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I read with keen interest the comments posted by @Brad_Kulet about racist South Africans in New Zealand. It made me laugh out loud and heartily.
My parents moved to New Zealand in 1976 due to their political leanings and my parents being tired of the constant harassment by the secret police. During our time in New Zealand as a family of course we had many very good friendships that were developed through the Church and the various associations my parents developed while living there.
My sibling and I were exposed to all manner of New Zealander at Invercargill North School, Waihopi school, Rosedale intermediate school, Te Hapara school, Mangapapa School, Gisborne Girls High School and Rotorua Girls High School once Nelson Mandela was a free man I finished my schooling at Springfield Convent in Cape Town.
Life was far from perfect in New Zealand. Sure, I had several lambs as a pet that I hand reared and my grandparents from the Cape Flats even came to visit me several times. This did not make up for the trauma we suffered at the hands of New Zealanders. I was often referred to as “little black sambo” with little or no understanding of why my family was in New Zealand and what we were there for.
I can only but try and understand the kids who put tar on me on my way home from school in Gisborne. Frequently I was told “Paki go home” where Pakistan was a country I had little or no interest in. This I can only ascribe to the New Zealand Government’s need to have appropriate butchers to slaughter their meat for export to countries that required halaal meat I didn’t have the heart to tell ignorant people that Pakistan is miles away from “home” South Africa.
On returning to South Africa no one, not even my own extend family, could understand me. At a school that had children who had been entrenched through their family wealth over hundreds of years I struggled to fit in, Springfield is a school synonymous with surnames like Getty after all. It was only when I got to UCT that I found a group I could belong to and that grouping was mostly foreign students, gays and people who were completely outside of the mainstream.
I returned to New Zealand several times over the years with a view to again make this my home, but couldn’t stand the level of ignorance and stupidity displayed by New Zealanders who are parochial at best in their outlook on the world. In a TRC moment I had a class mate apologise to me for the blatant racism he displayed to me over the years.
New Zealanders are not alone in their racist and backward attitudes after all those years of my activist parents telling me about my “home” Cape Town was a rude awakening to come “home” and be discriminated against by the very people my parents had told me they had given up their life at home for. I cannot help but feel incredibly sad for my parents who missed all the significant events with their family friends and community over the years in the name of activism and for what?
Now as I contemplate being jobless as a result of white privilege in the workplace that relieved me of my duties due to my obviously being incompetent with my 3 degrees from the University of Cape Town and one postgraduate certificate from Cambridge I can only conclude that I don’t live in New Zealand because in July 2017 the New Zealand Herald is still debating exactly how racist New Zealand is.
My niece, who studies at her parents alma mater Otago, has the double whammy of being both African and Maori and I can only hope she gets the best of what the world has to offer her. I can only conclude that white privilege in South Africa and New Zealand is the same and I would rather avoid interactions with both if I can.
A racist is still a racist irrespective of geography but if I had to choose, I would rather be in a society where I am presented with positive role models every day who look like me. New Zealand needs to do some introspection as to the diversity that is presented in leadership roles in that society.
The claims of hating racists from South Africa is ridiculous because through my experiences racists exist in both societies equally and unabated to the detriment of both societies.
