<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (danger @ Nov 12 2009, 11:43 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (C A Iversen @ Nov 12 2009, 06:17 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (gingergenius @ Nov 12 2009, 06:28 AM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>
This is an interesting one.
Is it racist to have a Maori team? Several ways of looking at it.
1) The black and white answer is Yes, it is racist. Anything to do with blood and ethnicity is by its very nature racist.
2) However, to qualify for the Maori team you must have 1/16th Maori heritage if I'm correct. It doesn't say where the other 15/16ths have to come from. 1/16th is a very small amount, and it's not unlikely that there's more European blood in a Maori team than there is Maori.
What I tend to think is based on local history and demography:
The Far-Right in the UK is an advocate for the rights of 'indigenous' Britons in the face of the threat of immigration. In the UK, this makes them racist. However, our population is rougly 85% 'white British'. This makes 'indigenous' Britons a huge majority.
Maori are indigenous New Zealanders. Yet they make up about 15% of the NZ population. Non-Maoris are in a huge majority - 85% - the opposite of the UK.
So, given the fact that the Maori culture, the only one that is unique to the New Zealand landmass, has been pushed into the shade by colonisers, is it not an excellent and vitally important thing that the culture is preserved?[/b]
The culture is being preserved and promoted in a huge way in New Zealand. All children of all races must learn about it as part of their childhood education. Participation in maori cultural and Kapa Haka groups is encouraged for all young New Zealanders. Their are Marae in every city in the country, nearly all receiving tax-payer funding in one way or another. Maori are automatically given entitlement to special education, health, employment and financial opportunities. Maori have their own television and radio stations, all tax-payer funded. There has even been talk of allowing Maori to get university degrees with a lower requirement level.
Compared to the colonisation of many countries (the US and Australia) we have been a far more inclusive society from the start.
Cultural promotion is not falling short in New Zealand and for a country with finite financial resources we are paying through the nose as tax-payers to ensure that. That doesn't matter if your of Maori, European, Asian or any other ancestory.
When it comes to things like sport, there should not be teams that are selected on a racial base for international play. I'd like to bond with my own ethnicity, as I have danish and scottish ancestory, but thats based on countries, not race. If there was a team for Caucasian New Zealanders and I was wanting to play for it, it'd be perceived as very racist.
It doesn't matter the percentage of New Zealanders that are non-maori as opposed to Maori, because a majority should be entitled to the same rights as a minority. I certainly hope that I'm not classed as an unindiginous New Zealander as I am a 5th generation New Zealander and this is my country and I have nowhere else to go.
[/b][/quote]
Are you kidding me? The Maori language was ILLEGAL for 40 years! Maori werent allowed to vote for a while there, and werent allowed to stand for european seats untill the 70s.
The Europeans tryed to create a unified country by getting rid of the Maori culture! Do you know why so much of the Maori culture is tax payer funded? guilt.
The Maori language was almost wiped out, there only a few thousand fluent speakers in the entire country today. Sure, they teach you hello and how to count to ten in primary schools and give themselves a big pat on the back, but its not really the same.
Its all well and good to treat everyone the same, thats easy to say when you your self are the majority. If you dont recognise different cultures then they dissapear, you saying having a Maori rugby team and a Maori party is racist, I say not allowing them to exist is encouraging ethnic cleansing.
[/b][/quote]
Opening 15 cans of worms (most of them incorrect) won't change the truth
The Maori language, was never illegal, never. It just was not part of the school curriculum or an option to learn via the school system either. Nickdnz is right about the vote too. As for not being able to stand for a "European" as you call it, seat, I'd need some evidence given your other "half-truths".
If so much Maori culture is funded because of "guilt" as you put it, then that's a shame. I really thought it was about encouraging every New Zealander to take ownership in promoting our unique culture. Although I don't really think it's out of guilt, I think thats just a lovely, yelly-screamy word you say to accuse people of racism to get your way.
At schools they teach children far more than to say hello and count to ten in Maori. They did that when I went to primary school in the early 80's and I've been a teacher aide in the late 90's and early 2000's and plainly saw there was already a dramatic shift in content from my younger days. Other teachers I know also say it's a much bigger part of juniour schooling. So, slightly wrong again.
A few thousand who are fluent? In the 2006 census 157,100 are noted as fluent in it, of which 84 percent are Maori. I guess I could continue to point out the incorrect guesses and (for all I know bare-faced lies, not saying they are, they could just be terrible guesses) to pour water on your obviously anti-european sentiments, but I wouldn't want people thinking you were an anti-european racist.
I'm more than happy with everything New Zealand is doing in relation to Maori culture and it was all needed. There comes a time where double standards must go though, or racism can flow the other way.
I'm not going to EVER claim that New Zealand has a perfect record with it's history of treating our Maori citizens, it hasn't. Although more work has been done to redress balances than any other country with such a small economy could.
As for Jawmalawm, yes he's a lot easier to discuss this issue with, he seems pretty mild and willing to see more than one side of this discussion and it makes it a lot easier to see his point too.
Needless to say that in my eyes only an extremist would think that removing a racist political party and a wonderful team (but racist in it's selection policies), is "ethnic cleansing", but we all know that the more drama thats put into a statement the more people are supposed to listen?
but these are some of the main reason we try to stay as close as we can to our culture.
