A sad world view
Derek Cheng has done an interesting interview and profile on Hone Harawira. There’s one part that caught my attention:
So how would Harawira feel if one of his seven children came home with a Pakeha partner?
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable. Like all Pakehas would be happy with their daughters coming home with a Maori boy – and the answer is they wouldn’t.
What a very sad view on society – and also a wrong one. I do not believe the majority of Pakeha would care one bit about whether their daughter or sisters dated a Maori. Maybe 50 years ago, but certainly not today.
Historically also, Maori and Pakeha have married each other in great numbers – to the point that it is thought no living New Zealander has 100% Maori ancestry.
I know for myself that I would have absolutely no discomfort over a family member dating someone who happens to be Maori. Just as I wouldn’t care if they dated someone with blue eyes.
Hone obviously sees people’s group affiliations as more important than who they are as an individual. I think it is a very sad way to view life and society.
“That’s just the reality of the world. Let’s not cry about it. Let’s just live with it and move on.”
But it isn’t. Maybe it is Hone’s word, but it sure as hell isn’t how the world works for most of us.
Some of his whanau have dated Pacific Islanders and he didn’t have an issue with it. Does that make him prejudiced?
“Probably, but how many people don’t have prejudices? I’m just like every other New Zealander, except I’m comfortable in recognising that prejudice exists.”
It clearly is prejudice. Hone is saying that skin colour matters. And there are probably some elderly Pakeha who agree with him. But the tragedy is Hone legitimises such prejudices rather than tries to end them. And prejudice does end, or at least greatly diminish. Look at the massive change in attitudes about women over the last 100 years?
July 31st, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Now an Australian would be another matter.
July 31st, 2010 at 11:23 pm
If Hone doesn’t want his kids marrying a white person then that usually is the precursor to the kids finding one. Kids always love to rebel against their parents.
July 31st, 2010 at 11:33 pm
Words fail me. I former partner’s parents and wider whanau didn’t blink an eye when she brought me home, nor when we had children. One of the things I most miss now that that relationship is over is the opportunity to go to Tauranga for various get-togethers (alas, mostly tangi) and experience the feeling of welcome and belonging I felt there.
What would Hone do if one of his kids brought home one of my children, I wonder? Ask them t leave their Pakeha half at the door?
The problem with “speaking your mind” is you run the risk of showing what’s in it. Harawira has, and it’s very, very ugly.
July 31st, 2010 at 11:51 pm
Hone has proved with his words that he’s racist, and this confirms the view that the Maori party is also racist. When will people open their eyes?
July 31st, 2010 at 11:54 pm
Harawira is a hypocrite and another useless politician. Cut him loose, let him cultivate his prejudice in private and away from our decision-making bodies.
August 1st, 2010 at 12:00 am
Harawira logic:
-All people are prejudiced in some way.
-Pakeha are people.
-Therefore, all Pakeha are prejudiced towards Maori.
Did I miss something here? No Hone, “all Pakeha” don’t fit into your neat categories; neither does your acknowledgement of your own prejudice make it OK. We expect more from our elected representatives.
August 1st, 2010 at 12:59 am
“We expect more from our elected representatives.”
Yes. I gave up some time ago on expecting anything useful from Hone and I personally remain resentful that my taxes continue to pay for his “contribution.”
He’s a one-track-therefore-predictable-therefore=boring record.
Re-cord.
Hone, resign. Now. Please. You add no value. Whatsoever. Seriously.
August 1st, 2010 at 6:31 am
Ae, it is nonsense on stilts.
August 1st, 2010 at 6:49 am
I repeat what I wrote in Lindsay Mitchell’s blog: “Harawira is not only a despicable racist, but an unadulterated piece of scum not worth wasting time on.”
Can you imagine the public outcry if a white person had expressed an opinion similar to Harawira’s? The useless Race Relations Conciliator, whose selective logic to exclude Maori as racial offenders is shameful, would be up in arms and ready to investigate.
The fact the thug Harawira is a Member of Parliament makes the whole affair hard to believe.
August 1st, 2010 at 7:23 am
Hey Hone wanker – kiwi kids need a father figure and it ain’t matter whether he is black, white, green, or f##king yellow you stupid dumbo bro.
August 1st, 2010 at 7:42 am
I am a pakeha who attended a Maori school.
I am a pakeha who intentionally learnt Maori as a child to ‘fit in’ and became fluent, even speaking on Marae
I am a pakeha who was beaten at high school, because I spoke better Maori than darker skinned Maori.
I stopped speaking maori and going to maori events shortly after that. It wasn’t worth the black eyes for a 14 year old.
You gotta open the door before you can break down prejudiced
August 1st, 2010 at 7:58 am
The first time I heard Titewhai Harawira on the radio (some years ago), she said something similar. She also added that Pakeha were like “a kitten born in a banana box” (born there but didn’t belong) and Christ was “just some dead jew”. No surprise that Hone thinks as he does, having grown up on that diet of poison.
August 1st, 2010 at 8:31 am
That is not a sad world view, it is an openly racist view and one that would not be tolerated by our media or people had it been uttered by a white heterosexual male.
August 1st, 2010 at 9:00 am
I have a Maori grand daughter, and my son is engaged to marry a Chinese girl (they live with us while saving a house deposit). My life is richer because they are in it, and I love them all.
I thought, when elected to parliament, MPs took some kind of oath about doing what’s best for ALL NZers. I am sick to death of MPs thinking they can represent some NZers and not others. Hone is a very good argument to get rid of Maori seats.
We need to look at what unites us, and stop the divide and conquer strategies that pit Maori against all others, rich against poor, women against men, workers against employees, etc.
August 1st, 2010 at 9:01 am
What’d ya expect from a brown “MOFO” who’s had the ‘benefit’ of being raised by the likes of Titewhai Harawira?
Whoever said parents don’t influence the way their spawn turn out was lying.
August 1st, 2010 at 9:18 am
The Maori Party need to throw him out. That they don’t suggests at least tacit approval of his view.
Which goes to trust. Who (apart from another racist) would trust the Maori Party with a vote knowing that they support racist views and behaviours?
August 1st, 2010 at 9:49 am
There’s a section of Maori society that thinks this way, a bitterness or alienation at living in a Pakeha dominated country, these people usually end up joining the Maori party or Black Power.
August 1st, 2010 at 9:55 am
Hone a Maori from yesteryear. The Maoris in NZ are a greying race as so many young Maori head to Australia.
August 1st, 2010 at 10:27 am
If a child of mine wanted to marry a child of Hone’s, I’d consider it an honourable thing to kill my child.
August 1st, 2010 at 10:36 am
The Harawira family are the biggest bunch of racists in NZ, what is new?
August 1st, 2010 at 10:39 am
Over the last two nights I have witnessed three examples of racism.
Each one was an Asian cabbie refusing to transport white men.
This (illegal) action has become prevalent among non-white CHCH cabbies.
Racism is everywhere and, I believe, natural to many uneducated people who feel threatened by something (someone) different.
I have no issue, given where and from whom Hone comes from, with him being racist as long as he can rise above it while performing his duties and he doesn’t attempt to play the racist card when things don’t go his way.
At least, unlike so many of his more mainstream peers, he is honest.
August 1st, 2010 at 11:32 am
If one of Harawira’s children came home with a Pakeha partner of the same gender, I wonder what would cause the most distress: the gender or the ethnicity of that partner.
August 1st, 2010 at 11:44 am
>>I do not believe the majority of Pakeha would care one bit about whether their daughter or sisters dated a Maori.<<
I believe the majority of Pakeha would tolerate and except… but do care.
What Hone is saying is not while he's around they wouldn't dare.
I would feel more sorry for a Maori boy that Hone's daughter or sisters brought home… who didn't measure up to Hone's ideals on what a Maori should be.
So how would Harawira feel if one of his seven children came home with a Pakeha partner?
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable. Like all Pakehas would be happy with their daughters coming home with a Maori boy – and the answer is they wouldn’t.
August 1st, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Each mixed relationship make the Maori grievance industry less legitimate and harder to thrust the brown hand in the back pocket of the taxpayer.
August 1st, 2010 at 1:51 pm
I don’t agree with what Harawira says but I would hate to see more Mallard-style ‘moderation’ of what he has to say. I don’t know why we need all these highly-paid commissioners to tell us whether what someone says, on the radio or wherever, is offensive. I can decide for myself what offends me and take whatever notice of it I choose.
The Labour/leftwing pathological need to control and censor us means we waste a lot of taxpayers money on public servants solemnly deciding whether Paul Henry can call someone retarded or Hone can say what he is saying. Spare us. Surely we are adults and take it or leave it using our own brains and judgement.
August 1st, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Gosh what a dumb statement. I am Māori but I’m also fair-skinned and one of my sons is blonder in looks than Lady Gaga. I am comfortable moving from one world to the next and often assist Maori and non-Māori to make sense of Māori viewpoints. This is the reality of modern Māori society, Hone & his staunch followers are dinosaurs and like these pre-historic creatures they will eventually die out.
August 1st, 2010 at 2:21 pm
***Hone is saying that skin colour matters. And there are probably some elderly Pakeha who agree with him.***
Don’t you think there are quite a few Maori and Pasifika people who also agree with him? I know one girl who has had a couple of relationships with Pasifika guys ended basically because the family wanted the guy to be with a polynesian girl.
August 1st, 2010 at 2:49 pm
I have no knowledge whether I have any Maori ancestry. However, since my family has been here since 1860 statistically it is highly likely that there is some Maori blood mixed in with my Norse and Scottish heritage.
I will be interested when DNA tests get to a point where most of us can establish our genetic whakapapa relatively cheaply. I suspect that such a test will show a few surprises – including the fact that many (if not most) long term residents of NZ have some Maori heritage. Of course, such a test is also likely to show that the Maori heritage of some people who strongly identify themselves as Maori is surprisingly small.
All recorded human history provides testimony to our need to our instinctive need to form prejudices about “the other” The only variable is which group we classify as the object of our fears and prejudices. Nothing has changed since Swift described the plight of Lilliput and Blefuscu. Maori cannot progress in modern NZ until Pakeha are no longer seen as the “great enemy” by Maori leaders.
August 1st, 2010 at 2:55 pm
I agree with BeaB’s perspective. Nothing wrong with airing the contents on one’s mind. Might even run the risk of discovering honesty. Otherwise you perpetuate the kind of thought crimes that apparently only the Left can create (a prejudice in itself). I don’t care if Hone or anyone else is racist or if a wealthy member of a right wing political party hates poor people. That’s their issue. Until they force their dislike on me. Then they get everything they deserve. I gave up trying to save the world from itself in my early twenties. As Hone says – “That’s just the reality of the world. Let’s not cry about it. Let’s just live with it and move on.”
August 1st, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Well it’s a sad statement but probably factual to some extent. Lots of rural & probably urban pakeha are still a bit red-necked about Maori boys giving their daughters the poke. After all, most were just plebs fit for the freezing works only 15-20 years ago. The game has largely changed now & the cockies & radical brothers just have to get used to it.
On the other hand, this post just shows how ignorant urban dwellers are about the state of play in certain areas of New Zealand.
Hone, for all of his foibles & ugliness, is just being….honest.
August 1st, 2010 at 3:42 pm
When a maori member of the public approaches Harawira he first checks they are in the electoral roll for his maori electorate, before he will assist them. If the person is not on the roll he refuses to assist them.
August 1st, 2010 at 3:42 pm
This is very carefully Hone at his best/worst depending on your viewpoint.
Create the divide
drive the wedge
widen the gulf
don’t weaken in your quest for sovereignty.
Hone is stuffed if we actually get on together.
the grievance industry would die
The Treaty gravy train would end up rusting on a siding at Stillwater
Taxpayers dollars diverted to a racial minority would dry up
There is nothing in it for Hone without hatred and anger.
August 1st, 2010 at 4:06 pm
You’re quite right, david. Hone does have a vested interest in keeping it going.
What gets me apart from the obvious fact he is dead wrong factually which makes him an A-class hypocrite, is that his stance actually generates and perpetuates the very thing he complains about.
So he’s not only a hypocrite, evidently he’s also a moron. Every single time he references his own personal racist philosophy proclaiming that many people on the non-Maori side share his twisted world view which is that because he himself is racist to his very core others must also be and there are considerable numbers if not a complete majority. Everytime he does that, he validates those few of us who really are racist, and he implants more seeds in grounds where such thought is fertile such as young people or immature thinkers. He’s a walking talking counter-productivity machine. A self-perpetuating loser-mobile who will never be short of work because he spreads his own bullshit before him more efficiently than a giant effluent spreader and its just as smelly. I just wish his mother instead of being the poisonous racist viper that she is, wasn’t someone a bit more concerned about something a little less harmful, then Hone might be making a positive difference to NZ instead of the big fat double-negative that he currently creates, all by himself.
August 1st, 2010 at 4:17 pm
I don’t know why you let Hone work yourselves up. How does the saying go “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”. Hone feeds on public outrage, it is his bread and butter. I’m picking Hone has seen the writing on the wall and will not except that the world is slowly becoming a pale shade of brown. Hone is like the boy with his finger in the dyke trying to whole back the flood, his battle all ready lost.
August 1st, 2010 at 4:26 pm
bob it’s the hypocrisy that does it for me, and the fact my taxes pay for him to do it.
He himself is a racist. Most people these days aren’t, but he doesn’t get that. He adds no value whatsoever indeed he poisons the well of human thought.
I don’t get emotional about it but I’d love to have him respond fully and frankly to the question: if you’re not a racist then how can someone hold the views you do without being one?
He couldn’t answer that because every single attitude he has voiced over the years toward non-Maori people fit the criteria for racist philosophy, and that just blows his whole argument, his whole raison d’etre. He’s simply a waste of space but he’s extremely capable. He’d really do well in another outlet.
This one’s not for him. He should recuse himself on the basis that he’s too emotionally involved with the issue to be objective.
August 1st, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Reid, yes of course he is a hypocrite but there is not a hell of a lot we can do about it. Like it or not he has a mandate from those who were silly enough or racist enough to put him in to parliament. The real problem lies in the hearts of those who voted for him. There is no easy answer but if our politicians, lefty intellectuals and the treaty gravy train are prepared to continually pander to the likes of Hone then nothing will change, in fact it will only become worse. Hone is like the squeaking wheel, the trouble is the more oil poured on this wheel the louder it squeaks.
August 1st, 2010 at 5:35 pm
It’s a topic that requires discussion and reconciliation, just not the way Hone does it.
August 1st, 2010 at 6:14 pm
What a very sad view on society – and also a wrong one. I do not believe the majority of Pakeha would care one bit about whether their daughter or sisters dated a Maori…
Hone is saying that skin colour matters. And there are probably some elderly Pakeha who agree with him.
Some things never change. Like i can always trust this place to highlight the negative, rather than accentuate the positives on cultural issues.
So yeah, I’d say you’re the wrong one here DPF, in that the majority of pakeha young and old would care a bit and that Hone’s view expressed on society still holds true.
and NO Hone is saying no such thing about skin colour. If anything, he’s highlighting the cultural divide which still exists between eurocentrists and pasifikans.
the uncomfortability factor does play a significant part, especially if the pakeha or maori family is steeped in their respective cultures, but even so, there is nothing to suggest Hone wouldn’t deal with it and respect his daughters right to choose a partner….love afterall is colourblind.
So have you ever had a maori girlfriend and gone round to their place to meet the parents ? I’ve had white girlfriends and their parents have always been somewhat initially underwhelmed to meet me
August 1st, 2010 at 6:33 pm
***reid (4,511) Says:
He couldn’t answer that because every single attitude he has voiced over the years toward non-Maori people fit the criteria for r&cist philosophy, and that just blows his whole argument, his whole raison d’etre. ***
Does it really though? He is an ethnic advocate. He is ethnocentric and pushes for the interests of his group. That he would prefer his children to mate with those from his group is consistent with his overall philosophy.
It seems generally that europeans have embraced the idea that ethnocentrism is a bad thing. I think other ethnic groups tend to see it as natural.
August 1st, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Well this elderly pakeha is honest enough to admit that he would have some reservations if my pakeha daughter came home with a toned skin lad. Principally because I know that the cold hard world isn’t yet the wonderful place where all and any can get together without problems from not being alike in skin tones.
But of course Hone is the country’s favouritel whipping boy for Pakeha and Maori alike despite, if the article is to be believed he works hard for his electorate and is appreciated there as proved during the previous dust-up for what he does for them as an MP rather than if he has stirred up the silly and obviously hypercritical and self rightious Pakehas again.. Maybe for the latter as well which I’m sure gives Maori a big giggle if they bother to read it..
August 1st, 2010 at 11:33 pm
“Does it really though?”
Things like “racist motherfuckers” give me a small insight into his thinking.
The fact he never resiled from saying the “racist” part of that phrase but did resile from the second part gave me further insight.
That wasn’t of course my first observation – so far the file on Hone The Racist Motherfucker is very thick indeed.
I can’t believe you said that, jcuknz. If Hulun was still in power, you would never have said that, would you.
August 2nd, 2010 at 12:20 am
Hone kind of reminds me of a porn star I saw interviewed once
Interviewer: Is there anything you wouldn’t do?
Porn star: Well, there is some interracial stuff I wouldn’t do
It’s like they had a chance to show the people who had a rock bottom opinion of them, that they have one or two redeeming qualities, but now they have gone under rock bottom.
August 2nd, 2010 at 8:23 am
Hone is a brown neck xenophobe, what the hell did you expect?
August 2nd, 2010 at 8:27 am
Reid .. instead of quoting part of the paragraph you should take in the whole para which explains why I would have a reservation. The concern for family member rather than race. I don’t see what Hulun, whatever that is, has to do with my position.
August 2nd, 2010 at 8:34 am
Hulun = Helen Clark pronounced in her deep accented voice.
August 2nd, 2010 at 8:35 am
***reid (4,517) Says:
August 1st, 2010 at 11:33 pm
“Does it really though?”
Things like “r@cist motherf@ckers” give me a small insight into his thinking.
The fact he never resiled from saying the “r@cist” part of that phrase but did resile from the second part gave me further insight.
That wasn’t of course my first observation – so far the file on Hone The R@cist Motherf@cker is very thick indeed.***
Again, I think his comments are consistent with his overall philosophy as an ethnic advocate. The fact that he calls others r8cist is obviously hypocritical. If Maori have interests and it is fine for him to advocate those, then it follows that Pakeha do too.
I think he probably uses the Cultural Marxist view of r8cism, where only a dominant group can be r8cist against an oppressed group. So in his mind he probably doesn’t see himself as r8cist (I think Tariana Turia has a similar view of r8cism).
August 2nd, 2010 at 10:07 am
I can recall Brian edwards interviewing Hone’s mum years ago when he had the Saturday morning slot on Nat Radio, and she came out burbling with some idiotic stuff about not letting her kids marry non-Maori and keeping their blood “pure” – exactly the same sort of idiotic and racist arguments used by eugenecists and (yes, I’m going to use the N word) the Nazis.
I think there is a a streak in much of current Maori activism that is comparable to those far-right movements of Europe of the 20s and 30s. Ideas of racial and cultural purity, ideas around the sanctity of the group, not the individual.
A few years back I had a Maori student in her early 30s (I think) who told me when she’d told a kaumatua she was an atheist he said she wasn’t a Maori any more. this sort of mindless group think and kowtowing to hereditary “authority” is something I really dislike.
August 2nd, 2010 at 10:15 am
Poor old Hone. He’s just showing how ignorant and out of touch he is. Of course I already knew he was racist. I am pakeha, my wife is whakatohea, and my eldest daughter has a maori boyfriend. And so what? But as someone mentioned above Hone is stuck in grievance mode, and without his victim of colonial oppression BS he has nothing. And he knows it too.
August 2nd, 2010 at 10:20 am
He’s not out of touch, hes very much in touch. but only with like minded hard core racists with an agenda of racial purity and privilage.
He only gets away with it because hes not white.
August 2nd, 2010 at 12:54 pm
***I think there is a a streak in much of current Maori activism that is comparable to those far-right movements of Europe of the 20s and 30s. Ideas of racial and cultural purity, ideas around the sanctity of the group, not the individual.***
There are more contemporary examples, Korea, Japan, China for instance.
“Japan is a very racially homogenous society, where immigration is frowned upon and genetic purity is seen as a good thing.” http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/05/elderly-japanese-would-rather-be-tended-to-by-robots-than-foreigners/
European countries are unusually individualistic.
“The study, which reviews the comparative database of research from across the behavioural sciences, finds that subjects from WEIRD societies are more individualistic, analytic, concerned with fairness, existentially anxious and less conforming and attentive to context compared to those from non-WEIRD societies.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100630132850.htm
August 2nd, 2010 at 2:26 pm
It should be noted that this is reflecting a cultural difference. Maori culture does not exalt individual freedom the way pakeha culture does and instead emphasises group solidarity.
The same cultural difference was clear in Maori Party opposition to an organ donors register. Their view was that Maori did not have the right to donate organs because this was against Maori culture.
August 2nd, 2010 at 4:25 pm
So what you’re sayinf is s.russell thats its acceptable to be a complete racist if you’re a moari for reasons of culture”
Well on behalf of all Maori present who are me, bull fucking shit. His attitude is a result of how he was raised, not his assumed link to a stone age people who have ceased to exist. My paraents would have dealt with me harshly if i had ever expressed such sentiments, he was rewarded for them.
Unless you have found a “caveman gene” try again.
August 2nd, 2010 at 4:30 pm
“Their view was that Maori did not have the right to donate organs because this was against Maori culture.”
I look forward to the day when Maori leadership say committing a crime is also against their culture.
August 2nd, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Good luck with that Manolo.
Again my Moari genes seems have been short curcited by my upbringing and I have yet to be arrested. Mainly due to not commiting crimes, go figure.