A pathway to tolerance through real stories

Every year today – Race Relations Day – we remember children thousands of miles away who stood up for their human rights.

On a Monday in March 1960 many joined their parents and teachers in a peaceful protest – they sang – against racism. The authorities opened fire and many died.

Sixteen years later children in the same country again protested peacefully against racist laws. Once again, authorities opened fire and many children died.

The protests were, of course, in Sharpeville and Soweto, and the protests were against a racist, violent apartheid regime.

To honour them the United Nations designated March 21 the UN Day for the Elimination of Racism. Here in New Zealand we mark it as Race Relations Day.

Earlier this year I was pleased to attend the launch of an Auckland exhibition honouring another incredible young person murdered by a racist regime. Anne Frank’s legacy of humanity in the face of inhumanity lives on. Generations of us have learned and continue to learn so much from her words.

Stories from children who have had the courage to stand up for their rights have helped change the world.

Here in New Zealand, sharing the stories of real New Zealanders is at the heart of our anti-racism work. Stories which let other New Zealanders know what it feels like to be racially abused or discriminated against.

We knew when we started that many Kiwis didn’t think we had a problem with racism or prejudice. But when we began talking to Ma¯ ori New Zealanders, Asian New Zealanders, Pasifika Kiwis, Muslim Kiwis, everyone had a story to share. A story of prejudice, a memory of being humiliated, a time when they were made to feel less than everyone else.

We began our ‘‘That’s Us’’ campaign in 2016 with the story of Wong Liu Sheung, a fifth generation Kiwi who grew up in a small country town. After 70 years she still remembered in minute detail a childhood marked by racial attacks and torment from a gang of boys.

But the day her friend stood up for her, she said, her world changed forever.

Liu Sheung said that people need to recognise that racism starts when we say things like: Oh, don’t mix with them, they smell. Or, don’t talk to them, they eat weird food.

Racism starts small.

Every year around 400 people make formal complaints to us about racism they’ve faced. But we know the overwhelming majority don’t complain or go public when people in a passing car scream a racist obscenity, when the woman registering students at university smiles at every student but the brown ones, or their son is called racist names as he runs down the rugby field.

These are those ‘‘casual’’ or ‘‘quiet’’ racist encounters that never feel casual or quiet when you and your family are the ones being humiliated.

‘‘That’s Us’’ shared real-life stories. It did exactly what we hoped it would.

Kiwis felt empathy, they listened and learned about what prejudice feels like when it’s happening to you.

Six months later, we knew it was time to take the next step. We knew that calling out racist and prejudiced behaviour can challenge and hopefully change it.

Many of us will say or do racist or hateful things if we think we will get away with it. It was time to challenge not just strangers but those people we know and care for.

What if we just gave racism no encouragement? No respect? No place? No power? What if we Give Nothing to Racism?

I’ve been waiting for the OIA about how much we paid campaign frontman Taika Waititi. In fact, all he got was a packet of pineapple lumps we sent to him in America.

Taika was joined by some of our most beloved New Zealanders. Many of them dropped everything to stand with us and Give Nothing to Racism. We featured an incredibly diverse range of New Zealanders – our best and our brightest and, as they showed us all, our bravest.

Their message reached people all over the world but perhaps most importantly very important people here at home. Our children.

After the launch of our Give Nothing To Racism campaign, children at Porirua’s Holy Family School took our message and made it their own in a short video. They weren’t asking for much. Essentially, they wanted their teachers, and others, to pronounce their names properly. Just as racism starts small, so does giving nothing to it.