Where Marama went wrong …

Markus from Green Bay

"You’re proving Marama correct, white cis males are driving hatred of trans people" was levelled against someone on this forum who likes to troll … funnily enough Posie Parker (to my knowledge) isn't a "white cis-male", and neither do I have a problem with "LGBTQ and the whole bloody alphabet" people - and I'm white, male, and cis.

I once had a discussion with a black guy from the States who was quite racist in his comments, against both white and Asian people - and when challenged stated that "Only white people can be racist!" - oh the irony of that.

When I hear what Marama said and how others try to "protect" her then I have to think of that black guy. Marama didn't make a mistake, it wasn't due to the bike, she simply spoke unguarded from the heart - and what she said was racist.

It would have been better to own up to the fact that EVERYONE is SOMETHING based on our history and experiences. Racism is build in because it is the "fear of the unknown" - you will ALWAYS fear a stranger more than someone you know (just ask yourself if you would leave your wallet with them), whether it is justified or not (and the vast majority of sexual assaults is actually done by people you know).

The question is not whether someone is racist or not, the question is how they face it. For example in a small village in Germany the asylum seekers were treated with suspicion - so they organised a meeting in the town hall that was very well attended, broke the ice, and made "strangers" simply human. The more you understand other people and races, the less racist you become. When you realise that that nice guy you like to talk with is gay then homophobia starts looking silly.

Marama (and her supporters) had the chance to put this simple fact at the center of the discussion - instead they chose to dig their heels in, make excuses, and went on the attack. Not the mark of a leader, and not smart at all: the "vast majority" of abuse is committed by "white cis males"? First off: the murder statistic they showed as evidence is a 70% male, 30% female split - that's roughly 2:1. Not exactly what I would call a "vast majority" (especially as men seem to prefer bashing someone's head in or shooting them which is hard to pass off as a natural death, while poisoning which can be hard to detect is the favourite method used by women). And if you want to know how "white" males are doing - then you need to analyse it as a proportion of the population (eg compare the numbers of murders committed by white / black / Maori / Pacific / Asian etc men in proportion to their number in the population) - you might find something that isn't quite politically correct but puts the emphasis on the fact that social deprivation increases stress which causes more violence.

See for example www.stuff.co.nz...

Which brings me back to something that I noticed back in 1999 - New Zealanders like to put emphasis on "race" when they should simply deal with the problem. If back then they would have said "We need to help the poor get out of poverty" then nobody would have objected even if the policy would have helped Maori the most - instead they said "We need to help the Maori to get out of poverty" (eg free Health Mobile for Maori, allowed to study Medicine if 1/8th Maori, etc) which drove a wedge into New Zealand (instead of bringing them together as “Kiwis” with an appreciation of the different cultural contributions like it is in Europe) and made race a much more important factor. Unsurprisingly the Maori formed their own party, and nowadays you have election posters showing "Maori" with a check mark - should you really vote for someone because of his or her race? That has echoes of Apartheid in South Africa (I never thought I'd agree with Winston Peters but he lambasted that policy because it "stole" Maori pride and depicted them as people who can't do it on their own if just given a fair chance).

And what Marama is doing is exactly the same - put race into the discussion about violence against women. That is stupid and counter-productive. It detracts from what the problem is: abuse of others. And as Posie Parker and many religious groups ("conversion therapy" anyone?) show - it is not just males, never mind white or cis.

Stop abuse - and keep your “culture wars” to yourself.

P.S. Marama has history on that method: www.stuff.co.nz...