THE KIWI UNDERBELLY
Someone posted this on the forum I wrote about in the previous post:
“I am a proud Kiwi and I thought I should set you strait on a couple of your comments on New Zealand.
New Zealanders aren’t that academic and that because we don’t like to screw around with flash words. We just like to tell it how it is.
New Zealand isn’t racist we got heaps of Indians in the diaries and Asians in the fish and chip shops and people treat them well
We kiwis aren’t bad drivers it’s all the Asians on the road that makes it dangerous.”
My partner is an Asian kiwi. Often when we are in shops the attendants will ignore her and talk directly to me. When they do talk to her, they talk slowly. She will reply back in a normal New Zealand accent. They continue to talk slowly or tell her that her English is quite good.
Back at university, one of my partners 'friends’ told her that she was doing really well considering her degree was in English. Joyce said, "But im a Kiwi English is my language."
She said, “Yea but you are Asian, so it is more difficult.”
We were in the car waiting at a red light and a window washer came up and started washing the window. I don’t mind this; they usually do a crap job on the window, but are fun for a chat. He looked at Joyce and said “Whoa man she’s nice where did you get that one?”
I was working with my partners parents in their restaurant the other day, a lady who knew them came into the kitchen for a chat. She began speaking in a racist mock Chinese accent, “Hewo how ah wo?”
She continued to speak like that the whole time. I am sure she thought she was just playing around, but this attitude towards different ethnicities is unrelenting.
My partner’s parents are having their bathroom remodeled. It is supposed to take a week but it has now been over a month. They have had to go to a friends place each night for their shower. They have been polite and the builder has been rude and useless. I talked to him yesterday and he miraculously changed his attitude and promised to have it done by Saturday. He gave me far more respect than I deserved, considering I wasn’t the one paying him.
This kind of thing happens nearly on a weekly basis. Ethnic people are treated like second class citizens, their opinions and concerns are token and not taken seriously. In my experience I have noticed that they are often the hardest working and most family orientated people in the community.
Sometimes people treat me differently when they find that my partner is Asian. Then they meet her and realize she is a kiwi and they change again.
I know of another guy, who has an Asian girlfriend, who has had people yelling things at him on the street like “Which magazine did you buy her from?”
Luckily that has never happened to me, I would probably be in jail now.
New Zealand is racist. People have an apartheid view of racism here. People believe racism is about government policy. It is not, it is about the social atmosphere of a nation.
Nevertheless, many of the remarks of our political leaders and social commentators have been completely racist. If someone complains, they are labeled a PC monger.-a dreaded thing in this country these days.
Many people don’t even know they are racist. My partner just came back from a meeting and told me one of the guys she was meeting with told her that his friend is from a typical Asian family with a fish-and-chip shop. My partner explained that typical Asian families do not own fish-and-chip shops and this kind of thinking was stereo typical and racist. He had no idea. It is an ingrained way of thinking.
Some claim that we are much better than other countries. That means nothing to me. Racism is racism, it is not about comparing with other countries.
We just want to walk down the street and wonder into a shop without the attitude and racist atmosphere.
“I am a proud Kiwi and I thought I should set you strait on a couple of your comments on New Zealand.
New Zealanders aren’t that academic and that because we don’t like to screw around with flash words. We just like to tell it how it is.
New Zealand isn’t racist we got heaps of Indians in the diaries and Asians in the fish and chip shops and people treat them well
We kiwis aren’t bad drivers it’s all the Asians on the road that makes it dangerous.”
My partner is an Asian kiwi. Often when we are in shops the attendants will ignore her and talk directly to me. When they do talk to her, they talk slowly. She will reply back in a normal New Zealand accent. They continue to talk slowly or tell her that her English is quite good.
Back at university, one of my partners 'friends’ told her that she was doing really well considering her degree was in English. Joyce said, "But im a Kiwi English is my language."
She said, “Yea but you are Asian, so it is more difficult.”
We were in the car waiting at a red light and a window washer came up and started washing the window. I don’t mind this; they usually do a crap job on the window, but are fun for a chat. He looked at Joyce and said “Whoa man she’s nice where did you get that one?”
I was working with my partners parents in their restaurant the other day, a lady who knew them came into the kitchen for a chat. She began speaking in a racist mock Chinese accent, “Hewo how ah wo?”
She continued to speak like that the whole time. I am sure she thought she was just playing around, but this attitude towards different ethnicities is unrelenting.
My partner’s parents are having their bathroom remodeled. It is supposed to take a week but it has now been over a month. They have had to go to a friends place each night for their shower. They have been polite and the builder has been rude and useless. I talked to him yesterday and he miraculously changed his attitude and promised to have it done by Saturday. He gave me far more respect than I deserved, considering I wasn’t the one paying him.
This kind of thing happens nearly on a weekly basis. Ethnic people are treated like second class citizens, their opinions and concerns are token and not taken seriously. In my experience I have noticed that they are often the hardest working and most family orientated people in the community.
Sometimes people treat me differently when they find that my partner is Asian. Then they meet her and realize she is a kiwi and they change again.
I know of another guy, who has an Asian girlfriend, who has had people yelling things at him on the street like “Which magazine did you buy her from?”
Luckily that has never happened to me, I would probably be in jail now.
New Zealand is racist. People have an apartheid view of racism here. People believe racism is about government policy. It is not, it is about the social atmosphere of a nation.
Nevertheless, many of the remarks of our political leaders and social commentators have been completely racist. If someone complains, they are labeled a PC monger.-a dreaded thing in this country these days.
Many people don’t even know they are racist. My partner just came back from a meeting and told me one of the guys she was meeting with told her that his friend is from a typical Asian family with a fish-and-chip shop. My partner explained that typical Asian families do not own fish-and-chip shops and this kind of thinking was stereo typical and racist. He had no idea. It is an ingrained way of thinking.
Some claim that we are much better than other countries. That means nothing to me. Racism is racism, it is not about comparing with other countries.
We just want to walk down the street and wonder into a shop without the attitude and racist atmosphere.
