Its a rare moment when...

Ahh, The New Zealand Herald. It might look like the classic case of sucking up, uncritically regurgitating information learned throughout this course or other such simplistic perception, but mark my words, there are incredibly few instances I find myself reading this paper with any sense of satisfaction whatsoever. Bias, selective publishing of non-progressive opinion pieces, obsession with issues that have no relevance to anything, so on and so forth... So it was with the utmost surprise and incredulity that I came across an opinion piece in today's issue titled "Has 'middle NZ' made no progress?".

Written by John Roughan (somewhat less surprisingly), it spoke of the utter, "ineffable" sadness he felt watching Seven Sharp's story on the resignation of the Mayor of New Plymouth, which Suzanne showed those present in last Friday's lecture (or, in true Freeland tradition, would've been last Friday had I finished this blog entry more promptly). Roughan suggested Mike Hosking's comments that the Mayor is "out of touch with middle New Zealand", and his heavy-handed dismissal that Maori do not deserve preferential treatment fielding electorates, are in fact precisely the problematic ignorance most white New Zealander's have toward the reality of our race relations. He went on to mention several times which journalists had received scathing reactions on the internet when they dared point out his sentiments, ironically being branded "racist" by angry, unsettled Pakeha. Some of his comments seem to have come right out of our course syllabus:



"A minority cannot practice racism unless it has power, as white South Africans did. More often racism is the use of a majority vote to deny a minority a fair say in the government of their country. This is not my opinion, it is the standard definition in the study of this subject. Opinion comes into play when you have to decide what is "a fair say in the government"."


Irrespective of is tremendously depressing reality, I think the publication of Roughan's commentary in a mainstream tabloid aimed at middle New Zealand audiences, is a clear step in the right direction.  While it may seem to be merely trying to grab attention by referencing a popular current affairs article which aired on prime time, this kind of news critique really brings the problem of racism in New Zealand into public consciousness. There's a chance it will promote much discussion and further coverage of news stories to this effect, and I'm glad a usual mouthpiece of racism in media has seen fit to publish something that really calls out middle New Zealand's problems rather than suggesting a mayor isn't doing his job for helping perpetuate them. 

Needless to say... I'd rather spend all night reading YouTube comments on 9/11 videos, than several minutes analyzing how vitriolic some of the responses to Roughan's sentiments might be.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11642134