Playing with the notion Pa¯keha¯ is a racist word
There on the list was the word Pa¯ keha¯ , a few lines down from ‘‘orgy’’, and a few entries above ‘‘prolapse’’. And God, there were words between that really made my eyes bug out. In the latest development in the don’t-call-mePa¯ keha¯ freedom fight the new battleground is the world of computer gaming. I read in the news that the hit game Red Dead Redemption 2 has blocked the use of the word Pa¯ keha¯ in gameplay. It was included in a list of mostly obscene, insulting, and derogatory words that players can’t deploy.
I don’t play myself but I understand that Red Dead is set in the Wild West. The game is an international phenomenon, generating about a billion New Zealand dollars in sales in its opening weekend (according to Wikipedia), and made by an international company, Rockstar.
Given all this, how the hell did a word in te reo from little old New Zealand make its way on to the list – especially that word? It’s quite a mystery. So, in the words of a famous imaginary Pa¯ keha¯ detective (Agatha Christie, I think): the game’s afoot!
Initially, the news stories I read didn’t have any response from the makers about why Pa¯ keha¯ was reportedly forbidden. But after a quick Google search I found the full list of words that were apparently blocked by the makers. And there it was.
Like I said, a few words down the line after orgy. I guess there is a possibility the game’s ‘‘Pa¯ keha¯ ’’ might actually not be our Pa¯ keha¯ – from te reo – but some obscure slang from some other country, with a horrifying meaning. (After all there were some presumably awful words on the list I had never even heard of.) But a two-Pa¯ keha¯ world doesn’t seem likely.
As it was, the rest of the words that I did understand were mostly truly revolting. They made me sick. I can understand why the game’s makers would want them blocked, especially for any online multiplayer versions. But to put the word Pa¯ keha¯ alongside actual vile words is bizarre and insulting in itself.
To be explicit. In my opinion the reason some Pa¯ keha¯ don’t like being called Pa¯ keha¯ is because they are racist. They don’t like Ma¯ ori, so they don’t like the Ma¯ ori language, and they especially detest being defined by a word from the Ma¯ ori language. (I can imagine a worst-case scenario where these people are actually called the p-word to their face by Ma¯ ori! This is one case where it might be technically accurate to use the words Pa¯ keha¯ and prolapse together, when describing the distasteful result.)
To these people it is exactly the fact that it is a word from te reo that makes it offensive: not its meaning – which they twist to their own ends. So with their drive to word-censor, they have pushed political correctness to its extreme. They have driven political correctness crazy. PC has, if you will, gone mad under their watch. Perhaps we can help alleviate the pain for these people by changing the word to something a little less insulting, and a little more suitably European, like Pa¯ keHa¯ ns. Or New Zealand-European, like Pa¯ keha¯ nz?
But I digress. In any case it would appear somehow that a whiff of these racists’ kaupapa has been hoovered up by the game-maker’s researchers. Or perhaps this work is now done by Artificial Intelligence? Perhaps some online algorithm sniffed around the wrong doors and picked up some nasty fleas? However it happened, the result is that this little bit of New Zealand racism is allowed to colour a game by makers trying to stop overt racism, amongst other behaviours, from blossoming in their sandbox.
Back here in our sandbox, the saddest part of the debate over ‘‘Pa¯ keha¯ ’’ is that there even has to be a debate. Many fantastic, enlightened non-Ma¯ ori New Zealanders embrace the word. There is after all nowhere else in the world where you can be Pa¯ keha¯ . Why wouldn’t you just wear the word, like any other decent, meaningful noun describing your belonging to this whenua?
There are people who feel uncomfortable with the word because it implies we have different peoples here. I’ll grant that on the surface it seems like a good idea to ignore differences and treat each other all the same. Unfortunately, treating each other the same always seems to be just another way of crushing difference. And the people holding the yardstick for normal haven’t been Ma¯ ori. We wouldn’t be in this position, where adult Ma¯ ori like me are forced to learn te reo with clunky old brains instead of by right as a child, if difference had been tolerated.
You might say that you’re not Pa¯ keha¯ , I’m not Ma¯ ori, we’re both just human beings trying to play our PlayStations and XBox Ones in peaceful union. But of course, if the list I read online is correct, then you can call your in-game horse Little Ma¯ ori, but I can’t call mine Pa¯ keha¯ Pete.
To put the word
Pa¯ keha¯ alongside actual vile words is bizarre.