[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y9EMEHS7v4]
You must not mistreat or oppress foreigners in any way. Remember, you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt –Exodus 22:21 (New Living Translation)
[ Although outright or confrontational racism is contemptible, there is also subtle racism, and even casual racism. Each kind when exposed should be rooted out and allowed to expire in the sunlight of universal brotherhood / sisterhood. The video above has nothing to do with the blog by the way, just liked it enough to repost here. mabuhay! ]
THERE WAS A REASON THE CONTRACTOR and his team (one of many on our site, please don’t ask me which) took to me a little more easily than everyone else on staff, even though he himself was European New Zealander (that means white / caucasian, for the uninformed). The reason was his wife who helped him often was Thai, and many on his team were Thais, Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders. When they learned my ethnicity, that was close enough.
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And yet, not close enough. We were discussing the family of four that were “Patients Zero” on the so-called “second wave” of covid19 positives, re-raising of Covid19 Alert Levels and lockdowns in Auckland and potentially the rest of New Zealand. It mystified the media and the public that there seemed to be no source of infection for the family, who it must be stated this early are Pacific Islander. They didn’t come from overseas, were not even close to any known positive cases, and it was nearly impossible for them to have been infected from their community.
In a casual conversation with our contractor, he ventured this opinion, not verbatim, but I got his meaning instantly: in so many words, he said that the reason contact tracing isn’t working on this family is because they’re not telling the truth.
And the contractor didn’t end there; he even had a sub-theory, which was that one of the family members probably broke into a quarantined area for purposes of material gain, got infected, and because such an act would earn him/her more criticism, chose to hide it from the authorities.
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Never mind that it’s almost certain that asymptomatic cases have caused multiple generations of infections after the Alert Level was first lowered in June, and never mind that there is no factual background for these theories. This person, who seemed pleasant enough, was oblivious not only to the fact that the person he was speaking to (me) was in terms of race practically a Pacific Islander, but that his wife, and nearly all his staff, were the same. Obviously the irony was lost on him.
(Would he have formulated such a theory if the family of four was Pakeha/white? Would he have been as willing to believe, as he did believe, such a scenario, if the family remained anonymous, which some had recommended?)
Shocked as I was, I’m ashamed to say I let it slide, for multiple reasons. I was not about to start an argument with him as it wasn’t the time and place, and I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, based on our previous pleasantries. But it did leave a bad taste in my mouth.
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I was sad not just because of his subtly racist opinion, but because I know deep down that many of our white friends and neighbors believe the same thing. The unknown often breeds fear, and fear is one of the best friends of racism.
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On a Filipino Facebook page, a group of mask-wearing Filipinos reported that at a major hardware store checkout counter, they were greeted with snide remarks (parinig in Tagalog) from fellow customers.
Why are you wearing masks? they were asked.
Why, Jacinda (Ardern, the New Zealand prime minister) recommended it as soon as Auckland entered Alert level 3 they said.
No, you’re wearing masks because you guys are spreading covid all over again! Just go back to where you came from! Making matters worse was that no staff stood up to defend these brown brothers and sisters.
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One of our kabayan (fellow Filipino) couriers was delivering a package when the receiver upon receipt asked him if his ethnicity was Filipino. Upon answering in the positive, the inevitable comment came: you guys are bringing back the virus here, why did you have to come back? You should have stayed in the Philippines. Such incident was also reported in a Facebook post.
There is a very thin line between bullying and racism, but because we give these misguided people the benefit of the doubt, as race (our race) is somewhat involved, let’s call it subtle racism.
But subtle racism is just a slight push away from the ugly kind, the one that comes from the angry mob. Whether or not it’s from lack of knowledge, fear or the pandemic, we can’t idly watch it fester and grow. I admit I should have talked to that contractor above, and given him a piece of my mind.
Because it starts with you and me.
