Outrage over Muller’s MAGA hat was justified
Iget it; we live in an age of constant outrage, which often achieves nothing but to distract and divide us. I also get it that our outrage has become too inelastic, meaning that is often overblown and not proportional to the severity of the act we seek to condemn. Too often and too readily people label others as racist, sexist etc without considering how unproductive and alienating these labels can be.
In a healthy society, outrage should be reserved for when it’s useful and deep-rooted problems, such as racism, should be tackled at a structural level.
In America, anger has become a public pandemic. Increasingly, Americans are getting hooked on outrage. As the Washington Post put it, people are becoming ‘‘controversy junkies’’, looking for the next issue to feel outraged about.
In New Zealand, we have to stay vigilant not to fall into the same trap of division and distraction and instead focus on collective actions that bring real change.
This is why many people believed the MAGA (Make America Great Again) hat displayed in the parliamentary office of new National Party leader Todd Muller was best left ignored. After all, it was only a souvenir he picked up, along with a Hillary Clinton badge, from his 2016 trip to America.
I disagreed with this view. To me, the outrage felt absolutely necessary because I thought the Christchurch massacre must count for something. All that blood, all that grief, and all our tears could not be for nothing.
Yes, the MAGA hat is gone now. Muller packed it away because he said some New Zealanders ‘‘had a different perspective’’- still, some important questions remain.
In the run-up to the first anniversary of the mosque shootings our Prime Minister said: ‘‘I believe New Zealand and its people have fundamentally changed. I can’t see how you could have an event like this and not’’.
Indeed, how could anyone witness such a shocking act of hate and not change? How could the brutal killing of 51 innocent souls not move Todd Muller to rethink his office de´ cor?
Being an ‘‘American political junkie’’ Muller would know that after a terror attack that killed nine black churchgoers in South Carolina, the state’s lawmakers swiftly passed legislation ordering the removal of the Confederate flag from the statehouse, after nearly 54 years of it flying there.
The flag was removed because its endurance was regarded as a lasting symbol of racism.
The terrorist act we suffered in our city shocked the world; New Zealand stood still in grief and Christchurch was covered in posters, cards and sympathy flowers for the victims. Soon after, we learnt of the shooter’s connection to white supremacist groups emboldened by Trump.
Yet, despite this painful recent history – despite the flowers and tributes, which still hang on the fence outside the Al-Noor mosque, Muller argued his MAGA hat should be seen as an equal to his Hillary Clinton badge.
What does that say about the judgment of a man aspiring to be New Zealanders’ next Prime Minister?
Hearing Muller’s defence of the hat must have been deeply hurtful to the victims’ families because it completely ignored the fact that the mosque shootings had ever happened. But yet again, the Muslim community conducted themselves with grace and patience.
Unbelievably, some people argued that the hijab our Prime Minister wore in solidarity with our grieving Muslim community was as bad as Muller’s MAGA hat because, to some women, hijab was a symbol of oppression. Most Muslim women, even those forced to wear the hijab in places like Iran, respect the hijab of solace and faith when it’s worn voluntarily.
Our Prime Minister’s hijab was a beautiful symbol of unity and love unlike the MAGA hat, which has become an emblem of exclusion and hate.
In his first speech as leader, Muller spoke about the importance of communities and ‘‘values and ideas’’. In the past few days we heard from a Muslim community leader, Aliya Danzeisen of the Islamic Women’s Council, who clearly expressed how the vitriol represented by the MAGA hat had caused harm to people in America and around the world.
Muller should have packed the hat the day the mosque shooting happened but as they say, better late than never.
We are lucky to live in a country where humble people like Sir Edmund Hillary and Richie McCaw are national heroes and arrogant blowhards like Trump would never get elected.
Muller showed humility in back-tracking from his earlier position and that is a good thing.
It’s early days yet but hopefully Muller will soon realise that it takes more than the ability to read a profit and loss report to make a good leader. A successful leader should embody New Zealand’s best attributes: compassion, humility, fairness and most of all, empathy.
Our Prime Minister’s hijab was a beautiful symbol of unity and love unlike the MAGA hat, which has become an emblem of exclusion and hate.