#this country is racist

[chaithetics]

american anon. i am not white but i am usually white passing in most contexts. my most important question is about the direction of democracy there. (also i heard a lot of conservative Americans moved to NZ because they made up some fetishized version of it in their head and imagined it as a white haven or something; is that true?) but also yeah would be interested to hear about the current government's social policies.

Yes! That is true, a lot of Americans think this is some white utopia! And I've even seen some who moved here on tik tok say that racism doesn't exist here because you can actually see Māori when you go outside 🙃

We're in a cost of living crisis, unemployment is up, job ads are down, there are cuts in every industry, massive ones in education and the public sector, it's so crowded people with postgraduate degrees are struggling to get basic office jobs and even retail jobs, not even specialist roles to their degrees. House and renting market is insane. You would need a guaranteed job and supported financial system to financially do it here. It's not an environment you could come to right now and 'wing it'.

We have the highest incarceration rate of indigenous women in the world (yep! We're even beating the US there!), Māori are overrepresented in the justice system as prisoners, victims, and offenders. Māori have poorer health and education outcomes. Overpolicing exists and I even have stories of uncles and cousins who have experienced police violence in 'the modern era' like millenial family members.

Over four years (2020-2024) we had over 14,000 hate crimes reported to police. Between 2022-2024 more than a third of reported hate crimes targeted people of Asian descent. Between 2022-2023, Muslims reported 205 hate crimes, that's just over one every two days and Muslims don't even make up 1.5% of our population! Pasifika communities experience racism, our incoming Deputy Prime Minister, David Seymour made a joke on live radio about how he'd like to blow up the Ministry for Pacific Peoples (which IS a government agency and he was an MP then too) last year BEFORE the election and there were no repercussions. The current government has no interest in racism except enabling it, they've demolished a group that were investigating hate crimes and white supremacy, the Māori Health Authority which was established to promote better health outcomes for Māori, want freedom of speech laws to pass and make Universities have to agree to uphold freedom of speech policies to receive funding. They're changing the tertiary and primary education landscape with no thought for learners or educators. They're destroying the tertiary education sector and creating so many job losses that'll also have intergenerational losses for the students who won't get qualifications and training, especially in the trades sector. What they're planning to do, over 90% of our polytechs won't survive.

Gender affirming healthcare is extremely inaccessible here, some schools still don't allow students to use the bathroom or wear the uniform that matches their identity. NZ First want to make it illegal for trans women to use women facilities and for sports to be based on biological sex assigned at birth rather than gender identity and are disguising their transphobia as 'concern for women's safety and wellbeing' when every single man in their party voted against abortion law reform to decriminalise it a couple of years ago.

We're moving more to privatisation of prisons, more prisons being built, youth boot camps being set up for young people, especially Māori. One of the parties in government, NZ First, is very much interested in trying to make prison slave labour part of their punishment and accountability.

Education and healthcare is fucked with cuts and legislation. So many teachers and healthcare workers have moved to Australia. They've done cuts to make it harder for people to use childcare services, families are struggling whether they work or not. They're trying to force people to not work from home.

Our PM has said he won't touch the abortion legislation but he has said in the past that abortion is "tantamount to murder". Our incoming Deputy PM is the reason why it's legal for people to harass people at abortion and gynecological healthcare providers, because it's freedom of speech.

There are so many bills going through to kill the environment and just make money. It's damaging for the environment and Māori as the land is part of us and we are her privileged caretakers. There's too many bills there to name. There are some conflicts of interest that are getting involved with this.

Our cabinet is stupid, those ministers are only doing work that is a waste of time and money. It's people establishing unnecessary projects to waste taxpayers money and boost their ego and dissolving other ones for the same reason.

This country is a racist place. These are just vague brief points and I honestly just don't have the brain to type up more. It's four am, I want to not be stressed and sleep. I hope you're having a nice morning. And I do not want to hear something like "oh it's so much better than america though!/shut up and be grateful!" because it is a DISGUSTING time to be Māori here, we are being told that we do not matter and are second-grade citizens in our own country.

[tariah23]

White people are miserable, racist losers period. They’ve even been getting mad at Japanese people for correcting them about Yasuke as well.

[rubysevens]

anyway in the past week the irish government has voted down two motions which would have condemned the genocide in gaza.

i need everyone to stop lionising ireland as if its not also a european government with strong ties to the us. american weapons pass through shannon airport and will continue to, because yesterday the motion to stop that was voted down 83 to 50.

other governments have done much more but somehow people still act as though ireland is the ultimate palestinian ally and exempt from criticism on its handling of palestine bc it was once colonised, even though that past experience clearly isnt being taken into account by the irish government when creating policy.

i live here i know there’s a lot of public support and sympathy for palestine, which is great, but that isnt reflected in government, and i think ireland should be treated like other countries whose governments have done nothing.

[linkemaus]

Not to be that person, but if Kamala Harris were a white man with the exact same ideals, positions, and beliefs, it wouldn’t have even been a competition. Realising that the worst thing you can apparently be is a woman, is truly devastating.

[tododeku-or-bust]

Because has "white power" or any other actual racist, antisemitic, white supremacist slogan ever gone through what "river to the sea" just went though? Curious. Because we all know that the US government does NOT actually care about its Jewish populace. Crazy how I keep talking about the white right of comfort because it keeps applying.

[iamnmbr3]

Kamala Harris: *is biracial*

GOP:

Vote Blue all the way down the ballot to keep these fascist bigots out of office.

[1eos]

girl help the white ppl are trying to say moo dengs handlers are abusive

[ethioirhab]

watching khaleejis take a sick pride in the fact that they're "the only functioning arab countries" or whatever as if the kafala system is not just slavery in one way or another. one yemeni boy is worth every saudi kuwaiti imarati and more

[jewreallythinkthat]

Also I don't know who needs to hear this but

American =/= Bad

If you believe any country = bad, you are part of the biggotry problem. Every country has good and bad stuff going on, it's called existing in the real world.

[cinnamonsikwate]

"why couldn't shuro have just been honest about what he felt with laios and falin it's not that hard" are you. are you White

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

I just think that, if we as a fandom aren't fussed over giving Fantine her symbolically signficant golden hair/pearly teeth, Javert his symbolically significant dog-form, or Grantaire his symbolically significant ugliness,

we as a fandom society are ready to move on from blond-haired blue-eyed Enjolras.

[loki-zen]

My read on the “white guys for Harris” thing is that it’s trying to head off Trump cornering the market on the white male vote. Dedicating a space for white guys in her campaign makes white guys feel like theres space for them in her campaign. I also think identity politics is stupid, but unfortunately it’s a major part of how people vote, and this seems like a strategic move to counter that. In an ideal world it wouldn’t happen, but this is the world we’ve got.

I figured it was something like that but it still seems pretty bizzare to me

[neonbuck]

There's a robot whale shark in an aquarium called Xiaomeisha Sea World in China. of course its getting reported on over here like "lol in China they try to trick people into thinking fake animals are real" as if a. you can't easily tell this is a robot, as if b. it wasn't illegal to catch and buy sharks in China, which is a GOOD thing, and as if c. this wasn't the coolest shit you've ever seen

[thebookworm0001]

Hey no matter what happens

Stop fucking talking shit about the south like there aren’t thousands of oppressed and marginalized people here who are trying to make things better

And consider how you saying the people living here are stupid or inbred or whatever mean stereotype you wanna fling our way directly contributes to how so many people in the south vote against their interests because you’re confirming the narrative they’re fed that you hate them and think they’re worthless

Stop shit talking the south and help us

[elbiotipo]

Also "what happened to all indigenous and afro argentines" go fucking outside, they're there

[ahalliance]

American-validated Frenchge 🥖

transcript below

[Video Transcript begins:

[Video starts mid-sentence]

Etoiles: —and you put this face— next to the camera! Like this!

Foolish: (laughing) You’re so French!

Etoiles: I’m so French, that’s my main problem. Like I’m so French, I try sometimes to nerf myself and be like, less French

Etoiles: But that feels good to hear this because you say I’m so French and like, some racist people in France think I’m not because I’m Arabic too, so—

Foolish: Ohhhh

Etoiles: —that feels good too, you know

Foolish: No dude, you seem like a French ass French person—

Etoiles: (laughing)

Foolish: I don’t know how else to put it. Simply put

Etoiles: That feels good, man. I was saying hello to Tarik and all his chat was saying like Frenchge, the emote they are putting—

Foolish: Oh yeah

Etoiles: —the emote they are putting. Yeah, yeah, yeah

Video Transcript ends.]