Oh come on people.
If you are such a cracker that a chocolate bar with Māori on the wrapper triggers you, perhaps you should lie down and have a cup of tea and never vote again because you are basic and we don’t need any more petty people voting in this country.
But to take this faux outage and banal bigotry to the woke social media lynching level is just as desperate as the white fragility crowd…
Bluebird employee under ‘investigation’ following anti-Māori language comments
A Bluebird NZ employee is under investigation after their online comments left a bad taste in the mouth of one TikToker user.
The chippie company, which produces some of Aotearoa’s staple party classics, has been quick to remove one of its managers from the job while it investigates comments they left online.
The comments followed Whittaker’s release of the limited edition Miraka Kirīmi (Creamy Milk) chocolate block ahead of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori.
The new reo Māori wrapper was designed to celebrate Māori Language Week, but instead sent some people into overdrive.
…a Tic Toc lynch mob this time?
So a bunch of fucking children and millennials trying to stay as cool as children have amassed and brought hell down on a fairly bland comment which is being manufactured into a racist emotional genocide is it?
FFS.
There is so much to hate about this.
1 – Tic Toc. Fucking Tic Toc? It’s like MySpace conducting the Nuremberg Trials. Fuck social media Lynch mobs by the pious.
2 – It’s a stupid opinion, it’s not fucking racist and pretending it is to sack someone is so morally and ethically despicable, especially when real racism, not projected virtue signals, are damaging and require our attention, not this cheap lazy shit ‘activism’.
3 – His employer are spineless cowards, he didn’t it publish it on behalf of the company, someone tracked him down to his employer via his social media account. If he had been posting as the Brand Manager for Bluebird, sack him immediately because that WOULD be outrageous, but he didn’t t do that, he’s just someone with a dumb opinion, that doesn’t make him a cross burning racist.
4 – Since when the fuck was Bluebird chips a fucking arbitrator on racism? This is the company that sells fat drenched, salt drenched, potato starch to the masses? They probably kill more Māori each year than this clown has with his dumb comment. Why the fuck do Bluebird have an opinion? Here’s your opinion loves, ‘private citizens have a right to free speech, we as a company however stand for diversity and promotion of an official language of NZ is something we support. Next year we will release a classic NZ flavour in Māori language week” – end of story, instead you are having a kangaroo court process for what? To sack him for the virtue signals? I hope he has a union delegate.
Millennial level trigger thresholds claiming everything they don’t like as emotional genocide is dull and tedious and we are destroying a persons livelihood for a misplaced sense of superiority.
This is the wretched woke at their worst.
Their brittle weakness is collectively beneath the challenge of our times.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media
Bluebird Foods Ltd is a New Zealand division of the U.S.-based PepsiCo corporation, that manufactures snack foods, cereals and muesli bars. All snacks are manufactured at the Bluebird Foods factory in Wiri, Auckland.
Yes they have to worry about tracking down and sacking workers outside their jobs for personal comments, to disguise the growing obesity and deaths from that of Maori, Pacific Island and the rest of NZ from bad food like Pepsi and chips!
Adult obesity statistics
The New Zealand Health Survey 2020/21 found that:
around 1 in 3 adults (aged 15 years and over) were classified as obese* (34.3%), up from 31.2% in 2019/20
there was a significant increase from 2019/20 to 2020/21 for women (31.9% to 35.9%), but not for men
the prevalence of obesity among adults differed by ethnicity, with 71.3% of Pacific, 50.8% of Māori, 31.9% of European/Other and 18.5% of Asian adults obese
adults living in the most socioeconomically deprived areas were 1.6 times as likely to be obese as adults living in the least deprived areas**
Child obesity statistics
The New Zealand Health Survey 2020/21 found that:
around 1 in 8 children (aged 2–14 years) were classified as obese (12.7%), up from 9.5% in 2019/20. Prior to this, the rate of obesity among children had been relatively stable
the prevalence of obesity among children differed by ethnicity, with 35.3% of Pacific and 17.8% of Māori obese, followed by 6.6% of Asian and 10.3% of European/Other children
children living in the most socioeconomically deprived areas were 2.5 times as likely to be obese as children living in the least deprived areas**”
Keep killing yourself virtue warriors, while contributing to US colonial corporate profits!
Once upon a time wife beaters were left alone as it was thought not proper to interfering a marriage .Times change and now we are all aware of racism .You cannot tell me that this person writing the comment would treat Maori Pacifica and Asia with any respect especially if he heard them speaking in their own language which in the case of Maori is an official language. At the very least he needs a first warning
It depends what’s in his employment contract and policies. The legal rule of thumb always used to be “Is it within the range of reasonable responses taken by a reasonable employer in possession of all the facts’?
His comment likely doesnt meet the definition of racism, it’s not hate speech and was not posted in any way that linked himself to his employer. But it comes down to the specific wording in the policies although a suspension seems like an overreaction when a warning could have done, if it was justified.
Whatever way you slice this, it does reek of virtue signaling or a woke employment culture (which maybe is another reason why he is becoming triggered).
What a load of horseshit.
So what would this “warning” say Trevor? “we as a company stand for diversity….except when it comes to diversity of opinion.” A good case for an employment lawyer perhaps? The employee’s Managers need a good kick up the backside and be told to concentrate on their day job (making chocolate). The label doesn’t bother me one way or the other – what does bother me is some jumped-up little member of the ‘Aotearoa thought police’ persecuting someone for having an opinion. Imagine when this sad little individual discovers TDB – we will all be in the Stocks. Bomber is right – this country needs to ‘get a grip’.
Everything seems to be a big trigger fest now. Seriously why get worked up about a chocolate wrapper temporarily celebrating Maori language week? What a knob. Of course equally why get worked up about said knobs comment?
And here I am hypocritically bothering to comment about both of them!
over the last 20yrs there’s been a creep toward employers regulating your outside work life, don’t worry about the govt, worry about your employers kangaroo court…
whatever happened to I’ve clocked off for the day–so mind yer own fuckin business.
+1 gagarin
What happened to privacy – not racist either, people complain all the time about 2nd languages aka French and Quebec. Is it really racist to French people?
Snowflake syndrome strikes again while real racism and corporate induced obesity to Maori (of whom 50% of Maori adults are now obese leading to shortened lifespan and quality of life), marches on without question.
well snz the quebecois do have dual language public signage and often products have both languages on packaging etc*
so they have exactly what you object to for maori.
*I’ve even watched some quebecois tv series with english subs.
Do Quebecois have it on their junk food too? Not sure this is a win for Maori with 50% obesity alread,y to be appealing to them for junk food.
I have no objection to Te Reo, but think it’s wrong on many levels to promote junk food and discipline employees for having an opinion outside of company hours on languages.
In addition it’s demeaning to Te Reo to have it commoditised by US companies to make profits. But woke love commodity and hate complexity and nuances it seems!
Next week will the woke be cheering on Te reo on smokes and Liquor and thinking it’s a win, too?
Anything that makes it more difficult for China to lift our IP is a plus.
oh moved the goalposts I see snz…
Part of the nuances, – aka lets get junk food companies promoting fatty goods to Maori in Te reo and the lefties are quiet on it, while not thinking it’s over the top to trawl through someones 1 sentence post, track him/her down, inform their workplace and then have him/her disciplined, over something they have every right to say if that’s what they think.
I just hope they fight back, get a lawyer on to it and take Pepsi/Bluebird to court for breaching their rights of freedom of speech, after hours.
Not the only case of keyboard warriors and wokeplace over reaction to private comments and opinions.
“Two lawyers accused of making “extremely discriminatory” comments about transgender sportspeople in an email exchange have taken the committee who investigated them to court.”
Lawyers claim free speech right over ‘extremely discriminatory’ transgender comments
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/lawyers-claim-free-speech-right-over-extremely-discriminatory-transgender-comments/UEW3RWU7KWCTQW47JJI4VTYX2I/
Already happening in NZ with public figures making themselves the judge and jury on freedom of speech, only to reveal themselves as the worst bigot.
“Lower Hutt’s Mayor has apologised after saying controversial group Speak Up For Women could hold one of their events in a council waste bin.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/speak-up-for-women-controversy-billboard-removed-mayor-apologises/CGUGDIAATDU3CCE56TUMCMJOQM/
sorry snz pulling a ben shapiro isn’t gonna work, my views on free speech and the quality/lack of regulation of NZ food..should be well known to a regular poster like yourself
Doesn’t bother me
When worked I had a company van with the name on the side which I was able to use out of hours and I had a company jacket that I wore when out sometimes .My contract stated that bring the company in disrepute my my actions at any time was grounds for dismissal. There is a saying he who pays the piper gets to call the tune and this applies here
Down to what the definition is of bringing it into disrepute. Not sure this obviously qualifies.
THAT PRIVILEGE SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE BLUEBIRD LETTING THIS MAN DRIVE HIS FACEBOOK ACCOUNT HOME
oh wait they didn’t give him his facebook account
it’s literally not comparable in any way
fair enough in their van would you still be happy if you were in your own car trev
my employer pays me do what he needs, for x hours a day at the rate of y, and that’s where his rights end.
I find myself agreeing with gagarin . .
+ 1 Yuri.
Where’s ‘Tui’?
Hi Stephen darling! ask and you shall receive.
I think Te Reo on Whittaker’s wrappers is long overdue. NZ should have food products in both English and Maori. I’d be genuinely happy if we became a functionally bilingual or multilingual country in the next decades similar to nations like Singapore. The way we make a minority language commonplace is to normalize and use it.
I realise that might not be the response you expected but you see my social critique is overwhelmingly class based. Despite having two commonly accepted dimensions of oppression in woke-world I don’t buy into modern intersectionality, sorry! I am far more interested in pay and conditions of Whittaker’s workers, especially blue collar, who incidentally are likely to be disproportionately Maori and Pacifica.
+1 Tui.
Tui: “…..I’d be genuinely happy if we became a functionally bilingual or multilingual country…..”
Multilingual……given the multiplicity of different ethnicities in NZ, I’d say that it already is. Provided, of course, that enough people are native speakers of all of those languages.
“The way we make a minority language commonplace is to normalize and use it.”
Speaking a language entails competence: a great deal more than just using a few words sprinkled into one’s native language. No amount of pepperpotting Maori words into English will save the language.
With regard to language survival, utility rules. People have to perceive a language as being useful, otherwise they won’t use it. And if they don’t speak it as a first language (native speakers), it won’t survive in the long term.
Census stats suggest that Maori is currently on life support. There are likely too few native speakers left to allow the language to survive.
@D’Esterre I agree with anything you say. NZ certainly has many languages spoken however the majority of kiwis only speak one. My original point was ‘functionally’ bilingual or multilingual meaning the majority of kiwis speaking 2 or more. That is aspirational on my part and not an easy ask. People need to see relevance or utility and as you say a pepper pot sprinkling of words is not the answer, especially if that sprinkling is cultural elite performativity.
Also, and you were not to know, but the subtext here is that I have previously criticized leftist identitarianism and DiAngelo’s ‘white fragility’ thesis. The latter of which I see as fairly typical of cult dynamics as the only morally correct response to doctrine is unquestioning affirmation, anything else is “white fragility” (or white-adjacent fragility as I like to keep identitarians guessing about my “intersections of oppression”). Stephen is a DiAngelo fan and seems unable to distinguish between a leftist social critique emphasizing class and the far right. I can only assume he was expecting me to get apoplectic about words on a chocolate wrapper.
Is racism a structure or an event? What I mean by event is when someone calls me the ‘N’ word even though I’m brown or I call a white person a baldhead, is that racism? or is that name calling? I’m sort of confused even though I feel I’ve been discriminated against as far back as back when I was about 10 years old.
I looked up the word racism on google
racism
/ˈreɪsɪz(ə)m/
Learn to pronounce
prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.
Even though people believe that this individual who wrote this BS shouldn’t be targeted for losing his Job and I do agree however these types of comments isn’t new to the Maaori people it’s actually quite common and like I’ve stated correctly before that this behavior is ubiquitous amongst the Pakeha community garden variety of bigotry. Does that mean all Pakeha should be tainted with the same brush?, No way, but these action shows’ that ‘anti-Maori’ sentiment is a problem for pakeha in general but I believe that our society has matured and these bigoted meme’s make me cautiously optimistic that it doesn’t have the strength to cause civil strife in our beautiful country NZ-Aotearoa.
I am really sorry you have experienced racism Stephen
I’m thinking for a moment; don’t Maori people ever get irritated about pakeha and say something that gets rid of that feeling in some pithy words, or pissy words even? If I was Maori, not pakeha as I am, I would often be brassed off as the saying goes, at pakeha ways, and things in the past, and promises not kept, and bloody pakeha arrogance and their twisted minds, and habit of preaching and not doing, of do as I say and not as I do.
If Maori said that about pakeha wouldn’t they be justified. Wouldn’t it be quite understandable that they be aggravated? Some allowance for honest speech is reasonable. Only people who go on social media don’t seem to reason before they put stuff up. Soon they will be able to transmit thoughts as they happen through some tiny converter that goes behind the ear and shows up on the receiver screen. Then why bother talking? Betcha some smart arse is working on the concept right now. So expect to hear more of the dumb-arse things that crop up in people’s base minds unleavened by any social or intellectual restraints.
Stephen: “Is racism a structure or an event?”
Racism is what governments do by way of regulatory and legislative arrangements which discriminate in favour of (or against) particular groups in society. What individuals think and say isn’t racism, though it may be bigotry or prejudice. Neither you nor I nor anybody else can do anything about what other people think and say; nor should any of us be trying to do so.
n your opinion
Down to what the definition is of bringing it into disrepute. Not sure this obviously qualifies.
It’s brilliant marketing – signal your virtue and buy the Maori chocolate or be cancelled as a racist, it’s a deliberate strategy.
The idiots are everyone getting sucked in to hating each other so a company can sell a lot of product.
Nicely put kcc.
An employer policing a workers free speech. It seems there was nothing connecting this guy to Bluebird when he made his comment. It appears that someone went out of their way to Cobb the guy in….
Was it racist? Possibly or maybe it’s just like when I say to hubby sick of seeing the bloody rugby and the blah, blah, blah about Ian Foster.
One thing I will saw is that this woke millennial cancel culture will inflame any racism that may have been there. Most people like the punishment fitting the crime
The comment the worker left that threads was lengthy I remember seeing this there were multiple people posting and tagging bluebird as the worker had there they worked in their profile and someone posted up the LinkedIn account. It was a crazy night on social when whit-takers posted that
Social media is like talking to people who might be, you can never be sure either way, on some fantasy (not ecstasy) drug. Don’t sign any legal papers or agreements, or illegal ones, that they might give you, check it out. And remember the old saying that your grandpop or grandma used to say, ‘Birds of the same feather, fly together’. Choose thoughtfully which flock or mob you hang out with won’t you.
What you say may be just chatting with some rough edges, but the words are preserved as if on paper and don’t disappear as easily as paper can be torn up. Instead the amazing thing is that this pseudo goss can hang about along with the naked picture of you – as a baby you hope – seemingly for ever. A word said momentarily in jest or anger becomes a leg chain that you drag with you.
Don McLean seemed to know it, have it all, but 30 years of marriage and it has gone to custard. Try and guard your inner self and strength from other people’s careless comments and actions,and also the deliberate ones meant to cut deep. These days we need to keep aware and resilient.
My world is a constant confusion.
My mind is prepared to attack.
My past a persuasive illusion.
I’m watchin’ the future it’s black.
What do you know?
You know just what you perceive.
What can you show?
Nothing of what you believe.
And as you grow, each thread of life that you leave
Will spin around your deeds and dictate your needs…
https://www.azlyrics.pm/lyrics/don-mclean/dreidel.html
I seen the post of the of the original comment there was a lot more said some girl posted the LinkedIn and the persons Facebook page had the details right there bluebird was even tagged in the Facebook comment and then in the other post there was on tic tic there was no mention of racism the person didn’t even bring racism up. Then I seen the media article and it said racism
is there a term for liking animals and not liking humans. I have given up on humanity.
Comments are closed.