R. Stephens RE Stephens' letter ‘Cutbacks should be for all' is correct, when he says in spite of cutbacks for essential infrastructure, there is always money for Maori projects.
The tribal elite have a list of demands and if refused, the ‘racist' card is pulled out of the hat.
To our detriment, the ‘R' word immediately shuts down dialogue.
Tommy Kapai wrote a wonderful article in 2009 about a white American actor who asked: 'Why is it that only whites can be racist?”
Mr. Kapai turned it around to a New Zealand scenario. To make a precis his article, 'You pass me on the street and sneer, you call me pakeha, honky, white boy and that's okay. But when I call you hori, nigger or curry muncher you call me a racist.
You have Maori Television but if we had White Entertainment Television, or any organisation for whites' only to 'advance” our lives, we'd be racists.
You rob us, rape us and shoot at us, but if a Pakeha police officer shoots a black gang member, or drug runner posing a threat to society, you call him a racist.
You have sports awards and tertiary scholarships exclusive to Maori. But if there was a college that gave money to whites' only, we would be called racists.
I have kept this memorable article for a long time now.
Mr Kapai ended with some very astute thoughts - 'For my two bob's worth, whatever colour we were born with, racism has no respect for religious freedom or the colour of a man's skin. It exists because we allow it to exist”.
R. Bishop, Pyes Pa.