Prayers and a punch-up
Inside Leitch’s house, light draws inward into a laptop screen, blaring back the blue and red banner of Rupert Murdoch’s right-leaning Fox News.
Leitch believes Fox is the most balanced and reputable news outlet there is. He also reads a lot from Breitbart, a platform described by its former boss and once-Donald Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon, as a platform for the alt-right.
Most people don’t know the truth about Black Lives Matter, Leitch says, most people don’t know the truth about anything.
‘‘I’ve seen them, I’ve seen videos of their behaviour – their behaviour is violent, aggressive, nasty.
‘‘There are some people who would have a superficial knowledge who probably think it’s a good organisation.
‘‘They probably think it’s standing up against persecution of Negroes by police, and that’s the superficial veneer that it stands on.
‘‘On TV news you won’t hear anything bad about Black Lives Matter nor in the Waikato Times.’’
Leitch follows current events and American politics keenly and the internet is his portal. But the keyhole through which he consumes his information has narrowed and now Donald Trump has come to power.
‘‘He’s the best president America’s ever had.’’
He maintains he’s not racist, Martin Luther King’s one of his heroes in fact.
‘‘I believe everyone is equal, one law for all,’’ he says.
The ‘‘truth and justice’’ of his catholicism compelled him to take action against the ‘‘offensive’’ T-shirt all those months ago.
‘‘[Black Lives Matter] is an American organisation that’s got nothing to do with us here in New Zealand, let alone in Te Ku¯ iti,’’ he says with the laptop on which he consumes rightwing American media open at his kitchen table.
‘‘God knows why the fellow was wearing the T-shirt, why he bought it and has it I don’t know.’’
The killing of George Floyd, under the knee of a police officer for nearly nine minutes, continues to horrify over 10 days after it happened.
It sparked protests across the U.S, some developing into riots.
A viral video of Floyd pleading, ‘‘I can’t breathe’’, echoes the death of Eric Garner, killed in a police chokehold six years before.
Police officer Derek Chauvin has been charged with second degree murder, and three others for aiding and abetting the murder.
Recently streets in Auckland and Wellington were filled with Black Lives
Matter protests.
One of the organisers of the Auckland march, Mez Tekeste, said forces are trying to discredit the movement.
‘‘At the end of the day, this is about equality.
‘‘Black people are disadvantaged, systemically and institutionally, especially in America, and to a lesser degree, here.’’
The protest in Auckland had been nothing but peaceful, Tekeste said, and it was amazing to see thousands of people of different cultures take a stand against injustice.
New Zealand’s race relations commissioner Meng Foon said the movement stands against racism and violence and has come about through the legacy of slavery.
‘‘Seeing the livestream of the death really hurt a lot of people.’’
New Zealanders are embracing the movement, partly due to compassion, partly due to our own ingrained, institutional racism.
‘‘Racism has happened here, going back to the 1840s – the New Zealand Wars, the legislation against Ma¯ ori and Chinese, we’ve had the dawn raids, the Tuhoe incidents and the police armed response teams which are targeting
Ma¯ ori and Pacifika, yet this trial came out of the March 15 murders in Christchurch.’’
He makes a sharp delineation between the majority of peaceful protesters and looters, whose actions are unjustified.
There’s no irony in a scuffle at a Te Ku¯ iti church involving two white people fighting over Black Lives Matter, he says.
‘‘I think people generally have some human values. Even in the times of apartheid in South Africa, there were white people standing with black people and fighting apartheid.’’
But he urges those who hold generalisations about race to question themselves.
‘‘For the person who found the T-shirt offensive, probably he did not know what the notion of the message is.
‘‘It’s very important to research and ask what the reason behind it is.
‘‘A lot of hatred of differences occurs because people just don’t know, and sometimes people just don’t want to know.’’
But Waikato University Politics Lecturer Justin Phillips said the internet’s reach hasn’t helped people to question themselves. ‘‘You’ve got groups who might be reading material from completely different online sources and in doing so develop completely different online worlds and realities.
‘‘It’s really only slated to get worse.’’
If you follow conservative U.S commentators on social media, you’ll see videos of Manhattan being destroyed by rioters right now, Phillips said.
He’s not surprised U.S cultural movements have seeped into small town New Zealand. American politics is becoming a game to follow along and participate in, he said.
The internet can make people really feel like they can participate in political change, Phillips said.
‘‘You used to have a real opportunity to meet candidates and participate in a local political process, and this is a return to that.
‘‘I don’t know Leo, I don’t know him personally, but he might consider himself to be a keyboard warrior, out there trying to fight the good fight – so to speak.’’
But what about the shadowy figure of the parish priest, had he quietly shared these deeply divisive views with his parishioner?
Had he covertly agreed with Leitch that Black Lives Matter was ‘‘evil’’?
When Stuff talked to Father Matt McAuslin, no longer the parish priest in Te Ku¯ iti, it was clear he wanted to leave the scuffle on the church steps behind him.
‘‘This incident occurred six months ago, as far as I’m concerned it’s over and done with.
‘‘Nobody got seriously injured, it was a ridiculous tussle. It was unfortunate and shouldn’t have happened.’’
But when asked about what conversations the priest had with his parishioner about Black Lives Matter, his memory gets fuzzy.
‘‘It’s so long ago I don’t remember what I said to Leo.
‘‘I probably did encourage him to speak with the man in the T-shirt, with a view to dialogue and resolution.’’
And he won’t be drawn on his definitive opinion of Black Lives Matter, saying he needs to do more research.
‘‘I can’t give you a clear answer on Black Lives Matter, apart from saying all lives matter.
‘‘The skin colour of someone is not relevant – all lives are sacred to God and we have to hold onto that.’’
Six months on from the scuffle at the church, post pandemic threatening to reinfect our shores, post the enduring blankness of a police officer’s face as he snuffed out a man’s life spreading around the world, Leitch’s questions fly desperately down a muffled phone line from Benneydale.
‘‘Have you seen videos of peaceful protests, have you seen them?’’ Nothing has changed for Leo Leitch. Yes, the killing of George Floyd was shocking. Yes, peaceful protest is justified. No, this has nothing to do with the colour of people’s skin.
‘‘I’m the sort of person who judges on actions not just appearances.’’
There’s no place for the protests in New Zealand and no problem with institutional racism, he says.
Leitch has no regrets about his outburst in the church.
‘‘Do you think I didn’t love him, do you think I acted out of hatred? You know I did, you know I loved him. Christian teaching is to admonish those who do wrong to tell them they do wrong, and to encourage them to do right.’’
His answers spiral around, his logic chasing its own tail around his Benneydale kitchen table.