you look like trouble

The use of Māori Wardens to target drunk Māori during the Rugby World Cup is racist and wrong and for reasons that are as obvious as the colour of your skin.

TV3

Wellington bar owners say drunk Maori will be specifically targeted during the World Cup, by a 50-year-old law that has been pulled from the archives by police and the city council.

The law allows Maori wardens to enter bars and remove drunk or violent Maori.

Many bar owners say it is a shameful, racist law and the Government now wants to take a look at it.

Bill in the comments on The Standard hits the nail on the head

Bill 10 August 2011 at 9:52 am

Since NZ doesn’t have identity cards; and since being Maori is not predicated on ‘how much Maori blood you have in you’, like in the U. States for example, where to ‘be’ or ‘designated’ or ‘recognised’ as Cherokee or whichever indigenous culture requires 25% (or whatever) ‘Cherokee blood’, then the whole thing would be impossible to implement.

A pale skinned red head person can be as Maori as the dark skinned, dark haired person next to them. Maybe even more so. Being Maori is largely about self identification, or culture here. Not appearance.

Which means attempts to enact the law would impact on all (young?) brown skinned people; not Maori.

This isn't about Māori - it is about brown skin and that is why it is racist and unacceptable.