The most offended are most offensive

Opinion:

‘‘The only people I meet who are racist are Ma¯oris,’’ one woman said after learning Taika Waititi had again said New Zealand is a racist place.

Did she see the irony in her own sentence?

‘‘New Zealand is the best place on the planet, but it’s a racist place. People just flat out refuse to pronounce Ma¯ori names properly,’’ Waititi told Dazed And Confused magazine.

Talking to the British magazine, he said Polynesians living in New Zealand were racially profiled, and that Aucklanders, especially, were condescending.

Back home, his comments hit a nerve – like they always have. We cannot stand to be called racist, to be criticised – even if it’s true.

But who were the people most outraged?

Well, they seemed to be the ones Waititi was describing when he called New Zealand ‘‘racist as f...’’

They were the ones who choose to mispronounce and misspell Ma¯ori words. The ones who say ‘‘Maoris’’ and Paraparam or find it frustrating to hear te reo spoken outside of the All Blacks’ haka.

Once again, it seems the people most offended by Waititi’s comments are those who are the most offensive. That makes sense.

It would come as a shock to many to hear New Zealand is racist if they themselves have never encountered any of it. We’ve built a bubble of blissful ignorance.

We had a treaty, we do haka, we love going to cultural festivals. Surely, then, those who accuse us of being racist are just troublemakers, you may say.

But racism is everywhere, this is a country built on it.

This is the country where politicians presumed everyone with a Chinese-sounding name was a foreign buyer.

It’s the place where, until 1965, Ma¯ori could not be judged by a jury of their peers if they were in court against Pa¯keha.

And, the country that, until 1944, had laws that taxed Chinese immigrants and compared them with freight.

In the past year, we’ve heard a knighted, rich, white man say New Zealand needs a ‘‘Ma¯ori Gratitude Day’’.

We’ve heard the complaints of other old, white men unhappy because te reo is on radio and television.

If we open our ears to hear the stories of everyday racism, then the bubble is popped.

It’s popped when you read a recent report from the Children’s Commissioner, highlighting how racism is impacting African, Middle Eastern, Asian and Polynesian students.

Children go to school and face derogatory slurs and ignorant judgments.

‘‘Just because we are Ma¯ori doesn’t mean we are stupid,’’ one student said.

‘‘I sense stereotypes in my teacher’s eyes and gestures and how they act towards me makes me feel like leaving,’’ a Samoan student said.

Many more students shared similar stories, showing racism is alive and well even within our youngest.

But, according to yesterday’s backlash, there is no racism in New Zealand.

Instead of hitting back at Waititi, maybe we should, instead, be thinking seriously about what he has said.

We should be listening to the Kiwi children who have already tried to speak out on this subject and just want a fair go.

After all, what is the worst that could happen if we all just become a little bit more considerate?