in allowing great Māori representation?
OPINION: I grew up, like many others around me, in a privileged white middle-class family, although slightly eccentric, immersed in a community and school system that observed the world through a Pākehā lens.
I was oblivious to the undertones of racism that was serving to marginalise Māori through everyday language presented in acceptable speech, classic storytelling, and the use of common phrases that bolster the ideology of Pākehā dominance.
An ideology fed by 19th-century Darwinism viewed Māori as physically adept, rather than intellectually gifted, like their European counterparts.
Supposedly if Pākehā has an abundance of “so-called” intelligence then why are “we” unable to recognise that a system built on European colonisation, actively works to privilege Pākehā, at the expense of Maori wellbeing.
Link to article: What are we afraid of in allowing great Māori representation? | Stuff.co.nz
