Further to our postings
on the complexity and often unknowning nature of racism, Don Brash, Hobson's Pledge and other items, we have a further example in a Tallkback
 |
| Pn52 |
letter published in the NZ
Listener, on August 25-31, page
72.
I'll
start back-to-front, with a letter a non-racist could have written on
the same topic:
A no doubt
well-meaning opinion was airing on RNZ National's Insight on July 29
that schools should be compulsorily teaching Te
Reo. There may be good reasons for Maori and others who wish
to to learn the language, but to impose it all school children is unacceptable.
A
fair enough opinion.
Instead
we had this:
A well-meaning but
deluded minority was airing the outdated opinion on RNZ National's
Insight on July 29 that schools should be compulsorily teaching
te
reo to preserve
Maori culture and New Zealand history.
Time
is moving on and Maori are a
small minority of the population and rapidly
growing smaller.
There
may
be no danger in
minority groups clinging
to cleansed
versions of the past for
nostalgic
and sentimental reasons,
but to impose it on everyone is unacceptable.
Don
Boswell (Eastbourne,
Lower Hutt)
Diagnosis: spotting the racism in the letter
"To
preserve Maori culture". Is that the only reason? One could add, to help better pronunciation,
knowledge of our place names and enjoyment from a better knowledge of
another culture; to help us to better understand the world from a
Maori perspective; to help foster better relations between Maori and
Pakeha; to make our a better bi-cultural nation as we move towards
being a multi-cultural one.
"... and New Zealand history" . I'm not sure whether NZ's history or Maori within it. Either way,
the Pakeha-cleansed version of our past is only now being written and
acted upon, so now is a good time to learn.
"Time
is moving on". He implies
an inevitability about Maori and NZ, and implies those wishing to
speak Te Reo are trying to turn the clock back.
"Maori
are a small minority and ... growing smaller".
15% is not small and their number is growing. Their proportion of
the total population is decreasing -- as is that of Pakeha -- largely
due to immigration. In time, we will become a multi-cultural society. But let's make more effort to get biculturalism right first.
"No
danger". A negative way of
expressing something. Are there no positives or "minority groups" or to other New Zealanders?
"Clinging".
= the futility of it all.
"Cleansed
versions of the past".
It is only now we are recognizing just how cleansed our history was.
for "Nostalgic
and sentimental reasons".
Patronising. Does does he know Maori reasons?
So,
why is this racism?
I doubt Don Boswell, like Don Brash, thinks of
himself as a racist, and like Brash he's probably quite civil to Maori as individuals (it's Maori as a group that gets him) -- not that there will be many Maori in Eastbourne.
It is not because he opposes the teaching of Te
Reo in schools, or because he thinks Te Reo is generally a waste of
time. These are his personal opinions, and he's quite entitled to
them, and to tell others what he thinks.
The
racism is in the tone, the intolerance, the futility and barely-hidden ridicule of Te
Reo -- and by implication, Maori as a group-- that permeate the letter.
If body
language can express racism, so can the choice of words and the tone of what is said or
written.
Look back to the letter that could have been written and then to the one that was.
And don't say Maori should be able to take criticism. They should just laugh it off. That's what a racist would say.
--ACW.
