Pacific Island immigration

Pacific Island Immigration has played a big part in New Zealand culture and also plays a part globally in places such as America and Australia. Pacific Islanders now have established an existence among many other cultures which has contributed towards the global media, New Zealand holds the biggest number of Pacific Islanders where they are known for playing Rugby and other physical sports.

Pacific Island Immigration in the beginning however has often been misunderstood among many communities who interact with them, growing up as a middle eastern I lived among many Pacific Islanders and grew up being taught to hate them. But I came to New Zealand around a time where a lot of different cultures would immigrate here in order to find a better a life, and I understood that my culture faced discrimination as well whether it was racial or other ways of discrimination.

So I learnt to mingle with Pacific people because I learnt that it is good to not be hostile among those who face the same or similar prejudice by others. Pacific culture has been established in New Zealand so much that there are Pasifika groups in schools and universities and even pacific media such as Tala Pasifika and The laughing Samoans.

 The establishment of Pacific culture has even been recognized in the Global market with stars such as Dwane Johnson and Roman Reigns, even a show that has featured a big Pacific Island cast is Hawaii 5.0. I believe that Pacific Island culture has evolved so much that it is able to fit into mainstream media and stay true to the roots of their heritage.

Is Whiteness really a bad thing?

The subject of whiteness has caused many issues for people, such as how Caucasian people play roles that are usually non Caucasian or how we follow under Caucasian culture and way of thinking despite other cultures being seen as inferior.

While that maybe true there are a lot of benefits about Whiteness despite the negativity and stigma around it, due to whiteness there has been an establishment of how humans interact and how people are able to form groups, because in today's society closeted racism occurs everywhere even among non Caucasian communities. 

Nowadays we see less racist groups and more groups that are prejudice among other groups, for example; there are many groups among Christians such as Protestant, Catholic, Pentecostal and even branches that are among those branches that all think the other group is wrong. Even among Muslims, there is a specific group called the Ahmadiyya who are a distinguished group of Muslims that branched out to be so different to mainstream Islam that it became its own religion.

I believe Whiteness is not the only problem in social media but its also how communities are formed, Whiteness is only the base of the issue about how humans are separated and categorized in different ways because the stigma in Whiteness has caused a closeted racism so it is not as obvious. The main issue is how communities act towards others close to their communities in order to get along in peace.  

Why sub-groups tend to fight each other despite being labelled among the same tree.

I believe that many people who are apart of certain races and religions tend to face struggles of discrimination that is done not necessarily by different groups but people among their own groups who practice their views differently despite being under the same tree.

I as a Muslim who was raised in New Zealand have had my fair share of discrimination among people of different categories but also people who fall under the same category as mine, Muslims who came from different cultural backgrounds. Of course I do not justify any discrimination, I believe that there are people who are devout and people who are not necessarily devout but follows aspects of Islam due to it being apart of your culture, I am the latter.

Knowing this, I have had many Muslims thinking I am crazy due to my Ideology in life ad have been laughed at. This goes to show that despite laws of and faith within ones beliefs, we still live by an imperfect social code where there are loopholes; loopholes in the sense that there is closeted prejudice among every community despite their claim of being welcoming to anyone.

With a social code, we live by an unwritten social contract where unwritten rules or acting in society gives humans ways of communicating and are taught what is normal and abnormal but in the process we fall to social control and ranking. Despite collectivism being the desired practice in certain communities, it will always fall to individualistic ideologies where people are seen as better to so race, gender, sexuality and factors that are given among these sort of circumstances.

Black and White movies... next up US

I recently watched the movie "Baggage claim" which has a predominantly black cast. Which is a good thing, personally I enjoy watching Black movies. Not that i'm being racist to white films I think that sometimes its just good to see Colored people being represented on Television, even though i'm not African American i think i can relate more to their stories than white stories. I love the series Empire I think it is very empowering to black people, and i hope that one day i'll be able to help create influential and empowering stuff for Pacific people as we are a minority and we are hardly ever represented on screen, apart from within New Zealand. Anyways watching "Baggage claim" i started thinking about how by having a predominantly black cast makes the African American race seem like the superior people rather than white people. I think this is done not necessarily to be racist to white people but rather to empower African American people.

I think colored people have in someway or the other had influential success within the Film Industry. For example Bollywood, Chinese Action Films and African American films. But Pacific people have just touched the surface of this. I think this is what makes us again a minority in the way that we are hardly ever present or being represented onscreen's worldwide. And when we are it is the question of how we are being represented, and who is creating this representation.

I find that the people of the Pacific are at a disadvantage and at a advantage.
The disadvantage is that we are under represented in the world, people all over the world hardly know that we exist because we are hardly represented. And when we are represented are we being represented in the right ways, who is creating this representation of us and can this representation be changed.?
The advantages we still can change these representations because we are under represented on screens world wide. Our stories have not been told thus we still have time to develop an identity hopefully one that is empowering and influential.

Is colonization a bad thing?

The lecture on Colonization got me thinking... Is Colonization in regards to where i come from a bad thing or a good thing?

Colonization is and has always been thought of as a negative ordeal, because of how it negatively impacted the loss of culture, the loss of land, and all the oppression that came with it.

However in this blog I want to question this. 

How would Samoa life be like if it wasn't for Colonization?

What would be different

For one thing, religion would be different in regards to Christianity and how Samoa's culture is built off of it, hence "Fa'avae i le Atua Samoa" meaning "Samoa is founded on God" This statement motto in Samoan is an indication of how Christianity is apart of Samoan culture. 

Christianity arrived in Samoa when the missionaries arrived on their shores. 

What would Samoa be like without Christianity? would we be better of or worse?

I guess i can't answer this question as I cannot imagine Christianity not being apart of Samoan Identity... because it is so embedded into their way of life. For example the way i was brought up i was never to question anything about God and i had to attend Sunday school and Church every Sunday even though I never really understood why. 

I don't know I guess what im trying to say is Colonization isn't all negative if you think about it in the right way because without Colonization would I be born here in New Zealand getting these opportunities that are available to me? or what kind of person would i be if Colonization didn't happen?

I'm not saying that Colonization is a positive thing, No! I just wanted to think about what would it be like if things (Colonization) didn't happen the way that it did?

There is Feminism... and then Colored woman.

Feminism we all should be familiar with what Feminism is, we all should know that Feminism is to do with political views, ideologies and social movements that empowers woman, by standing from the point of view that Females should have equal rights as Males, right?
Does Feminism empower all females?
Or is it another white construct that dictates white authority?..

The first really diverse show that i was ever introduced to around the age of fourteen in 2008 was the show "The L word." I loved this series because at that time i never saw anything like it. I loved it because the cast was predominately female. Predominately WHITE females.
Everyone talks about "Orange is the New Black" and how this show breaks boundaries, I agree the show does break boundaries in the way that the cast is a even mix of white and colored characters. Whereas "The L Word" used a predominately White cast. "Orange is the New Black" and "The L word" are similar in the way that they both deal with the prevalent issue of Female empowerment through Lesbian relationships.
The question that i am trying to formulate is: Can colored Females identify with Feminism or does feminism in some way only cater to empowering white females?

White feminist woman complain"I don't make as much money as the Man" and colored woman are like "Well i don't make as much money as you." Just using this as an example to illustrate that Feminism allows for Woman to challenge dominant views of Men being more privileged in society, when white Females are more privileged than colored Females. So is Feminism really empowering all Females or is Feminism in someway racist in the way that it lacks inclusion of colored females situation within society?

Even in "Orange is the New Black" the main character is thus still white so really it stands from a white perspective in the way that the female perspective in the series is a white female perspective. Therefore everything within the series is positioned within the frame from a white perspective. I'm not saying that Colored Females can't identify with Feminism because obviously they identify because they are females BUT their is still a lack of understanding that colored woman are in fact are below the average white female. Colored females don't only have to feel inferior to men they also feel inferior in terms of color in terms of sexuality. So in my opinion Feminism does not even begin to empower colored females...

The Privilege we give to the WHITE.

It seems its a defense mechanism for us colored people when white people seem to say something that offends us to automatically reply "You're Racist!!" or think that the white person is being racist. When really their just Racist!! (haha) I remember as a kid when i shifted to Melbourne Australia I automatically hated it and at that age i didn't even know what racist was. But i literally remember the feeling of being different surrounded by so many white people. The power of white people is in how they live pretty much anywhere and are everywhere in world and have made contact with everyone in the world (Colonization). Therefore they are not strangers in foreign lands because everyone knows of them. In my family I hate to say it but your deemed prettier the fairer your skin is and the smaller your nose is, i don't really know if this is the same in all Samoan families. For example the "Afakasi" literally meaning half cast, half white and half Samoan. The Afakasi kids in my families are always given special treatment are always complemented on how beautiful they look etc. As for the the rest of us getting compliments such as "You're getting fat", or "man your really black". My point is we colored people can play a role in "White privilege" in the way that we separate ourselves from the whites, unconsciously putting ourselves down in comparison to them. Religion is a really influential part of Samoan culture yet we are praising a God that is illustrated as a white man. We learned and accepted a religion that was from a white man. My point here is that in a way, at times we give white people privilege. The color white is associated with meanings such as light, purity, perfection in comparison to black, therefore the color itself reinforces its power. We colored people complain about when white people point out their superiority or authority and yet we don't just tell them where to go or put them in their place. I remember an incident that happened to me in Australia when i was around twelve. This was my first time going to an all white school, so me and my sister were the only brown kids. Coming from a school where there are only one or two white kids at school and then it being switched, and you actually see how different it is to be white. So the incident was there was these three white girls sitting behind me and my Mum at the park after school when my mum came to pick me up. My mum was talking in Samoan to me and i was talking back and I could hear these white girls in the background giggling and mocking the way we were talking in our language. My mum just ignored it, but it was loud, so I knew she could hear them mimicking the way she was talking to me. I was getting so annoyed and angry i had a can of coke in my hand and what i did was i walked over to them my Mum just looked at me surprised, I stood in front of them they looked up at me because they were seated on the grass, and they continued giggling. I got the can of coke i had in my hand and poured it all over the top of them. Then I laughed at them and said "Whats your problem?" they replied "You ******* coconut go back to where your from" they got up and started running away, I was running after them. My mother kept calling my name but i was so furious at how they disrespected my Mum, I didn't care about myself but just seeing it being done to someone you love is a whole different story. Anyways after when i got back to my Mum she was like "why did you do that for?" And me being that age i was just thinking their mocking the way we talk? why should we let them make us feel insecure about the way we speak? And that was the first time I experienced how we colored people give the white people privilege at times by putting ourselves down in their presence.