A former friend and I used to debate Matters Māori . He steadfastly maintained that New Zealand is racist against people with Māori ancestry. His main argument was that film director Taika Waititi has publicly claimed that New Zealand is racist.
Mr Waititi has indeed made that claim, and he’s entitled to his view. Waititi’s claim came in a 2018 interview for Dazed magazine with musician Ruban Nielson. After Nielson mooted an “idealised vision of New Zealand as like Australia without the racism,” Waititi responded, “Nah, it’s racist as f**k. I mean…it’s a racist place. People just flat-out refuse to pronounce Māori names properly…”
