Letters: No such thing as casual racism

Narelle Newdick was left a racist message by employees from a car dealership. Photo/File

No such thing as "casual" racism

Your recent coverage of the unfortunate incident of two car salesmen racially insulting a local Maori lady, is to be commended. (News June 12 ) So too, the rapid response by the owners of Farmer Auto Village.

For too long these kinds of insults have been overlooked as something "funny" or "clever". The fact is they are neither. They represent a cowardly, usually anonymous insult to the often unaware target.

It is to be hoped that the two salespeople involved have learned a valuable lesson, but the problem runs much deeper than many believe.

Children grow up influenced by such ignorance. They, in turn, feed the inevitable decline.

It serves no positive purpose whatsoever and in fact, has recently been seen to negatively influence our democracy. We, as a community have a long way to go to end this nonsense, but the more exposure it receives, the better. Once again, congratulations to Farmer Auto Group, the Bay of Plenty Times and in particular Narelle Newdick for having the fortitude to expose these attitudes that are a curse on an otherwise great community.

Her comment " there is no such thing as "casual" racism when you are on the receiving end of it" is an absolute gem.
Robin Bell
Omanawa

Get off the bandwagon

I feel it is totally unfair to see that while the nurses have been working long and hard on their pay claims that all the other public sector workers organisations are jumping on the bandwagon and at the same time this is taking or diluting the power of the nurses away.

Some media are using the fact that across the board, private sector workers are 30 per cent better off, I doubt this applies to nurses.

My advice to all those weighing down the bandwagon is, get off and let the nurses get to their destination.

Tony Hewitson
Tauranga

I want, I want I want

I want, I want, I want, is all we seem to hear from cyclists. They are like little children, in my view, always thinking about themselves and nothing about the public as a whole.

There are plenty of cycle trails around Tauranga and the Mount so why do they have to have Marine Parade and Pilot Bay as well. Other people would like to go to the beach and go for a walk, but oh no, the cyclists want and want and want.

They do not pay anything towards the cost of maintaining the roads or have to be registered or warranted. All they seem capable of doing is going I want, I want. Suppose it saves on having a bell.

Laurie Becroft
The Lakes