Yes New Zealand, racism is here

Is New Zealand a racist country? Depends. It depends on who you ask and when. I have travelled far and wide through Aotearoa and the world, and I have never considered New Zealand to be a racist country. I have been embraced with open arms everywhere in this country whether it was while studying at high school and the medical school or while working in hospitals, NGOs and in politics.

Here, I have made new friends and family for life that I do not share any blood relation, religion, skin tone or even political beliefs with.

However, the events of past few days have made me reflect upon my own experiences of growing up in this country.

I have been taken back to the times at my high school when I was mocked for my heavy accent or my way of dressing.

I have been taken back to medical school when a top paediatric surgeon called me in the middle of the night to say: ‘‘you people come to our country and want to change our system.

‘‘I will destroy you and your career. I will slit your throat’’ after I had raised concerns regarding junior doctors and medical students being bullied at one of the hospitals.

I am reminded of the time when despite being a candidate for a major political party, people in parts of Hamilton refused to shake my hand, not because they did not believe in my political ideology or that of my party’s policies but because my skin tone did not match theirs.

As people in streets of Hamilton said to my good pakeha friend and campaign volunteer ‘‘could you not find a candidate who looks like a New Zealander,’’ it shocked me, but only for a moment.

Only for a moment because for many of us this is something we have come to experience and expect too frequently.

People driving past throwing bottles of drink at you while they call you names.

People expecting you to be less of a New Zealander. People expecting you to be less of a human being.

I was repeatedly asked during my Fulbright interview, ‘‘Why would you want to come back home after getting this scholarship. The world is your oyster.’’

My reply then and always will be that New Zealand is home.

It has given me love, education, friendship and identity.

But over the next few days, as we assess the recent events from Christchurch it is important that we don’t just label this as a hate crime done by an outsider (Australian) in New Zealand.

If we fail to acknowledge that we do have a problem with racism in our own country, we will fail to address the issues that many of us coloured Kiwis face on a day to day basis.

The Human Rights Commission hit the nail on the head in 2017 when it said ‘‘Racism is a Kiwi problem.

It isn’t new and it’s growing: 1 in 3 complaints to the Human Rights Commission are about racial discrimination; most people who experience racism don’t complain; and we’re seeing an increase in overt racist attacks.

‘‘People from some ethnic minorities tell us they’re scared and they’re particularly scared for their children.

Many Kiwis don’t think racism is a problem, often because they’ve never experienced it themselves.

We suspect many of us don’t realise when something we say is prejudiced: but we would if someone pointed it out to us.’’

Racism starts small, at schools we send our kids to, at our workplaces, on our streets and in our homes and it perpetuates if we don’t take a stand against it for ourselves and for our friends and family.

How we come out of this national tragedy will not be decided by how many bouquets of flowers or cards we leave at the mosques and how many social media messages we write but by how we stand up for others when next time another adopted Kiwi is being racially targeted.

Next time your local Lions Club takes out a blackface float (like in Hawera) or a gas station has the confederate flag proudly hanging on the storefront, speak up. Speak up not for any one religion or one community, but for our collective identity as a peaceful and diverse country.

A country that may not be perfect but is definitely our home.

Dr Gaurav Sharma works as a general practitioner in Hamilton and is a former board member of the Auckland Refugee Council. He was 2017 Labour candidate for Hamilton West general election.