Kirk Hargreaves
Anti-racism protestors clash with participants in a White Pride Day march in Christchurch in 2014.
One of the advantages of being a white, middle-class, well-educated Kiwi is that I have never been the victim of racism in New Zealand.
This is not to say, however, that I have never witnessed racism in New Zealand.
When I was at primary school in the early 1970's, my best friend was Maori. The fact that he was the only Maori in our school and belonged to one of the poorest families in our community did not make any difference to me, but to many it did. He was the most bullied kid in the school, and for some reason, our teachers disliked him immensely.
I remember some children playing up in class while the teacher was writing on the blackboard. When the teacher turned around, he focused all his fury on my friend. He ran at him, picked him up violently by the scruff of the neck, and hauled him off to the principal's office. My friend was not one of the misbehaving students.
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On another occasion, when my friend did not answer roll call because he was away sick, our teacher simply stopped calling names and informed the class that in his opinion the main reason for my friends' unacceptable behaviour was because he was Maori.
When I was sent off to boarding school I lost contact with my friend. Many years later I heard that he had dropped out of school and at 18 had been imprisoned.
The next time I witnessed gross racism in New Zealand was in the 1990's when I was a foreman technician for a company specialising in repairing pipelines. The company liked to contract recently arrived immigrants. They were normally highly qualified, but until they validated their university degrees, they were paid normal labourer wages.
At one point I was responsible for five Middle Eastern arrivals. I liked them a lot as they were hardworking, friendly and respectful. One day, however, there was a situation that caused me to step back. For three days we had been working in a school and were almost finished what needed to be done.
The next morning I said to my team that we would head back to "that Jewish school" to finish up and then move on to the next job. The Middle Eastern immigrants asked in shocked surprise; "What Jewish school?" When I replied; "the school where we had been in working for the last few days," they responded angrily that they had not realised that it was a Jewish school, and promptly "downed tools".
Realising that I wasn't going to resolve the Jewish/Middle Eastern problem at that instant, I sent my Arab friends off to the next site and called other workers in to complete the job.
For the last twenty years, I have lived outside New Zealand, and one of the interesting things about being away for so long is that you have the opportunity to view New Zealand from a different perspective.
I met a couple here who had just returned from New Zealand after living there for two years. During the course of our conversation, I innocently asked if they had experienced any racism while there. To my surprise, they responded "a lot. There was a racial pyramid".
When I asked for more details they told me that even though older New Zealanders and Maori had welcomed them with open arms, but there was a serious problem of racism amongst new immigrant groups.
How racially harmonious do you think New Zealand really is?
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