So there I am walking out of the Dominion Rd Countdown at around 1pm today.
I’m feeling pretty pleased that I’ve managed to get all my shopping done for the week, got all my salad bits and pieces and bought some Halloween candy for any Trick or Treaters who might pop along on Halloween and I’m listening to Radio Song by REM on my headphones plugged into my phone.
I’m thinking about the other things I have to do on my to do list today and am pleasantly pleased by how many things I’ve crossed off.
In front of me exiting the Countdown are two young Muslim woman, one with a headscarf on. They must be in their late teens or early 20s I’d guess. They are excitedly discussing something between the two of them as they walk out the automatic doors.
Walking towards them is a Pakeha woman in her 60s. She is about 5’7, well dressed, plump and has that white hair style going on that rich older middle class people can afford rather than going a dreary grey.
The Pakeha woman crosses the pathway of the two young Muslim women as she is walking towards one of those little green trundler trolly’s that you pull along behind you and then suddenly the Pakeha woman does something that makes me stop dead in my tracks and has my mouth just drop open in total shock.
The Pakeha woman, instead of waiting for the two young Muslim women to pass her, viciously swings her elbow directly into the face of the young Muslim woman wearing the headscarf. The young woman reacts in shock and either flinched incredibly quickly our got caught hard on the side of the head and the Pakeha woman forces her way passed the two now shocked young women to grab her green trundler trolly and is muttering to herself angrily as if her maliciously and quite intentionally elbowing a much younger smaller woman in the face was actually the young woman’s fault and not hers!
The young Muslim woman stood astounded and watched the Pakeha woman walk off to do her shopping, her friend was pulling her away and they were both shaken and upset by such a mean and spiteful thing.
And what did I do?
To my deepest shame, I did fucking nothing.
I was so shocked that someone who looked the spitting image of middle class respectability would effectively assault a much smaller woman right in front of me in broad daylight, that I froze.
I’ve been involved in more physical fights than I care to name in my life (always as the bloke who rushes into break shit up) and I’ve taken my share of punches but here was I, a much, much larger person than any of those involved, rooted to the spot unable to even raise my bloody voice so in shock was I at what occurred.
I just want to say to the young Muslim woman and her friend that I am so bitterly ashamed they had to be confronted by malicious actions like that in New Zealand and how embarrassed I am that I wasn’t able to lift a finger to support or aid you.
I will never allow my shock to stand in the way of action again.
If they wish to lay a complaint with the Police, I am more than happy to help.
UPDATE: Can I first please thank all of the people who have commented on this story in social media and here on the site who have all reminded me that there would have been CCTV cameras operating. On one level I knew that, but in the heat of the moment that fact had completely escaped me.
Thank you all for reminding dumbfuck me.
I’ve contacted the Countdown Store and given them the time frame as to when this occurred, they are reviewing the camera footage and will get back to me when they find it.
I also want to acknowledge the very genuine criticism of my own inaction. In the exact moment, I could not for the life of me explain why I froze. To see such wilful malicious physical intimidation right there in front of my own two eyes in an environment I had considered utterly benign was just a total shock to me. At the time I wondered if I was hallucinating, that was how surreal it seemed.
To be honest with you, it has really challenged my understanding of what privilege means. I always thought I knew what it meant, but this incident has popped that intellectual pretension. I think I was so shocked because I simply expected the environment to be benign, because anyone who attempted to swing their elbow into my face would get a roaring bear response and a bloody great big punch up, but when it happened to someone else, it was my expectations that the place I was in was completely safe that scrambled my decision making functions.
It was as if the power went off in my brain in total confusion as to what I was seeing and all decision making functions went off line.
The wounded look on the young Muslim woman’s face clearly had the resentment of expectation, that this was an event that was totally familiar to her, that this kind of invisible civil war was well known to her and that for her, being in public had none of the safety it held for me.
That’s when I realised that walking around in public with no fear of attack was actually a privilege that I enjoy and one that young Muslim woman clearly did not.
It’s embarrassing that it took that event for me to open my eyes to what privilege really means.
Fucken white privileged arseholes that think they can treat people as if they are animals and what get me about attitudes like this is that when reading comments from majority of white people hating on Maori people firstly and then targeting other cultures with their racist bigoted remarks as if their shit doesn’t stink just makes me angry!!
I’m half Pkeha but and I know some Maori that are arseholes but the higher then mighty attitudes from alot of white folks just pisses me off
I dont think race comes in to bigotry and general nastiness, it is character. There just so many arseholes out there. Pity is we dont teach kids from early on the expressions “treat others as you would be treated yourself” and “there but for the grace of God go I”.
Correct
Bigotry and racism go hand in hand. Unfortunately, most white people don’t see it as it rarely impacts on their lives.
John I’m white af and I’m over it too. In the same respect, I’m also over being given the stink eye by brown faces. I feel like having “I’m not one of those Pakehas” tattooed on my forhead! Of course, this contempt is driven by “the man” who finds it easier to control us with the divide and conquer technique.
The time is well past due for these white privileged c u next Tuesday’s to change their archaic thinking or stay in their mansions and get their bloody groceries delivered!
It’s not all bad though, there’s more of us than them now and so many of us are woke af.
That’s a bit unreasonable don’t you think. Categorizing this sort of behavior by race is irrational. ‘White privilege’ has nothing to do with the fact that it was a disgusting act of human indecency. But it has nothing to do with race; I watched a Polynesian behemoth of a woman walk out of a supermarket draining a liter of orange juice; storm up to a local take away and scream ‘Where’s my chips? I ordered fifteen minutes ago!’ and proceeded to scream over the young Indian woman behind the counter while she explained she hasn’t taken the womans order. When I intervened the manager stepped in with some chips and handed it to her and said ‘Just take this and go.’
This kind of behavior is unreasonable and disgusting and is not relative to color or privilege. It is a disgusting person in a society that is becoming increasingly self righteous and self serving, irrelevant of race; gender; sexual orientation or gender bias it is foul; and should not be tolerated. Labeling it to a group does nothing but create more animosity.
So true .
Too much big headedness in the world today.
i prefer not to judge people by the colour of their skin, but you go right ahead.
One of things that’s really become obvious to me lately is that you do have to judge people – when you have the luxury of being the majority you have no idea what it’s like to be the minority no matter how well-intentioned you may be or seemingly wealthy, educated the other person may be.
Look at all the men talking about historic rape cases and not understanding why the victims didn’t speak out earlier – yet the concept of the “casting couch” has been a cliche since atleast the 1940s.
So that’s gender, back to race where white NZers get to be the dumbfounded men from my example. No matter how fair you try to be if you’re white in NZ you have an advantage and it’s naive not to take that into account.
My kids know that if a friend is being picked on that their intervention may have more impact than the victims – solely because they won the genetic lottery.
Be an ally. Fight the system.
BTW social logins on this site aren’t working
*Privilege is a birth right, not a skin colour. P.s, you my friend are racist.
Thank you! Agree with your statement.
I believe the KKK might have something to say on that point, Jonathan.
When you are a member of the dominant race, and position of power, your skin colour generally helps in a way that minorities do not enjoy.
Then again, bigotry is not confined to any one region of this planet, nor to any one specific group.
Agreed.
Calling this person ‘white’ is racist. That persons behaviour was dispicable but don’t blame it on her ethnicity.
And yet, Jenny, ‘funnily’ enough, the system of apartheid – the political embodiment of racism – was created and enabled by whites to maintain power.
In the Southern US states, racism was enabled by Whites to protect White privilege.
I don’t see what else you’d call it.
Any CCTV?
One of the strangest and most troubling moments of my life happened just after 9/11…I was walking past an open air cafe in Queen St;and an obviously arabian man wearing full robe and head-dress got up from a table ,leaving a shopping bag underneath.I froze…didn’t know whether to yell “terrorist-bomb” and come off looking like a dick if it wasn’t the case,or walking on…guess what I did?Yup,walked on…he came back and got his shopping,all’s well….but I’ve never been able to deal with the fact it could have been different;but I wimped out…
Um, Really? You bought into the ‘official’ narrative, and you decided to think all Arabs are terrorists? Really? I just shake my head at you, really I do.
Not unusual entirely. In Britain in the 80s we were taught to report anything we saw laying around, because years of hegemony meant they’d pissed that many people off, whether it was the Libyans, the Iranians, or the Irish. Then we had the Rushdie fatwa saga, which resulted in the book shop my parents took me to as a youngster pretty much every week (I bored of toys early and craved books instead) getting a mysterious package in the doorway made to look like a bomb, because they were part of a chain which announced that they would be stocking Rushies Satanic Verses.
So yeah, I don’t think you are right to infer from Clare Elliott’s post that she believed ‘all Arabs are terrorists’ when she saw what she saw and reacted the way she did. Situational awareness can make the difference. Name one terrorist incident ever which didn’t occur on a regular normal day when people were just going about their daily lives. That’s generally the point, after all. But there’s no harm in being aware of radical Islamism in the same way one should be ready and willing to criticise racists like the person Martyn Bradbury witnessed at the supermarket. You can’t deny one exists while being outraged about the other.
Wow, so Trump’s America has certainly reached our shores!! Dispicable behaviour and very ashamed to be called a kiwi if she’s meant to be middle class white and respectable!
wow Bomber Bradbury …you should have shouted “How fucking RUDE!…you old bat!.. or… you old cow!”
People should always have a shout ready just like we should have a car horn ready…but agreed such things are sometimes so shocking they leave you gobsmacked and you dont do anything…until by the time you have your wits about you the situation has passed
Personally i always smile to these Muslim women in their headscarfs/ burkas/ chadors , whatever….they usually have the loveliest smiles
….of course you can’t see their smiles if it is a full face thingie…and also you cant be sure that it is not a man in disguise
…so I am not entirely comfortable with them and I feel pity for women who can not let their hair roam free because of patriarchal monotheistic fundamentalist religions
…Christian Exclusive Brethren women also wear head scarves and fundamentalist Jewish women wear tichels or bertles…so as not to tempt men…pathetic really imo
While I abhor everything an overly covered and headscarf clad Muslim woman represents( all religion is poison And Islam oppresses women as much as any other religion) such outrageous violence is totally unacceptable. Ageing pakeha c**t (rhymes with punt) should have been reported at least Bomber for assault. I understand your confusion however.
Nothing is what the Human Rights Commission wants you to do – “give nothing to racism” was the campaign. In their eyes YOU ARE A HERO so don’t be so hard on yourself.
The spiteful, vicious actions of this woman are disgraceful. I too am ashamed.
I hope the two young Muslim woman take the issue to the police and get some justice for the unprovoked assault. They deserve justice. And good for Martyn offering to be a witness should they lay a complaint.
To paraphrase Napoleon, don’t put down to malice what you can attribute to stupidity, and don’t put down to stupidity what you can put down to madness.
Lots of people have irrational fears and little quirks. Recently, I clapped my hands loudly and shouted Hey! in a movie theatre, during a showing of the latest Blade Runner, because I was sure I could hear a cellphone coming from the projector room. My partner did not hear it and so I was embarrassed and run from the theatre before the rest got up to leave. From an objective view point I am sure I seemed quite mad.
The lady with the trolley: perhaps her husband is having an affair, or perhaps she sees ghosts out of the corner of her eye, and cannot always maintain her composure. Or perhaps she really does have an irrational fear of Muslims.
The government has largely stopped doing it, thank goodness, but not so long ago, under John Key, they were whipping up fear of Muslims all over the place. That, along with coverage from Europe and elsewhere, caused people to fear and mistrust. Muslims, as a group, don’t form a strong economic block locally, either, like, say, the Indian community. So they don’t tend to get the benefit of the strong corporate propoganda spewed out by the Asia New Zealand Foundation and other money making, trade-and-enterprise-at-all-cost organisations. There’s just ethnic centres and religious councils to turn to. The latter are nice to have, the former are often also dominated by corporate interests.
All we can do is seek to understand.
I have felt resentment towards under race or religion at times; towards all of them, over time, including my own – especially my own, because I know it so well.
We live in an age where people are calling out for greater sensitivity. But I don’t think that’s the way. We can strive to be saints, for sure. But given how easy it is these days to evidence bad behaviour, for example, what we need more than anything else is great mercy in our hearts. And dialogue. And open-mindedness. I think some modern ways of thinking can get in the way of both.
Best post so far.
Since we are all creatures of habit, she might show up at the supermarket again soon. In any case, a witness might be able to make a complaint to the police. If there’s CCTV, it should be easy to identify the woman.
A lot of the commentators here are saying racism has nothing to do with the way the woman’s behaviour. While I agree, I also wonder how likely is it that the woman would elbow two white girls?
Winston Peters’ racist dog whistle against migrants, excused and even mimicked by some on the Left, will lead to more such attacks.
Why does everyone assume the elderly lady enjoys excellent mental health. There are people in our community who are not well. And not well looked after. Stop looking for racism. Start demanding a better deal from our health system.
Unbelievable that someone of such hatred/anger is loose in our streets.
Also frightening, considering she might be behind a wheel, on a road somewhere, when faced with people of another ethnic group she takes “issue” with.
This is the sort of vileness that has enabled evil to be perpetuated through the ages.
Also unbelievable that Martyn did not intervene, nor offer solace to these young women.
Sorry but he should be ashamed as bigotry like this should not go unchallenged.
Things like this put our brains into fight or flight mode. It takes quite a bit of training and practice to be able get the frontal cortex back on line in a hurry otherwise you have to wait until the emotions subside. Until then you have all the all the mental acuity of the family pet.
What! We are not talking about a team of gunmen
Just one woman behaving in an unacceptable way.
Is it too hard for a guy with strong opinions on everything – if too scared to intervene – at least to offer empathy to these women.
It’s wrong.
It’s easy for you to talk, Patrick. You weren’t there. What a fucking ‘hero’ you are.
And in those few words, Patrick, you reveal your motivation for your criticism. It’s not about racism, or the assault on two women of colour. It’s not about a person freezing up in a moment of horror.
It’s about your anger toward “a guy with strong opinions on everything” – namely Martyn.
Shame on you for exploiting this situation to take a cheap shot at Martyn.
Shame on you for doing it from the cloak of anonymity.
Shame on you for your anger directed at the wrong person because you can’t see past your personal animosity.
I don’t think that’s entirely fair. In the heat of the moment it took him a while to understand and process a totally unexpected event and then when it made sense he became indecisive. There was no intent to do any wrong.
I think if he came across the same situation again then his actions would be different.
And given he’s gone back to find the CCTV footage then he clearly regrets his initial lack of action and wants to set things right.
There’s no need to pile on someone who is trying to put things right.
Not fair!
Martyn is so critical of everyone else if they dont do the right thing.
he is a very alpha male dumping on everyone who disagrees with him.
He comes across a woman behaving in an unacceptable manner and he does nothing.
Don’t defend him, his behaviour was beyond the pale.
In Europe if you don’t stop to help a traffic accident you are in court. Doesn’t matter how much blood or limbs lost.
Say again. Martyn is so hard on everyone else but turns out he’s a bloody pussy.
Why doesn’t he practice what he preaches?
Pathetic
The word “pathetic” is very applicable to your post, Patrick. Ever since you’ve been on this forum you’ve posted increasingly virulent, incomprehensible attacks. And then posted lengthy, defensive screeds begging for understanding.
The fact you’ve posted your criticism of Martyn doesn’t relate at all to the issues of racism (which you haven’t even bothered to comment on!) – it’s an ad hominem on your host. In effect, you’re exploiting this situation for your own miserable ends.
Pathetic indeed.
Patrick, you’re not so much concerned with the plight of those two women as simply taking a crack a Martin. I’ve read your antiMuslim comments on this forum and your racism comes though loud and clear.
Knock of the harassment, you’re as bad as that racist cow outside the supermarket.
Nasty “Kiwi underbelly”, I suppose, no wonder, I have come across a few who think Trump is a great guy, here in New Zealand. Stuff to be real worried about.
Take away the clothes, coiffure, skin colour etc etc and what you saw was assault.
All the added in stuff allows fertile imaginations to conclude all sorts of oppression, repression, dialectics and so on.
A complaint is required to police, this isn’t acceptable.
My fertile imagination at this points recalls the Guy Hallwright incident. He got his comeuppance, this woman needs to get hers.
On reflection, he got his comeuppance from his employer not the legal system (I didn’t use the term justice system). When you’re “in the club”, you’re looked after.
Please lay a complaint with the Police. You are the independent witness of a crime. The CCTV should ID who the victim is, and who the perpetrator of the assault is. Hate Crime must not be tolerated.
Why even write a post about it if you were too gutless to say anything at the time. Instead you slink home and bully your keyboard. Either say something at the time or just leave it because it make the person no more aware of what they did.
When people see something totally unexpected then it takes them a while to make sense out of what is going on. On reflection, they can probably make a coherent story out of it but that leaves out a lot of the other stimulii and possible scenarios a person was processing at the same time as the even.
Now, because I know this story, because Martin has written about it, I will be able to process such a scenario much more quickly if I ever encounter it. And I assume other people will too.
And even if these two Muslim girls never hear about how Martin is trying to get justice for them, there maybe other Muslim women, or in fact any other women, who may be heartened that someone out there care about justice for them if they should be assaulted in this way.
Brian, I get the impression you’re less concerned about the welfare of those two young women – who you haven’t even mentioned in your little rant – and more focused at taking a swipe at Martyn. Trolling through anonymity doesn’t put your case very well.
Nailed it in one, Frank.
Thank you for being honest.
However, most people turn a blind eye for fear of getting dragged into the business of others, but as a caring human being it is your business to stand up and be counted.
Generally speaking, reluctance to do anything is about fear of the ego getting hurt. A damaged ego will mend, a victim of an attack you didn’t protect might not!
It’s a huge expectation of the self to wade into a violent situation so stop giving yourself a hard time.
If you were trained to do so, you’d have coldly dealt with the white bread eater taking her bile out on an easy target.
Instead, an empathetic human being saw a bully in full cry.
What would you have done anyway? Told her off? Beaten her up? What if she had a four tonne boyfriend wearing a Make America Great Again T shirt and in a bad mood watching on?
I saw a ‘gentleman’ harassing a street worker on Queen Street recently so I hid while peering from around a corner and called the police on 111.
That’s criminal assault. The fat white lady is a violent unconvicted criminal. Can you talk to the police and let them know about it. If she’s a serial offender (and bigots usually are) it may add to the seriousness of charges against her.
Of all the tosh I have read today – and there’s been a lot, the worst has been the continued repetition in this thread that racism in Aotearoa “isn’t a pakeha problem” that some sort of osmosis occurs so that “everyone” in Aotearoa is equally racist; when we all know from our common experiences that 90% of racism in Aotearoa springs from the words & actions of pakehas – irrespective of their alleged political preferences.
A while ago during the shameful for all pakehas, Metiria Turei (sp?) witch hunt, I listed all the unwhite MP’s over the years who had been harassed & prosecuted outta parliament somewhere on these pages – they had been judged for a wide range of mostly minor infractions, while obvious pakeha pollies’ rorts have gone uninvestigated & unpublicised. I’m ashamed to admit that it wasn’t until afterwards I remembered the most egregious of those incidents, the time when Donna Awatere and her husband were prosecuted using a heap of hearsay, subjective reading of events and outright lies.
Ms Awatere stood no chance as too many elements of the left seemed to believe that tangata whenua pols are obliged by reason of their race, to only articulate leftist points of view. Ms Awatere went to trial knowing that if both she and her husband were convicted of the beat up charges, their children would be screwed, most likely permanently, so in light of the fact that her husband was nowhere near any of it she decided to devote most energy to ensuring he was acquitted – the result of which was Awatere went down for something whitefellas generally get a knighthood for, diverting public monies into private enterprise entities.
Kiwi racism in the form of pakeha racism continues to thrive because it enjoys continual reinforcement by institutional racism, such as that which both Ms Turei and Ms Awatere have been subjected too.
I rarely read the Herald’s top rating ‘crime’ section because it is so exploitative & sensationalist, but on the rare occasions I do it is to check out the peculiar contortions the herald has to undertake to tell its readership the race of any unwhite accused (lock em up, lock em up) or victim (see he /she was just asking for it).
Of course the victim/perps are usually id’d merely by naming them but when that is insufficient we are usually told of a tangi and the need for a quick post mortem of by way of a quite from ‘a favourite auntie’ tho not a ‘blood relative’ or some sort of other irrelevant aside about ‘extended family’ or whatever.
I reckon most pakehas have gotten so used to this bulldust they don’t even notice much less ask themselves the question “why is race relevant?” despite that for more than 50 years to my certain knowledge the biggest circulation daily continues to identify the race of victim and perp, unless the victim or perp is a pakeha, in which case nothing is said it is just taken for granted that the person is a pakeha because they weren’t racially identified, not even surreptitiously and are the dominant (in numbers as well as power), race.
I apologise in advance for the usual copious spelling & typo errors.
Racism is not exclusively a white person thing, it goes both ways & have come across many racist people of non white persuasion
Who said it was? However the amount of deflection coming from whitefellas in a specious attempt to spread responsibility to others when the vast majority of damage done by racism springs from the work of pakeha, is racist in itself.
Whatever some dingbat spouts in a bar is minor compared to the ongoing ingrained racist attitudes of a broad range of Aotearoa based entities in the control of pakeha.
Without the certainty of that collective racism, the ignorant old pakeha slapper would never have dared to attack those girls. She knew that she could get away with it, yet if I put the boot on the other foot and consider the probable response from onlookers should one or both those young women have hung one on an older white woman, it is highly improbable to have ended the same way – some wannabe hero Joe Bystander would be getting saluted all over facebook for defending the pakeha woman. There likely wouldn’t be that much overt racist judgement against the Muslim girls, but it would be implied.
Neil, you sound exactly like a six year old standing in the playground whining “But Miss, he did it too” after you got caught bullying some poor fuck.
So you’re trying to mitigate racism by pointing to other, vague assertions? Is that how you justify bad behaviour and unacceptable attitudes?
Not very convincing, Neil.
re the issue of face veils in public:
‘Quebec bans face veils in public sector, including on transport, in schools & hospitals’
https://www.rt.com/news/407150-quebec-ban-face-veils/
‘Quebec lawmakers pursue ‘burqa ban’ for 3rd time in 10yrs’
https://www.rt.com/news/406970-quebec-burqa-ban-vote/
‘Danish burqa ban: Which EU states is Denmark set to join with face veil restrictions?’
https://www.rt.com/news/405946-denmark-burqa-ban-europe/
‘Austrian burqa ban takes effect ahead of general election’
https://www.rt.com/news/405214-austria-burqa-ban-law/
Dunno about you, Red Buzzard, but I’d rather live in a free society which treasures diversity, rather than a gray, uniform, bland place where people dress the same and fear that which they don’t understand.
Isn’t that what makes us different to North Korea or Saudi Arabia?
I wonder if things will get worse if the greens let in 6000 Muslim refugees per year?
Rather 6000 muslim refugees than six racists, wouldn’t you say, “Alan M”?
Hi Martyn, I understand the “freeze” reflex. I’ve experienced this in cases of sexual assault. It takes a huge mental leap to process what has just happened. The alternative is either a) to spend our entire lives in active “fight or flight” mode, or b) to have experienced situations like this so you can mentally prepare and rehearse a more constructive reaction next time. I am sure you will fall into this category. It’s also exactly why victims sometimes don’t report things – they are so shocking that you don’t immediately see them for what they are. I hope Countdown is able to process the CCTV footage and figure out who that thuggish customer was, so that an assault charge can be brought. I also hope that the victims can find the support they need from the community around them.
[Comment declined for publication. Racist claptrap. – Scarletmod]
Wow what a one eyed bigoted cunt you are. bigotry
intolerance towards those who hold different opinions from oneself. Calling me racist wont change the fact that many NZers are sick to death of having these people ie refugees and Asian bludgers rammed down our throats just because you think we should.
[Comment declined for publication. Unnecessarily inflammatory – Scarletmod]
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