A regular reader of The BFD recently complained to TVNZ about a racist comment that had been broadcast in March. On the show in question, a white guy who was part of a group of white guys commented that he was so happy that a black guy was carrying his bags.
To our reader’s great surprise the complaints committee did not identify any breach of standards by the broadcasting of the racist comment because the show was rated M. Apparently a racist comment is considered coarse language.
Oh and one more thing…I lied.
It was a group of Samoan men and the actual comment was ” I was so happy that a white guy was carrying my bags.”
The explanation for why the complaint was dismissed seems reasonable as context is everything. That said, I sincerely doubt that a group of white travellers on a travel show would be allowed to joke about having a black guy carrying their luggage.
More and more it seems that when racist comments are made against white people it is a joke but when the reverse happens it is racism and hate speech.
With your help Discrimination of the Day will become a regular segment on The BFD. A reader drew our attention to this example and we will highlight any others that our readers send to us.
Let’s highlight the racism and discrimination inside New Zealand together because it is NOT OK!
There is NOTHING positive about discrimination or racism.
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