I have to say I've seen both sides of this. I'm your run of the mill white bod so no personal experiences but I have a friend who is Indian and I've been with him on a number of occasions when he's been verbally, racially abused by white kiwis. I've also had people assume, because of my white skin, that I too am racist and slag off other races expecting me to join in. Much to their dismay I just told them what pathetic, small minded, bigoted arseholes they are and to avoid being in my company in future.
There's a little place near us that grows and sells raspberries. It's owned by some Chinese people, I don't know where from. They have a table outside the field by the road with the raspberries on. You just pull your car up and buy some, sometimes there's someone there, sometimes there's just an honesty box. One day as we were driving past, we noticed an older Chinese lady picking raspberries up from the floor, the table and sun umbrella had been knocked over, stuff was everywhere and she looked quite upset. We stopped to see if she was OK. She told us that a group of young white men had driven their car straight into the table, ramming it a few times and shouting abuse at her to 'get back to her own country'. Pathetic, it made me feel ashamed.
Lauren (17) says that she has never witnessed so much racial abuse amongst young people as she does here. She says that most of the young people are very prejudiced and have very stereotypically racist opinions. She finds it scary after the open-mindedness of her friends back in UK - she challenges it all the time but has found herself the butt of abuse back. If the young people start off with this attitude, it makes for a sad future
I have also witnessed in conversation people who consider themselves 'Christians', you know, attend church every weekend and do their best to follow the 'good Lords path' and who are quick enough to righteously pull you up if they don't agree with you, making 'jokes' i.e. derogatory remarks about other races, colours, faiths and sexuality. Again, when I challenge them I need to 'get a sense of humour' because they're 'only joking'.
On the other hand, I have met an equal amount of people that are very supportive of all races, colours and creeds and who would challenge discrimination each and every time they experience it whether it's directed at them or not. The Kiwis are very outspoken, you usually know where you stand with them, so at least you know what you;re dealing with right from the start.
I strongly believe that you shouldn't make this a reason not to come here if coming here is what you want to do. Come and fight for changes. It's down to all of us to stand up for and with one another. Things won't change if people don't make them change. It's our shared responsibility
