I was driving four of our Friday night Drop-in Centre clients home last night. They were pontificating on all sorts of subjects. It is interesting that many of these folk who are not very "successful" in life come across so belligerent and "know all" like. I think they do it to hide their insecurity or to say, "At least I am not as bad as those guys!" Anyway one started asking me about my holiday in the North Island. I told them where I travelled. They asked, "Did you go to Auckland?" I said "no" but they continued, "How dark is it in Auckland?" "What do you mean?" I asked. "There's a dark night happening in Auckland." "The place is over run by P I's (pacific Island People) Asians and Indians! They stuffed up their own country, now they are taking over ours!" I did NOT reply. I considered stopping the car and telling them to walk. I thought it was useless to getting into an argument, but I was fuming. They noticed the silence, and one said, "There's a funny silence?" I think they got the message.
I hear such racist comments nearly every day at chaplaincies or drop in centre. I think back to when my forebears came to NZ. There were no jobs, over crowding and lots of poverty in the United Kingdom. Scots, English, Welsh, Irish, and later others all decided to try for a better life in NZ. I could imagine Maori validly saying, "They stuffed up their own country now they are taking over ours!"
Why are we so racist? When will we learn to be citizens of the world? When will we grow up and mature? We ARE really all brothers and sisters!
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