So I was browsing Facebook casually one evening, probably procrastinating, when I stumbled across this ...
Upon which I felt, in my soul, racism was about to happen, and sadly I was not proven wrong.
I’m not going to talk about housing prices, because I don't know much about real estate, rather a reaction to the comments from the article and the article itself. Whilst there was a discussion going on, in the comments, there did seem to be a vocal majority that were spewing the same, contradictory arguments. This article seemed to incite fear and panic over Chinese immigrants and investors buying up all the houses and making money. These comments angered me so much that it made me do some work.
Firstly the main ‘problem’ that people seem to have is that both the buyer and seller are Chinese, the seller owns several properties and the buyer may or may not be immigrating to New Zealand, which has always struck me as strange, they have the money, they can buy what they want. These people are acting like 'their' land is being taken away from them but I'm sure none of them had any intention of buying that particular house in the first place, because if they did they would have. Also there is no sense of irony, just historical amnesia that makes people think that Pakeha's are ingenious to New Zealand.
Secondly immigration. I don’t know where there is such a fuss about immigration, and in my experience it comes from the Pakeha/European population, as well as certain politicians. These people seem ignorant to the fact that at one point their families would have been immigrants, one of the comments was written by a person from South Africa, the others are just some defensive Pakeha worried about Chinese invaders.
There is a lot of conflation, mark of the plural and strategic essentialism going on here. Not only is there a negative view of Chinese people being throwing around, the actions of a few apparently speak for the majority but also there is an indulgence in stereotypes, hiding behind the old, aggravating idiom, It’s not racist if it’s true, but also stating that it's not just the Chinese but all Asians too, because ... people are uneducated.
Immigrants are seen as a hive-minded organism that want to invade New Zealand, never mind that we like to pride ourselves on our multiculturalism. There is a real two-face attitude that annoys me.
Sorry for the grumble but somedays I get disappointed in my New Zealand.
You make some valid points concerning immigration and what is seen as 'acceptable' and what is not. The use of the word 'Asian' which was used over and over again in the Facebook comments really irks me. I agree with you that people are uneducated and use the term to mean a large number of ethnic groups, some which have little influence within New Zealand when looking at population. The comments present an Orientalist type of view, in which the whole continent of Asia and its various ethnic groups are seen as the 'Other'. It is also interesting and not surprising to me the different responses yourself and your girlfriend get from people. It demonstrates white privilege and Dyer's theory about white people's tendency to distinguish non-whites by race, while failing to distinguish other whites in the same way.
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