I was reading a press release from the Maori Council yesterday and it showed a complete lack of respect for free speech and included comments that if they had been said by President Trump would have been labelled racist.
WE DON’T WANT PEOPLE LIKE THAT HERE. WE SHOULD NOT BE AFRAID TO REVIEW THE CHARACTER TEST FOR NEW RESIDENTS AND WE SHOULD CERTAINLY BE ASSESSING THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA TO IDENTIFY THESE VIEWS. WE NEED TO STOP THESE PEOPLE FROM LANDING IN NEW ZEALAND AN PLYING THEIR HATE TRADE HERE.”
Who do you think the Maori Council is referring to in the above quote? Here is another clue…
THESE OLD EXCLUSIVE LITTLE MEN’S CLUB NEED TO GO. A MESSAGE SHOULD BE SENT THAT NEW ZEALANDERS WILL NOT PUT UP WITH THIS.[…]
HOW IS IT THAT AN EXCLUSIVE MEN ONLY CLUB CAN OPERATE LIKE THIS – WHERE THEY GET TO SOMEHOW PLY THEIR RACIST VIEWS, TAUNT ALL OF US AND THEN CLAIM THAT THEY SOMEHOW HAVE THE RIGHT?
Okay, so what you know so far is that the Maori Council are gunning for an ” exclusive” club that is for men only where they think they have the right to express their offensive opinions.
Now, what if I was to tell you that only one person who belongs to this club has expressed an offensive opinion and that the Maori Council want to close down the entire club because they refused to kick out the member who had expressed the offensive opinion?
The Maori Council are offended by what a member of the club wrote in some e-mails and instead of countering his words with their words they want to take away not only his right to express an offensive opinion but the right of the club to operate because they would not cave into the Maori Council’s unreasonable demands (and yes they are unreasonable).
Imagine if I demanded that the Maori Council be closed down because they refused to kick a member out who had said or written something that I found offensive. Imagine if I said, “Where do they get off running an exclusive council where only Maori people can be members?”
I don’t know the details of what was said by the individual that the Maori Council are so up in arms about and I am not confident that their description of what was said is accurate.
Why have they not directly quoted him? I am very wary when accounts refuse to provide direct quotes so that we can judge for ourselves.
[…] the Nelson Club decided to keep a member after his comments became public about Muslims and people of color having a lower IQ than white people.
For all, we know the man may have quoted an article that provides statistics on IQ. He may have been talking specifically about the effects on IQ from cousin marriage and inbreeding. He may in fact hold some racist views but he is entitled to hold those views no matter how offensive they may be. Free speech is not for words that we approve of it is for words we don’t approve of. The right to offend is a very important one.
At the end of the day, the man is entitled to have views on IQ and to discuss IQ and articles about IQ. No one has to agree with him or like what he is saying. What they shouldn’t get away with is trying to punish a club for defending a member’s free speech but the Maori Council spokesperson Matthew Tukaki disagrees.
[…] We need to clean the house and by the way this is not freedom of speech – no one should have the right to pour hate on people of color or to ply this even trade.” Tukaki said.
Maori Council Press release