Is Auckland unsafe for Asian students?

With the recent attacks on Asian students in Albert Park, Auckland, there has been racial tension as a result of victimisation. I'm not advocating that there is no issue of race going on, but although this has brought attention to the plight of Asian people being a prime target for robbery, this has without a doubt overall, ignorantly damaged how international students perceive Maori and Pacific Islanders. 

Auckland University Students' Association (or AUSA) brought to attention that it was more of an issue regarding safety and needed measures to take in order to prevent these type of incidents from reoccurring. AUSA President Will Matthews said Albert Park was well-known to be unsafe, and it was time that changed. If you think about it, you end up with polarising reactions from the public about who is to blame for the attacks (those who have been arrested happened to be Maori or Pacific Islanders.

AUSA Women's Rights officers Aditi Gorasia and Diana Qiu said the exercise aimed to change the culture of safety around the university. One common criticism is that these students should not have been walking around Albert Park at night either way. But what happens when some of these attacks occurred in broad daylight? Instead of playing a game of figuring out who to blame (is it your own fault for walking around in public spaces where you are likely to get jumped?), we are ironically enough not attacking the root of the problem.

Mayor Len Brown insists on keeping it PC and is claiming there is no indication as of yet to whether it is specifically the demographic of Asian students that are being targeted

How about let's look at things realistically? Six Asians were attacked in Auckland in public areas and not at night. One attack involved two Japanese women being dragged onto the road on Queen Street as they were beaten before they were mugged. The racial factor is that it is easy to assume that Asian women are well-off and unable to defend themselves in this type of situation. Four of the incidents took place within the same week. And the arrested attackers such as Brandon Pora are usually teenagers of Maori/Pacific Islander descent.

And the responses? A Reclaim our Park rally took place and an online petition was signed (with over 5500 signatures) to make Auckland safer for international students. The petition itself demanded more cameras to be placed around the streets, more streetlights around Albert Park and transparency in the Youth Courts. Somehow this has gained overseas attention and even Thailand Ambassador Maris Sangiampongsa commented on the attacks on Asians, informing that there had been around 5 attacks on Thai nationals in the last five years which included two incidents in April.

Things worsened at some point at least for our community of University of Auckland students as an Asian man on the "Overheard @University of Auckland" warned Asian students to keep an eye out for Maori or Polynesian males saying that although he was aware that the post was politically insensitive, "political correctness is not worth brain damage or dying for". People of every ethnic background were responding with negative feedback to this post, accusing him of being a racist. But this is a concern as it must also mean that there are people with similar views to him.

These incidents are a reflection of a need of racial awareness amongst Aucklanders of different ethnicities and demonstrate why we need movements such as I, Too, Am Auckland, a calling for universities to do more down to get rid of every day racism. 

On an ending note, most racial issues can be resolved with awareness as seen in this vice article, where Kevin Zhang states: the "attackers are supposed to be Maori or Pasifika, but I'm a Kiwi Asian so I have Maori and Pacific Island friends and I know they're not like that".