There's something I've been hearing a lot of lately, and that thing is racism. A recent study by York University in Canada found that many people (who, I assume, would never think of themselves as racist people) failed to call an actor out on a variety of racial slurs, including the term 'clumsy nigger', and were in fact more inclined to pick that person as a partner when asked to choose (about 63% of the participants picked the racist actor). I am ashamed to admit that, as an active collectivite, I failed to call people out on blatant racism in the past week. I was thinking about it last night, and this morning, and I realised that we (well, at least me) encounter so much racism on a daily basis, and fail to act, purely because it's not directed at us, because it's easier to let a sleeping dog lie.
Why are people in New Zealand (a supposedly inclusive society) and all over the world, racist? I feel like, because we as a country, didn't support things like slavery (although it did happen), we feel free to point at countries like the States and say that they're the country to be looked at if you want to see racism. Sure, we have done better than some countries (like Australia, where much of the Aboriginal population lives out in shanty towns, marginalised still by the rest of the population), at trying to repair the havoc colonization wreaked. But I still hear racist stereotypes all the time - PI's favourite restaurant is KFC, all Maori people are on the DPB etc.
Personally, I believe that a large part of the blame is on separatism. Not that I begrudge anyone of maintaining their own, separate cultural identity, but surely the government allocating more money to schools with Maori and Pacific students, on the assumption that they're poorer or dumber than their white or yellow counterparts. Labelling people as this and that - black, white, red, yellow, brown; Maori, European (effing European! you were born in New Zealand for chrissakes! You're Australasian! Jeez), African, Scandinavian etc. It encourages stereotypes, and a stereotype, being an impression of a group based on a small cross-section, is the underlying root of racism.
The definition of racism, according to wikipedia (that great and holy bastion of knowledge) "is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race." Essentially, that we are different from each other because of our race. This idea is bullshit, and yet perpetuated by our government and media. When scientific studies of health and education are published in New Zealand, they always separate NZers into categories (seriously. Check for this next time), saying things like, Maori and Pacific Islanders are more sensitive to diabetes, that people of Asian descent are smarter. Yes, there are differences, but they are primarily cultural, and no more significant than the differences in educational achievement between the kids that study for two hours every night, and the kids who go to Macca's instead (mmmm...mcdonalds....). And this racism is flying under the radar, subconsciously reassuring (primarily) white New Zealanders that it's okay to discriminate.
(Just as a side-note, I also feel that the anti-PC movement is to blame. Just because it's not politically correct be racist, doesn't mean that you should discriminate against someone to support the identity you're attempting to create for yourself, as someone who takes no bullshit. News flash, racism is bullshit.)
What can you do about it? Short of writing to the government and research bodies of New Zealand, and asking them to stop differentiating, and thus discriminating (, start by calling people out on their racism (and homophobia. And their anti-Muslim, anti-Jewish and anti-American feelings). When your father or auntie or cousin curses 'those bloody Asian drivers', tell them off. Tell them that they're racist (something that they probably haven't considered, and would be horrified to think of), and that you're not cool with it, and that they're hurting people every time they make a prejudiced remark. Stop stereotyping, even if it's just a 'dumb blonde', and maybe get people to consider that what they perceive as racial differences may actually be cultural ones, and thus not apply to everyone. Race is just a skin colour. Nothing more.
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3 comments:
Whoa mana you busy bee you!
good work!
a really interesting read
I agree with what you're saying...
BUT let me be devil's advocate and say that from an education sector worker, statistics try to identify any groups of people who current systems are not working well for. If any particular group IS identified as performing below others, wouldn't it be irresponsible to ignore that data?
The data is not there to finger point (or shouldn't be) but rather to point out who current systems are failing (and not the other way around). It's generally not approached as people saying 'This ethnicity is dumb' but rather that our current teaching styles are not working for those kids.
It's more like reverse-racism than racism (that's how my dad explained it when I got miffy about there being Maori only scholarships when I was in seventh form). It's acknowledging that the dominant western culture that many countries have, which was forced upon other races (usually indigenous or minority ones) actually has biases that favour students from a western culture. And so, in order to rectify generations of mistreatment, current policies do need to be tartgeted at these groups. I think we strive for a society where ethnic breakdowns would not identify major differences and that we would all be achieving equally - but until we reach that goal, perhaps we do need to look at where the imbalances are so that we can make changes or try to figure out why it's happening.
That's a different take on the issue, anyhow :)
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