Casual Racism in New Zealand

I'm not going to go into this in much detail - maybe I will at a later date. But in the past few weeks I have heard some people I am otherwise quite fond of make some pretty hateful throwaway comments...

Example: during a chat about being out in Town dancing, one girl said something along the lines of "OMG I hate it when those random Indian boys come over and try dancing with you like this (mimics crap dancing)!!!! I always try and find the nearest white guy and I'll be like 'Please, pretend you know me...'"

I was so exasperated by this that I didn't have the energy to ask her why she felt this way. I am discovering that this is a pretty common attitude in Christchurch. I don't really know much about how it was in Auckland - save for one or two comments from some drunk teenage metallers in the park, and a party that turned a bit sour, I didn't really encounter any obvious racism of this kind, and both of those incidents occurred while I was hanging about with my almost exclusively Indian friends.

The thing that made me feel so queasy about yesterday's comment was that it was made by a white person, to other white people, in a jocular "Us v. Them" kind of a way - I was expected to agree and giggle along. And as much as I can't really judge because I really ought to have said something, giggle along they did.

It's on the radio, too. A couple of presenters on a well known national music radio channel were talking about the whole Top Gear v. Mexicans 'thing' yesterday while I was driving the JUCY pickup van - you know, the whole comparing a Mexican made car to Mexican people and deciding both are lazy, overweight etc etc. Well, didn't the presenter, with no hint of shame whatsoever, come firmly down on the side of Top Gear because they are 'bloody hilarious'?

Maybe I am being too judgmental of NZ as a whole off the back of a few comments by individuals, but it feels like an in-joke I'm meant to be in on. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of bad taste humour, but there's a level of insight missing here sometimes that starts to feel fucking nasty.

Not keen, New Zealand. Not Keen.


Other things of note:

• Have moved house - in a brilliant house near work with huge high ceilings and amazing windows in the middle of a paddock. Complete with a Marion and her bull-mastiff, Shaka.
• Went down to ZQN to visit the other week, brilliant fun. Misc. bruises and bad behaviour ahoy. Looking forward to Winter!
• Out of date Red Bull shots. Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
• Thinking about buying a car...