Post by Kiwi Frontline on Jan 23, 2023 14:44:45 GMT 12
R B writes > A TRUE STORY?
Once upon a time, a red woman (“Red”) and a blue man (“Blue”) married and had a son...call him Purple (because that’s the colour you get when you mix red and blue.) Now, Blue was a cunning, cheating type and sometime later stole $10 off Red. (Ignore matrimonial property issues.) However the combined household was no worse off and Purple was not impacted. Purple got a slightly poorer birthday gift from Red but a correspondingly better gift from Blue. Eventually the issue was forgotten, except by Purple. Some years later Red died and remembering past wrongs Purple decided he wanted compensation for the theft from his mother. After all, despite being purple he felt red and as such he had been wronged! Purple demanded his father pay him $10 to compensate. Wracked by guilt and remorse Blue duly obliged and Purple felt vindicated...
So what was the effective outcome? Blue is no better or worse off...the $10 stolen has been paid to Purple. Net zero. Red was wronged but is dead and was never compensated for the $10 stolen. A past wrong which could not be put right. Purple is ahead $10. But Purple is half blue...why should he benefit? He’s not been disadvantaged and he’s effectively half culpable because he’s half blue.
It’s irrelevant that Purple feels disadvantaged because he identifies with his mother and feels red. That’s a choice Purple may make but it doesn’t negate the fact that he was never in fact disadvantaged by the theft between his parents. And he is not red, he’s half blue and half red... purple!
And so it is in NZ between Maori and other NZers today. There has been enormous intermarriage over the last 180 years such that there are no full blooded Maori left, and most “Maori” today are less than 50% Maori. So that makes them at least 50% “Whitie”. To compensate these part-White people for past wrongs (if any!) is a nonsense when they are 50% of the alleged offending party. They too have benefitted from any wrongs...even though they are part responsible because they’re part-Whitie!
It’s a bit like me claiming to be a Celt because some of my ancestors were Scottish. Or maybe a Viking because some other of my ancestors were from Yorkshire. I’m neither a Celt nor a Viking. I’m a blend of all sorts. I’m not owed an apology because the English rogered the Scots at Culloden, and nor should I apologise to Britons today because the Vikings raped and pillaged Britain 1500 years ago. I’m not a Celt and I’m not a Viking!
Contrast the situation in Australia with the Aboriginal people. They are truly indigenous having arrived in Australia some 60,000 years ago and today many/most are still full blooded Aboriginal people. I believe that they can rightly and reasonably demand some compensation for wrongs (and there were some!) done against their ancestors. This is happening and it seems to be generally accepted by most Australians as appropriate.
There’s all sorts of problems with the Treaty but the issue of “who are Maori today”, and should their descendants be compensated when they are not full Maori, is fundamental.
No problem that some people claim to be of Maori culture, but that doesn’t make them Maori. The Maori race as such doesn’t exist in 2023, just part-Maori/part-White. It’s fine that these people celebrate the Maori culture but don’t confuse that with compensations for Treaty claims...different topic! Maori today are not a racial group, they’re a cultural and political movement. They’re not Maori in terms of full blood line, they’re part-Maori (or maybe better to think of them as part-White!).
The Treaty is not relevant today. It should be scrapped and we should move forward as Kiwis. We should not go backwards and attempt to right the past by splitting the country into notional ethnic groups that don’t exist. Stop the racism!
Once upon a time, a red woman (“Red”) and a blue man (“Blue”) married and had a son...call him Purple (because that’s the colour you get when you mix red and blue.) Now, Blue was a cunning, cheating type and sometime later stole $10 off Red. (Ignore matrimonial property issues.) However the combined household was no worse off and Purple was not impacted. Purple got a slightly poorer birthday gift from Red but a correspondingly better gift from Blue. Eventually the issue was forgotten, except by Purple. Some years later Red died and remembering past wrongs Purple decided he wanted compensation for the theft from his mother. After all, despite being purple he felt red and as such he had been wronged! Purple demanded his father pay him $10 to compensate. Wracked by guilt and remorse Blue duly obliged and Purple felt vindicated...
So what was the effective outcome? Blue is no better or worse off...the $10 stolen has been paid to Purple. Net zero. Red was wronged but is dead and was never compensated for the $10 stolen. A past wrong which could not be put right. Purple is ahead $10. But Purple is half blue...why should he benefit? He’s not been disadvantaged and he’s effectively half culpable because he’s half blue.
It’s irrelevant that Purple feels disadvantaged because he identifies with his mother and feels red. That’s a choice Purple may make but it doesn’t negate the fact that he was never in fact disadvantaged by the theft between his parents. And he is not red, he’s half blue and half red... purple!
And so it is in NZ between Maori and other NZers today. There has been enormous intermarriage over the last 180 years such that there are no full blooded Maori left, and most “Maori” today are less than 50% Maori. So that makes them at least 50% “Whitie”. To compensate these part-White people for past wrongs (if any!) is a nonsense when they are 50% of the alleged offending party. They too have benefitted from any wrongs...even though they are part responsible because they’re part-Whitie!
It’s a bit like me claiming to be a Celt because some of my ancestors were Scottish. Or maybe a Viking because some other of my ancestors were from Yorkshire. I’m neither a Celt nor a Viking. I’m a blend of all sorts. I’m not owed an apology because the English rogered the Scots at Culloden, and nor should I apologise to Britons today because the Vikings raped and pillaged Britain 1500 years ago. I’m not a Celt and I’m not a Viking!
Contrast the situation in Australia with the Aboriginal people. They are truly indigenous having arrived in Australia some 60,000 years ago and today many/most are still full blooded Aboriginal people. I believe that they can rightly and reasonably demand some compensation for wrongs (and there were some!) done against their ancestors. This is happening and it seems to be generally accepted by most Australians as appropriate.
There’s all sorts of problems with the Treaty but the issue of “who are Maori today”, and should their descendants be compensated when they are not full Maori, is fundamental.
No problem that some people claim to be of Maori culture, but that doesn’t make them Maori. The Maori race as such doesn’t exist in 2023, just part-Maori/part-White. It’s fine that these people celebrate the Maori culture but don’t confuse that with compensations for Treaty claims...different topic! Maori today are not a racial group, they’re a cultural and political movement. They’re not Maori in terms of full blood line, they’re part-Maori (or maybe better to think of them as part-White!).
The Treaty is not relevant today. It should be scrapped and we should move forward as Kiwis. We should not go backwards and attempt to right the past by splitting the country into notional ethnic groups that don’t exist. Stop the racism!