Does the recent surge in debates and stories about racism mean that there's a growing crisis of "casual" or "institutional racism" in this country, or is it more a case of a growing awareness and visibility around issues relating to race? New Zealanders seem more likely these days to detect and "call out" what they see as racism. And sometimes it might even mean that people are more readily using allegations of racism as either a marketing tool or a political campaigning weapon.
This comes to mind with Ben Clark's blog post on The Standard, Is Vic Crone racist?. In this he argues that the rightwing mayoral candidate for Auckland is erring badly in her attack on Phil Goff's political finance: "Vic Crone is trying to make a story out of the fact that Phil Goff is against foreign ownership of our housing stock, but accepted $250,000 from the NZ Chinese community at a fundraiser. Does she not see a difference between NZ Chinese and foreigners?" Interestingly, Clark also defends Labour's so-called "Chinese-sounding names" campaign, saying Labour's "story was statistically sound" but simply "didn't fit nicely into a news soundbite".
The Real Housewives of Auckland racism and marketing
The same point might be made about this week's reality TV programme the Real Housewives of Auckland, in which the offensive "n word" was used. This was first publicised in Carolyne Meng-Yee's Herald on Sunday report, The Real Housewives of Auckland's racial slur stoush, which was followed up on the Spinoff website in Duncan Greive's The story behind the racist explosion on next week's Real Housewives of Auckland. Unsurprisingly, it was then reported that Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy wades into Real Housewives race row.
But was there an element of exploitation of the controversy, designed to further certain agendas? The NBR's Nick Grant asks this in his article, Is Human Rights Commission guilty of bullying 'racist' Real Housewife? (paywalled). He outlines how the Spinoff and the Human Rights Commission have been involved behind the scenes in the dealing with the Real Housewives racism incident for quite some time. Indeed, the Commission had been aware of it for "three months", and he ponders whether the recent launch of their anti-racism campaign is therefore connected.
Grant says "It would obviously make sense to draw attention to the campaign by latching on to a "teachable moment" that screens on a high-profile television show, wouldn't it? Marketing 101, really." Furthermore, "This could be seen as a case study in how to leverage publicity for an "unsexy" subject - but I can't help wondering if something less laudable is also going on."
Others have hit out at the Mediaworks Bravo TV channel for their decision to screen the controversy, as well as how they've handled it. Newstalk ZB's Rachel Smalley has been strongest on this: "It gets people watching. It'll get people outraged. They'll talk about 'casual racism'. The social networking platforms will light up. Explode, even. But does it reveal that casual racism runs deep in New Zealand? Or does it just show one woman's ignorance? A highly offensive remark from a woman who lives a life that few of us can comprehend? I would suggest the latter. But I would also question on what basis the broadcaster insists that this should be aired. How are they spinning the PR around this? What puerile reason are they giving for broadcasting it? These women are not reflective of New Zealand. They're not even real, are they? You have to question the broadcaster's ethics. And in this case, I think you can shoot the messenger. Bravo is endorsing and legitimising racism in order to attract viewers with an end goal of satisfying its advertisers, but at what cost?" - see: Broadcaster boosting Real Housewives slur for ratings.
See, also, her follow up column, Bravo's decision to broadcast racial slur unjustifiable.
For other reviews of the episode, and of the issue, see Hussein Moses' Good grief, The Real Housewives of Auckland just hit a low-point and Siena Yates' The real problem with the racial stoush on Real Housewives of Auckland.
There are plenty of other interesting racial controversies being debated this week. For example, there is a lot of unhappiness about the latest kids' movie and merchandise with a heavy racial theme - see Leah Damm's opinion piece on The Wireless website: Sorry, but Disney's Maui costume is simply not OK. It's noticeable that this afternoon Disney has announced that this merchandise will be withdrawn - see: Disney pulls Maui children's costume amid claims it is offensive.
In the current local government election campaigns, there have also been some racial attacks on candidates and their advertising - see today's article by Tarannum Shaikh and Shabnam Dastgheib, 'Cowardly' racial attack on Auckland local board candidate's billboard.
