Let’s end division based on race”. We know what that really means.
I am really worried about what’ll happen if they get elected, and what it tells us about the voters.
Nope I'll never stop .... calling then out loudly, pointing and remarking at racist comments and behaviours that hurt and damage people. Coz if one person points and comments then it gives voice and courage to others who are scared to do it alone and suddenly there are two, four, eight that are pointing and calling it out. And we are not alone anymore. I'm going to use my vote to do the same thing. And I'm going to hope my fears are just fears .......
Fuckin-a.
Good on you, well said