I SURE HOPE Kelvin Davis wasn’t a history teacher before he became a principal and then Te Tai Tokerau’s MP. Why? Because his grasp of what happened in this country between the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and today isn’t just wrong, it also has the potential to create great mischief.
The speech he delivered to the House of Representatives on Wednesday (11/5/22) is a particularly grim example of the Minister for Māori-Crown Relations historical ignorance. In it he appeared to equate the Opposition parties with the entire Pakeha population – past and present. This was more than just racially inflammatory, it represents a dangerous distortion of reality.
Addressing the Opposition Benches, Davis declared: “They conveniently overlook the fact that their wealth, their privilege and their authority was built off the backs of other people’s misery and entrenched inequality across generations.”
This is interesting. National’s leader, Christopher Luxon, was born in 1970, and the Act leader, David Seymour, in 1983. At the ages of 52 and 39 respectively, that doesn’t leave them many generations across which to have inflicted misery and entrenched inequality! He would have been on slightly firmer ground if he had been addressing his remarks to Labour’s Roger Douglas – whose policies did indeed inflict misery and inequality. Perhaps not across generations, but certainly since 1984. Except, of course, Labour MPs don’t like to draw attention to those policies – mostly on account of the fact that their party has done so little over nearly 40 years to reverse them.
Davis did considerably better, historically, when he described to the House the fate of his ancestors at the hands of Nineteenth Century colonial authorities. The gradual consolidation of the colonial state: its laws and regulations; effectively dispossessed Davis’s forebears, leaving them destitute and demoralised.
What Davis failed to mention, however, is that the Nineteenth Century dispossession of the Māori was Crown policy. More importantly, it was a process cheered to the echo by the overwhelming majority of the burgeoning Pakeha population. Rich and poor alike understood that their future prosperity was contingent upon the immiseration of the “native” population. Meaning that it wasn’t just the ancestors of the present Opposition MPs who built their wealth and privilege off the backs of his tupuna, but also the present crop of Pakeha Labour MPs seated alongside him.
While it is certainly understandable that Davis was not anxious to castigate every Pakeha member of the House of Representatives for the crimes committed against his people by their ancestors; crimes from which they continue, as a people, to draw enormous benefits; the direction of his prosecutorial rhetoric at National and Act MPs exclusively was historically indefensible and morally obnoxious.
If Davis is unaware that the single most devastating economic and social assault upon Māori of the last 50 years occurred on the Fourth Labour Government’s watch, then he has no business being an MP – let alone the Minister of Māori-Crown Relations. Certainly he cannot have forgotten that it was the Fifth Labour Government which oversaw the passage of the Seabed and Foreshore legislation. Or, that it was a Labour Prime Minister, Helen Clark, who described the leading opponents of that legislation as “haters and wreckers” – preferring to meet with an excessively woolly ram than with the tangata whenua her proposed law had so outraged.
Maybe the reckless willingness of the Sixth Labour Government to embrace the co-governance agenda of its Māori caucus is a delayed reaction to the actions of the Fourth and the Fifth. If so, then it is a very foolish reaction. Had Helen Clark and her Attorney-General not moved with speed to reverse the Court of Appeal’s overturning of what had been considered settled law, then Don Brash would, almost certainly, have won the 2005 General Election. Given that a National victory in 2005 would have meant the effective re-nullification of the Treaty and the abolition of the Māori Seats – provoking civil war – Māori and Pakeha both owe her a tremendous debt of gratitude.
The depressing thing about the politics of the moment is the apparent historical amnesia of just about all its practitioners. The Settler Nation responsible for extinguishing the Treaty in the 1860s is simply not prepared to see it reinstated as New Zealand’s de facto constitution in the 2020s. The way Davis chose to deliver his thoughts to the House of Representatives: in the form of an attack on the Opposition; shows just how impossible it is to construct an argument about our history that does not inevitably boil down to the equivalent of Sir Michael Cullen’s memorable taunt: “We won. You lost. Eat that!”
The most frightening aspect of Davis’s performance is that it showed no signs that the Minister of Māori-Crown relations has the slightest idea of what will happen to that relationship if co-governance is forced upon an unwilling Pakeha nation.
Davis’s colleague, Willie Jackson, has labelled the Act leader a “useless Māori” and “a dangerous man”. But David Seymour is no more or less “useless” than those Māori iwi and hapu who saw which way the wind was blowing in the 1850s and 60s and ended up fighting alongside General Cameron’s imperial troops. As for being a dangerous man. Well, Jackson’s description can only be proven if Seymour and his party attract sufficient support to enforce the implementation of Act’s radical policies. He will be a dangerous man only because his fellow New Zealanders have made him one – by voting for him.
It’s not Seymour that poses a danger to you and your people, Willie, it’s democracy. But, then, you already knew that, didn’t you?
It’s not the Opposition that has somehow cornered all the privilege, Kelvin, nor is it the exclusive property of the 70 percent of the New Zealand population known as Pakeha. These fair-skinned Polynesians are not – and never will be – “Europeans”. Just as contemporary Māori are not – and never will be again – the Māori who inhabited these islands before colonisation. Both peoples are the victims of historical forces too vast for blame, too permanent for guilt.
It is high time we stopped using History as a weapon, and started relying upon it as a guide.
Not only the “present crop of Pakeha Labour MPs seated alongside him” but also those of northern hemisphere heritage that are a part of his own bloodline as well as let’s say Debbie Packer who i understand to be half Irish on her mothers side and then there’s good old Willy J whose Grandfather I think hails from Birmingham.
The settlers did awful things as did Māori to each other and some settlers. The English did terrible things to the Irish, the Germans to the Poles, the French to the Algerians, the Belgians (who were really nasty fuckers) to the Congolese, the Hutu to the Tutsi, the Japanese to the Koreans and on and on.
Humans are nasty, vicious and brutal when tribal groups flourish – oddly enough, it’s been democracy and trade that has solved this problem.
None of us can change yesterday let alone 100 years ago and in Willie and Kelvin’s case they share some Pakeha heritage with the rest of us so do they share some of this blame? If not why not?
I’ve no doubt that other insightful commenters like Stephen or COVID is Pa will be along to point out that we must never forget the past to ensure we don’t repeat those tragedies which I agree with but my counter question is to ask at what point to we question those who appear to be slaves to the past locked into a mindset of being a victim and oppressed rather than seeing all the opportunity and potential that each individual has in this amazing country?
My parting shot is to ask who is more privileged – the white child of Scottish heritage living in a poorly insulated shitbox in Gore with an alcoholic mother on the benefit and no father to be seen or any one of Debbie, Willie, Kelvin, etc. living high on the hog on fully funded by the taxpayer?
Yeti The concept of privilege based on colour is another weapon being used to create divisiveness as part of the assault on western society. No matter what he says, the haters will still screw that boy from Gore, just for being white, regardless of every other sad facet of his life. Yesterday a black railway worker in the UK lost his job after having been overheard wondering privately to his family whether there was such a thing as “black privilege” in Ghana.
You probably know who the angry haters are here and elsewhere, and of the public ones who I happen to have personal knowledge about, many, if not all, have unresolved childhood issues from within their own whanau concerning race or ethnicity – historic ambivalence or animosity.
Stereotyping or racial profiling shouldn’t be happening anywhere, let alone in Parliament, but playing the victim
is another effective dirty weapon globally now, dodgy, but at apparently at home in the Beehive.
Well put.
How to measure maoriness/worthiness?
A genetic test perhaps?
Midiclorian level?
It is as as stupid as it sounds, the whole race based co governance idea.
Not to mention extremely divisive and dangerous.
How to measure maoriness (ordinariness)? If your ancestors waka arrived in 1250 and your people hung around on these islands until 1769 you are maori and qualify for “indigenous privilege”. If your waka arrived after 1769 you are pakeha and qualify for “white privege”. Maori were in NZ for roughly 20 generations before Pakeha arrived. Pakeha have now been here for 10 generations. If you think about human history in thousands of years when does a wave of waka arrivals become an indigenous people?
This article does exactly the same as Kelvin Davis speech. This post incites mire division not recognizes an issue. Easy to pass on and move on when it wasn’t you effected.
If you would allow me to answer like this. Alone we are nothing.
I actually don’t enjoy having to step over people because the replacement birth rate is heading below one across the western world. Korea has it the worst and Japan but by the end of this century Africa will have more people than China.
It will be interesting to see how communist one party China flavours capitalism but to say that capitalism will survive the twenty first century is a risky bet.
How is the capitalist societies supposed to grow when all the land is privatised I’m not sure.
From a policy perspective public access to private land under personhood status as per co governance models has to be maintained for all.
Just to try and make my point again there must be a way of providing basic security for everyone.
The evidence clearly shows that austerity, neolibalism, privatization and deregulation hasn’t produced the types of incomes that can sustain ocean ferrying civilizations.
Brilliantly put Yeti.
Notice how Maori history seems to start at 1840? None of them want to talk about the previous couple of decades of musket wars; the genocide, cannibalism and slavery. Nothing that Europeans have done in this country compares to the carnage this era wrought.
This is scary. The rewriting of New Zealand history is scary. The ignorance of politicians is scary. The weaponising of history is scary, and wicked when done so dishonestly. I used to defend Kelvin Davis as a decent man who probably just needed media training, and I was wrong. Seems to me Kelvin’s jumped into bed with all the other racists demonising all contemporary Pakeha, and as a Parliamentarian it’s irresponsible and very unfair.
He’s also talking nonsense. Nicola Willis’s dad was a road worker operating the stop/go sign; Collin’s folk farmers; Luxon’s something white collar professional I think; Bishop’s poppa one of the saviours of the Wellington Town Belt and everyone who ever fought to protect Wellington’s green lungs has done more for people than most politicians ever will. I don’t know if any of the exploitive inherited wealth brigade ever went into Parliament- many of the early Parliamentarians lead harsh, hard working,and challenging lives, but with a vision and a hope obviously beyond the ken of Kelvin. Few have anything handed to them on a platter.
Davis in his criticism of the education system – and mine are probably more pungent than his – blames it for lack of achievement among Maori pupils. He doesn’t seem to realise that that immigrant children with limited language skills, and often with histories of huge deprivation and trauma, frequently ace it within the same system. He may need to broaden his outlook.
“These fair-skinned Polynesians are not – and never will be – “Europeans”. Just as contemporary Māori are not – and never will be again – the Māori who inhabited these islands before colonisation. Both peoples are the victims of historical forces too vast for blame, too permanent for guilt.”
Well that was well written . .
Thanks for the brilliant article Chris.
Yes, well said Chris. Trying to selectively reimagine our history for political point scoring is dangerous territory. However, amongst it all I do think Kelvin Davis made some very pertinent points.
I think it is drawing a long bow to state “rich and poor alike. . . “ were actively complicit in the “immiseration” of Māori. No evidence is provided to support this assertion. Is it not possible that many Pakeha immigrants, especially in “settled” urban areas in late 19th/early 20th centuries gave little thought to the situation of Māori, being more focussed on establishing themselves in the new land? However I agree with your final conclusion about using History as a guide rather than a weapon
“Davis did considerably better, historically, when he described to the House the fate of his ancestors at the hands of Nineteenth Century colonial authorities. The gradual consolidation of the colonial state: its laws and regulations; effectively dispossessed Davis’s forebears, leaving them destitute and demoralised.”{
Because in losing their lands they lost their chieftainship – something that can only be restored by co-governance and or devolution of delivery via Maori providers. The latter when also involving co-governance focused on land based assets, such as water, environment and conservation seems entirely reasonable. And none of that threatens democracy.
Spot on Chris.
Its a pity many Pakeha NZers still don’t understand nor have many come to terms with white privilege and how they have benefitted and continue to benefit from being the majority and in a democracy majority rules.
I see Tauranga has now become the capital of white supremacists something many NZers should be ashamed of yet we still hear the word separatisms bandied around whenever Maori ask for anything.
Covid is pa. What is white privilege ? Is it a legal concept ? Who has it? How do you get it ? Is it like Original Sin ? Thank you.
Do you own home work hollyhock I am not your NZ encyclopedia
I did. I’ve been following it overseas for over seven months now. I’m interested in seeing how you see it applying here in Aotearoa New Zealand, the shades of grey. Thank you.
Privelidge.
It is not something taken by force, demanded or even asked for.
It is something given to some, by others.
That must be a wrong statement.
Please point out where it is wrong and correct it.
Thanks.
@HotV The idea of ‘White Privilege’ is that a white person will accrue more opportunities and not experience discrimination over their lifetime, by virtue of their skin colour.
It’s a concept that comes from Critical Race Theory, one of several schools of Critical Theory that employ intersecting cultural versions of conflict theory. So the oppressor/oppressed dichotomy is white/Black, straight/gay, cis/trans etc. This leads to a narrowly defined identity-based equity politics and in many cases conjures identity based conflict.
The Critical Theorists (‘Woke’ is the applied or ‘street’ version of modern CT) usually gloss over socio-economic factors. Whether you are born to a rich family or are homeless, you have White Privilege (see Opera, a multimillionaire black woman, discuss this). Further it can then be associated with many negative value judgements even morality and being a good or bad person. In that sense ‘White Privilege’ is indeed ‘original sin’. It can be continually atoned for (activism) but never forgiven. Incidentally if you are not white and are anti-Woke, especially if you are successful in life, then you are ‘White-adjacent or acting-White’. Negative associations with ‘Whiteness’ are a mobilising ploy however Woke is less interested in colour skin than it is with belief and compliance. It’s a crude religion working by divide and conquer.
When CoP uses “WP”, it comes across as an easy pejorative. How to be a “little-bit-racist” in a socially acceptable way. The dismissal of your question where you are admonished to “do the work” is a common Woke rhetorical retort. Trying to assume a position of intellectual and (often) moral superiority in social discourse. However it’s actually a cheap bulling power play and (often) a cover because they genuinely don’t know the answer or lack confidence defending a position. In my experience most Woke people don’t know the origins or purpose of what they believe so fall under the category of ‘useful idiot’.
Thank you
Everyday in the main street of Jacinda Aderns electorate I see the pakeha street people with all their “White Trash Privelege” just shitting all over their maori compatriots. Nah, they are suffering together.
Trying to think of a single “country” in history with more than 20% of its native-born population living elsewhere and more than 25% of its resident population born elsewhere…
The target audience for Davis must be the hard Maori vote, because to anyone else except the settler guilt left, it is obviously a load of half truth drivel.
As such it’s more likely to lose Labour votes than gain them.
I’d say either a) Labour have now disappeared so far in to their own woke navel they believe an inverted reality or more likely b) this is targeted at Maori voters wavering between the Maori party and what Labours Maori caucus may give them.
No new votes in it but plenty to scare non Maori citizens.
Keepcalmcarryon. Yep. Expect to see another rise in National’s polling thanks to Davis.
I am 1/32 parts maori. Some of my ancestors did stuff to some of my other tupuna.. I am moving on.. unlike Davis, who clearly wants to continually claim victimhood that some of his ancestors did stuff to some of his other Tupuna.
Yep, poor old Kelvin Davis. Son of a chief, university educated, High School Principal (Go figure?) , then MP and now Deputy Pm on about $300K? Obviously angry that colonialism has stopped him from bettering himself.
Fantail. I’m pretty sure that Davis was a primary school principal, perhaps a smaller school incorporating intermediate, but not a secondary school teacher. It also looks as if his teaching qualification may be from one of the teachers’ colleges, which used to be separate from the universities, but may now be incorporated with them, but whose qualifications were regarded as academically lesser. When I was first a poor university student, the Training College students were paid during their training, which university students were not, apart from having bursaries or scholarships or studentships, but no regular income which supported them the way that the teachers’ college students had. I think they all have to pay for their own training now, just like nurses and everyone else does, with student loans and big debts the repayment of which provides another nice income stream for government, and “ education” a profitable business undertaking for tertiary institutions.
Davis is Deputy Prime Minister ? I didn’t really know that, not really thought about it, but that’s not good news, especially if demonising Pakeha is government strategy.
He was Principal of Kaitaia Intermediate
It might be high time we stopped using History as a weapon, and started relying upon it as a guide. It might also be time we started realising the guide is a totally different thing depending on whose hands it’s in.
The past grievance, wrong, grows to rancour and perhaps bitterness and can never be righted.
Does that become official history? What about someone else’s experiences and the results of the same happenings – does that over-ride the offiicial history? What can be done now to get a satisfactory balance?
Someone standing in Parliament and decflaiming something – is that something true or relevant to the matter?
Marama Davidson and group – concentrating on historic wrongs, some, but is that the matter of importance now? We have to stop getting sidetracked and think what is best and fair to do, now. Negotiate, discuss, come to a sensible agreement, beyond law and beyond recompense to the last penny, the last satisfaction of final decision. Go beyond squabbling, it is so demeaning to the people saying they want respect.
Makes me think of George Gershwin’s It ain’t necessarily so written 1935 which raises questions about
understandings from the Bible. The years following led to a lot more questioning. History is what we can agree that it is and agreement and desire for goodwill and good and prosperous community for all would be the back-up vision to work towards for the thoughtful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuINOmsVAMA – Darin
From what’s in the Herald, it looks as if Davis is castigating the opposition by claiming to know what was in the mind of one of his ancestors, a Pomare, when he signed the Treaty, and disadvantaged his family by doing so. Other Pomares haven’t been disadvantaged. Kelvin may only have Teachers’ College Diploma, but the Pomares have in fact achieved much more than Kelvin has. The late Eru Pomare , a close family friend, was Professor of Medicine at OU’s Wellington Medical School; talented, diligent, very hard working, and dropped dead walking the Milford Track aged just 53. Maui Pomare further back was another highly esteemed and successful leader. Davis is being too selective in ignoring successful members of his whanau, and he disrespects them in doing so to wallop the whole opposition on possibly shaky ground. Shame.
“Both peoples are the victims of historical forces too vast for blame, too permanent for guilt”
as well as
“the single most devastating economic and social assault upon Māori of the last 50 years occurred on the Fourth Labour Government’s watch” and “their party has done so little over nearly 40 years to reverse them”
How to reconcile these two statements? If it’s too vast for blame why does anything need to be reversed?
Chris, you need to distinguish personal responsibility, which I agree would be ridiculous and ahistorical, from the collective responsibility to create a more just society. This distinction reconciles both the absence of personal blame and the need for corrective political action.
You should know that the bevy of strange right-wing commenters you have attracted are pretty much unable to conceive of responsibility in anything other than its personal form. You are only encouraging them more with your own internal contradictions.
I have just spent around 45 minutes reading the 101 comments on this thread and I’m thinking what a bunch of arrogant ignorant know it all ‘would be’ humans.
In my 81 years I have never read so much character thrashing – so Davis may have said something that you do not agree with, but do you all have to be so vicious with your comments?
101 comments and all nasty and negative.
Is there anyone amongst the lot of you who have ever done anything kind or positive for those who may be struggling?
Were any of you around in the 50’s and 60’s when the daily newspapers were running ads for Rental Accomodation Available and Situations Vacant that read “Maoris Need Not Apply”, and if you were did you voice your indignation at this repugnant behaviour?
Of course not – NZ’ers were telling the world that we were living in “RACIAL HARMONY”.
ABSOLUTE BS.
At 9 and 10 years of age I was proud of my 1/4 Maori heritage but one teacher would snarl every day as often as he could “OK Maori Girl what is the answer”? He knew that I wouldn’t be able to answer the questions, but he tried consistently to shame me and break me down. No need for me to tell you what it was like in the playground.
Right now I am experiencing that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I remember those horrific 2 years at Kohimarama Primary School, and I’m thinking about Matthew Tutaki who broke down on RNZ a couple of days ago when telling Lloyd of the consistent daily racial slurs and attacks he receives from faceless keyboard warriors – people who are too gutless to sit down and talk to him face to face.
And why the insults – simply because Matthew is trying to help other Maori to do well in this country.
So in the past 70 years has racial discrimination disappeared. HELL NO – it is still alive and well.
15th March 2019 FB was inundated with the message.”WE ARE NOT LIKE THIS”. BS – YES YOU ARE.
I challenge the lot of you – see if you can SHUT THE F..K UP, see if you can write something positive, or do a kind deed to someone who may be struggling. Stop wasting your life banging out hatefulness – try and be kind – it is easier to be nice than nasty. See if you can practice what you preach to your children and your grandchildren – I am sure they would be disgusted with your attempts of character assassinations. Is it any wonder that NZ schools have a terrible reputation with bullying.
As Tawhiao said, He aha te mea nui o te ao? He Tangata, he tangata, he tangata. What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people.
Maama. The thing about Davis is that he’s a political leader, he’s well paid to be a leader, and with that position and money come responsibilities. There are people silly enough or eager to seize upon his narrative of the white majority of New Zealanders being bad “ colonialists” as true, when it is not true. It’s racist, inflammatory, and socially irresponsible. Being kind to somebody who is stirring against others, unfortunately won’t stop him.
If I remember correctly, I think Tukaki has previously showed off about leaving a good private school, St Pat’s Silverstream, with zilch qualifications or achievements. Many would give their eye teeth for tamariki and mokopuna to have the sort of advantages and privileges which Matthew seems to have had but seems to me to perhaps be a bit churlish about now. If I’m right, I think that Matthew is another bloke who perhaps feeds the narrative of the New Zealand police being a racist enemy out to target Maori – he was one of four I think I identified as such, at the time young Constable Matthew Hunt was shot down in cold blood during a routine traffic stop, leaving his single mother mum without her only son.
Again, with leadership comes responsibilities, and there’s a difference between people who claim leadership, and Joe Blogg on talkback radio, and they need to be cognisant of that, and if they’re not, they need reminders.
Tutaki, a middle aged man, complained to the Dom-Post about a woman allegedly making a racist comment to him in downtown Wellington; he recounted how he turned and shouted at her. I think the police received no complaint from Tutaki about this, just the newspaper, but the alleged offender would almost certainly have been recorded on cctv, and the alleged offender could have been dealt with in a more edifying manner than having a big man shouting at a woman in a public space which can be frightening for others. Stuff happens every day everywhere, bigger stuff, but not everybody tells the newspapers, or even thinks of it.
Everyone’s a ‘victim’ now, it’s the political currency. Many New Zealand women experience bad things, horrific things, some of which can damage and haunt forever. You don’t really know what you don’t know about people you don’t know, but some may be very ok people.
@Maama
“Is there anyone amongst the lot of you who have ever done anything kind or positive for those who may be struggling?”
– Yes, and as most of the people here are far more concerned with class issues regardless of race so that number may be FAR higher than you or I think.
“Were any of you around in the 50’s and 60’s”
– I imagine many here were not born then and for those that were, and were old enough, yes I believe some of them did speak up. The older crowd have a good record of calling balls and strikes without fear or favour and being brave enough to express ‘unpopular’ views for the time.
“NZ’ers were telling the world that we were living in “RACIAL HARMONY”. ABSOLUTE BS.”
– Yes I agree it was a BS belief
“101 comments and all nasty and negative.”
– No you are being hyperbolic
“but he tried consistently to shame me and break me down. No need for me to tell you what it was like in the playground.”
– I am truely sorry you went through that, I was also bullied, physically and verbally for most of my schooling.
However the world is changing. Following the lead of elitist woke ideology emanating from the US, anything associated with ‘whiteness’ (or male, cis and heteronormativity) is subtly and actively denigrated in popular culture in alignment with Critical Theory ideology such as outlined in Paulo Freire – ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ and Marcuse’s – ‘Repressive Tolerance’.
Small but not isolated examples of impacts on children and young people, far more recently than bullying you (or I) experienced.
1: In the US students under 10yo with below average writing and numeracy skills being taught to play act in ‘social justice’ protests.
2: In the UK hundreds of girls from working class white and immigrant backgrounds sexually abused by organised gangs over many years (see Rotheram grooming gangs) while heath workers, social workers, police and local politicians failed to act for fear of being stigmatised as racist.
3: Closer to home the “Moana” case and institutional racism in Oranga Tamariki which has been covered on TDB but few other places. On a more trivial personal level about half the the Pakeha families with kids I know have had incidents where their child/children expressed shame at being white.
This is not progress, this is divide and conquer.
“And why the insults – simply because Matthew is trying to help other Maori to do well in this country.”
– Or perhaps people like Prof Garth Cooper, who has done more than most to help Maori do well in this country and still had his career and reputation threatened with ruin by people and institutions FAR more powerful and influential than idiots online or comments on a blog post, because he very gently and respectfully expressed unfashionable non-woke views.
“As Tawhiao said, He aha te mea nui o te ao? He Tangata, he tangata, he tangata. What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people.”
– Agree 110% but what you fail or don’t care to notice is that ideology is STILL trumping people. Apparently the contemporary discourse just sounds more palatable to you now than in decades past.
In addition you are engaging in rhetorical ploys of
– Treating long past anecdotes, although truly horrendous, as representative of society today (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB9KVYAdYwg).
– Treating personal feelings and outrage as argumentation. You feelings ABSOLUTELY DO matter but that is no excuse to propagate a system that creates conflict. Woke ideology (ironically created by white men) is not working class values, it is not Maori values, it is pseudo-intellectualism and virtue theatre by a cultural elite and a tool to maintain power by divide and conquer. THAT is what most comments are pushing back on HERE and making fun of.
Lastly I’m not going to say I endorse every comment above but perhaps re-read you own comment and ask if it is “vicious” or “nasty and negative.” In response to people that “may have said something that you do not agree with”
Sorry should read Matthew Tukaki – kia ora e hoa , kia kaha.
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