A racist attack on a young woman in Auckland was caught on video. Video / Facebook
A young woman was yelled at, threatened, and told to go back to her own country after wiping out chalk that said "it's okay to be white" and "all lives matter".
The volatile exchange between the woman and supporters of the NZ Outdoors Party in Auckland was caught on two videos and shared around social media.
The incident happened after an event organised by the party at Aotea Square, which encouraged free speech.
In the video, unidentified supporters of the party can be seen chasing the woman and holding phones in her face, with one person screaming at her to go back to her own country.
The woman yells back, telling the filmers they are racist.
"This lady here, she was rubbing out all the chalk," the man filming can be heard saying, before the video quickly devolves into yelling on both sides.
Another woman who is filming tells the young woman "get away from here ... you are racist against us New Zealanders, get out ... go back to your own country".
The young woman begins to argue with the group, at which point NZ Outdoors Party co-leader Alan Simmons can be seen stepping in and telling her to watch her language.
"You shouldn't be using language like that, a little girl like you," he says.
At one point the other woman says she is going to "kingpin" her and calls her a "smart little b****".
The woman said the phrase "all lives matter" was a way to erase black people. Photo / Dean Purcell
The young woman, who appears to be surrounded by a group of at least five party supporters, tells them they should not be spreading slogans that are "full of hatred".
"The only people that I have ever met who say that 'it's okay to be white' are Nazis," she said.
"People who say 'all lives matter' are racist."
The phrase is in response to "Black Lives Matter", a saying which has been once again thrust into the spotlight following the death of black man George Floyd at the hands of a group of white American police officers.
Floyd died after police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for a sustained period of time during an arrest.
The woman told the group the use of the phrase "all lives matter" was a way to "erase black people", and didn't exclude the fact that everyone's lives mattered.
The man filming then asks whether people using the phrase "black lives matter" cared about "ordinary people" as well as black people.
He asks about a hypothetical scenario in which a black cop kills a white man by kneeling on his neck.
The group also ask the woman where she is from, and begin listing off Asian countries before asking whether she was born in New Zealand.
"She wasn't born here, she came here to create shit," the other woman says.
Party member Tracy Livingston also appears in the video, trying to ease tension and telling the filmers the young woman was "not the enemy" and that everybody was "naturally racist".
She then tells the man filming: "That guy said that he saw you about to hit that woman", at which point the video ends.
Party co-leader Sue Grey told the Herald the people in the video were not members of the party, and that they did not condone their actions.
"As the Outdoors Party we are very much in favour of freedom of speech and democracy ... it's very disappointing that there was an interaction at all of the type that was seen in the video."
She said Simmons and Livingston noticed the exchange unfolding and rushed in to defuse it.
Two of the people involved in the video had since apologised to Grey and have "gone away to have a good think about what they learned from that".
She said their comments to the woman were "completely wrong".
When asked why he was only seen reprimanding the young woman for her language, Simmons said he also tried to break up the argument and had "protected" her from harm.
"I was standing between them trying to break the parties up. It was a very hostile situation," he said.
"It could have been very, very bad and I protected the girl."
