Thursday, May 9, 2013

the simple truth

Sometimes the simplistic approach is valuable and other times it becomes a mockery. Newbold the so called 'academic' and 'top criminologist' says,

Stuff
there was a "direct association" between Maori and violent offending.
The more Maori you get in an area, the more violent crime you get - that's a fact of life.
A fact of life he says but of course his statement is so simplistic as to be meaningless.

We know that Māori get targeted by the police and apprehended more and we know they receive more prosecutions than other people. That actually means that any statistics around this area are biased to show Māori as worse - whether they are or not. If there is bias in who is apprehended by the police and in prosecutions then there is bias in the statistics and whatever those statistics are apparently saying.

But putting that to one side, there is no 'direct association' as Newbold claims, instead as weka eloquently says on The Standard, "There are correlations between poverty, colonisation, and institutional racism, and violent offending."

Māori have suffered more violence than any other group in this country because they are indigenous. That violence was state sanctioned, systematic and total. The tearing down of belief structures and the ridiculing of a people. The smashing apart of Māori social structures, the ripping of tangata whenua from their land via lies, deceit and Government supported destruction whether through just taking it or helping the rightful owners die early so the land was magically made available. And the murder, rape and killing of tangata whenua whenever they tried to stop the land stealing. 

This process of violence against Māori continues today in obvious and subtle ways, for instance a subtle version of violence against Māori is this statement from newbold
There are hardly any Maori in Dunedin and not many in Christchurch,
That statement, used in support of his other statements above, denigrates thousands of tangata whenua who live in these areas and is a violent statement against Māori . Why you may ask is that violent, wikipedia gives us the answer
Violence is the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against a person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation.
Why do you think newbold believes there are "hardly any Māori down south? IMO it is based on skin colour - not brown enough = not Māori. Southern Māori have heard this stuff for a long time and we laugh at it as we discuss and remember our lands, our histories, and our ancestors. Some though, who are not connected, suffer psychological harm, maldevelopment and deprivation and that is what newbold's statement does as it furthers the colonisation agenda and deprives many tangata whenua from their rightful heritage.

2 comments:

Simon Lambert said...

I missed Newbold's comments but recall (Maori) students of his noting racist statements in the past.

Without entering into a long debate on the man's academic credentials, I would simply point out Otautahi/Chch is actually the third largest urban population of Maori after Auckland and Manukau. (We await the latest census data with interest; however I have seen data showing a 6.5% increase in Maori primary enrolments post- quake).

But this'll make you laugh, or cringe. I saw Newbold in the UC staff club wearing stubbies with an empty wineglass stuffed down the front. I kid you not. Lot of mixed messages there....

Of course anyone with hardtime in the big whare has street cred at UC. Oh, reminds me of another UC staff club story: a Maori wahine lecturer was once handed dirty glass there by a colleague, thinking she was a waitress.

Stubbies! It still makes me feel infinetly superior to the man..

Marty Mars said...

lol that is very funny Simon and sad too.