Think of a slice of media cake simply as a slice of cake. You taste it, you love it, you want to bake it but the wretched cook won’t part with the prized family recipe. You analyse the ingredients hoping to reproduce it.
In the same way, media events give us pause for thought. We want to understand the message correctly, we want to know if we can trust the messenger. This is difficult when the messenger is particularly coy. Are they truthful? Are they consistent with the facts and information we believe to be true? What is their motive? This process is enlightening and fun, and I hope you enjoy dissecting this slice of media cake. My comments are in italics, we look forward to reading yours in the comments section.
This week, on the back of the BLM protests, the subject of racism was discussed with two commentators, a Maori woman and a male Islamic lecturer. Perfect candidates to discuss racism, you would think. A word of warning: keep in mind that they are teaching our students.
Duncan Garner asked AUT Senior Lecturer Ella Henry how we are going in addressing racism.
Henry:
“I think that the last… particularly the last year and a half has shown us that race is still a huge issue with the mosque killings last year. Um… and the… the push back on the arms policing unit but I want to have as balanced a picture as I can because I also think that we’re doing some things that are really interesting and I think that’s reflected in the that fact the Black Lives Matter marches in this country are not… aah… as violent as they have been in other countries where it’s a much bigger problem. So I think we’re doing some things right.”
Henry is referring to protestors who turned out in November 2019 to oppose the trial of a new armed police unit, with signs reading “Brown communities are not shooting ranges” and “armed cops are killer cops” based on the logic that Maori outperform in prison statistics and police target Maori.
Henry confuses the Christchurch shootings with racism. The Christchurch killer was a nutbar and Islam is not a race.
Is Henry not aware of Antifa’s involvement with the BLM US and UK protests, which unlike NZ BLM protests, were infiltrated by Antifa, looters, attackers and killers of 16 mostly black people?
Garner asks Auckland University Islam Teaching fellow Dr Zane Ali why the protests were not violent here, why didn’t we reached the level of violence seen overseas?
Ali:
“Well that’s a really, really interesting question and I think that a lot of the factors that are at play in the US are not at play here especially to do with the political leadership. It’s not as polarising here… or polarised here as it is in the US. And I think after the March 15 events [Christchurch mosque killings] the initial response was to bring people together and that’s something we haven’t seen in the US and I think that’s kind of inflamed the whole situation.”
Ali does not refer to the drivers of violence during overseas BLM protests either, and this could be explained by his political persuasions: he adores Ardern and suffers a severe case of common TDS.
Garner:
“The debate here used to be bi-culturalism and it was between Maori and Pakeha New Zealanders but we have become such a diverse country… a massively diverse country, that the debate is no longer just about you and me, it is about all of us isn’t it?”(Henry loves this question, she gazes adoringly at Garner)
Henry: “Well I prefer to think of us as bi-national, so the treaty was signed by two separate sovereign nations, the Maori nation which had been accepted by British parliament in 1836 and the British nation.
Henry has rewritten history. The purpose of the treaty was to extend British sovereignty over NZ Maori – at the request of Maori through NZ missionaries who feared for them with a deluge of unsavoury opportunists arriving. Sovereignty was clearly stated in the letter from British aristocrat and civil servant Constantine Phipps who wrote the Crown’s instructions to William Hobson who became New Zealand’s first governor. He set out Britain’s terms for acquiring sovereignty which included obtaining ‘the free intelligent consent of the natives, expressed according to their established usages’.
Henry continues her divisive thread: “Um… we are bi-national and there are two types of people in New Zealand, those who were here before the treaty and those who were here because of the treaty. So the treaty is important to all of us.”
No, we are one nation as declared on Te Tii Marae at Waitangi by Crown representative Lieutenant Governor William Hobson: “He iwi tahi tatou – we are one people” after the signing of the treaty.
Garner:
“So you said… everybody after the treaty is the same, to you?”
Henry:
Yeah.
Garner:
“Everyone beforehand is tangata te whenua?”
Henry:
Absolutely. Tangata te whenua, tangata tiritiri. This is the two nations that sit alongside each other and I think we create some really interesting and innovative approaches for the rest of the world.”
I’m glad Henry explained tangata tiritiri to me because honestly, I’d never heard of it until now. Must be part of Maori history that is yet to be written.
Ali:
“I… I struggle with that… that way of seeing things because um… on the one hand we are not people of the land… aah we weren’t here when the treaty was signed, we were here… Indians anyway, much later. Myself here 30 years ago. So in a sense I struggle with that… you know view that there are two nations or two peoples when I don’t fit comfortably into either.”
A very good point! How does Ali (and most of the rest of us) fit into Henry’s two Maori tribes?
Garner:
“So you struggle with the fact there will be a fifth or sixth generation New Zealander and Ella is saying that person is the same as you, and you’re saying “no, no no, they’re not.”
Ali:
“I think there is a difference here. Aah, when you look at the folks who signed the treaty um… am I culturally connected to them? In a certain way yes, but in a certain way I’m also very different.”
Garner:
“Well you’re newer. You’re newer. In a historical scale we’re developing so old as it is, you’re a New Zealander aren’t you?”
Ali:
“That’s right. I am a newer New Zealander. That’s right.”
Garner:
Is that a fair way of…”
Henry:
“And… and… new New Zealand and old New Zealand and ancient New Zealand are doing some interesting and innovative things that I am not seeing in many other countries.”
Give this woman a role writing our history books please! Just for clarity, what is the name of the tangata where Ali and most of the rest of us belong? Tangata hou, perhaps?
We struggle with the concept of two nations, can someone explain how we will manage three? While she’s at it perhaps she can explain the “interesting and innovative things” happening around here because this statement, repeated twice, has me worried.
Skip forward to question asking what constitutes and drives racism.
Ali:
“Well the world may be modern but I think as human beings, like as you were saying (gestures toward Henry) we’re an ancient species and I think the issue of race is still very real. It’s very apparent. You look at my skin, I can’t hide this. I look different, I have an accent – at least my kids tell me that – and we have a history, right?”
Ali gets a nice little dig at Henry for insinuating that, as a “new” arrival he has no ancient history. Of course, he does! It’s just not the same as Henry’s, or mine for that matter, and probably yours.
Skip forward to question asking where racism is demonstrated in NZ now.
Henry:
“All “isms” are ultimately about power. So, as long as we live in an unequal society then somebody’s going to be driving the bus and telling everybody whether you sit at the front or the back.”
Now we get to the heart of the matter. Unless Henry is a magician we will always have an unequal society. Even under her beloved socialism, the socialist elite is better off than the rank and file.
This is an unfortunate fact of life and if Henry’s definition of racism is to be believed and promulgated by Maori, they sentence themselves to a lifetime of it.
Henry is reminded of Maori representation, particularly in parliament, and is asked why she thinks our system perpetuates the issues she associates with colonialism?
Henry:
“If you look at the faces of all of the leaders, politically and economically, financially and where the financial power is in this country, it is not in the hands of Maori and it is not in the hands of the majority of us brownies. So, but… but again I… I… I balance that with the fact that I think that as a nation we are… we are doing some things that are so credible that we need to keep on doing it.”
Henry has unwittingly identified the source of her grievance, that she has a licence for greed and envy, but there are people of all races and skin colour who enjoy that same licence – wanting a large chunk of the prosperity held by those more fortunate or who worker harder. Like I said inequality is a fact of life.
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