Racism and its condemnation to-day:
This is a copy of a letter I wrote to the Manawatu Standard:
Editor;
"Palmerston North has its very own Donald Trump! or even wee Boris Johnson
Yes it is now clear after his latest rant was published in Saturdays Manawatu Standard… and his name is Steve Elers a so-called lecturer from Massey University…
In yet another stupid opinion piece he claims that the hundred's of thousands [millions world wide] of protesters are nothing more than looters and thief's, because he viewed [a Fox news] film showing looting etc taking place in a city in the USA.
By doing so he gives credence the typical trump style bull-shit of Donald Trump and Fox News crap that dominates US news media, for the uneducated white poor.
"From the comfort of my home I saw groups of individuals smashing windows, burning buildings and stealing products of all kinds, ranging from shoes to jewellery – all in the name of fighting systemic racism, of course”. Elers wrote sarcastically in his opinion rant. He never mentioned the reason for the massive US wide protests and missed the important fact that protesters have and did attempt to stop the looters from looting etc.
He goes on to suggest that the protesters should simply get educated and vote!
In the US and especially in the Racist South state governments do everything in their power to stop blacks, and people of colour and others from voting, they rig the election system to ensure that black votes don’t count, or that black lives don’t matter. He fails to point out that the protesters consist of thousands if not hundreds of thousands whom are white Americans, who are educated. I would suggest that the Manawatu Standard find a new Opinion writer, one who shows some balance and does not simply push the white racist line, pumped out daily by Trumps child like tweets.[letter ends]
Of course Wee Donald has a wee mate in the UK, Boris Johnson, a friend sent me a reference proving that Johnson like Trump is truly racist, he may be fractionally more intelligent, because I think Johnson can read! open this and have a read about a few of the recorded utterances of wee Boris J:
https://www.indy100.com/article/boris-johnson-uk-is-not-racist-quotes-black-lives-matter-protests-9557051
After reading that, you may like to wonder where to fit wee Steve Elers into the mix? And that fair enough, most countries have racist's in some shape or form, they come in all shades of colour and social positions, they are in politics and also abound in most levels of society even our universities.
And I too have had to adjust my own behavour in regard to racism, My Dad came from Bristol and just a little while ago I visited Bristol and myself and my daughter Lisa located the place where he lived. I never realised that Bristol was built on the back of the slave trade so it came as no surprise that the people of Bristol pulled down the statue of the most wealthy villain who made his fortune shipping thousands upon thousands of black Africans to America and the West Indies, and tossed into the sea.
I remember well, the shocked look on my Dads face, when I brought home a young Maori woman to meet him and my Mom who was sweet and accepted her fully] This was when I was about 15 or sixteen...well our relationship was by teenage standards short lived...his [my father's] racism was built in...
But after joining the military a year or two later, and serving with hundreds of wonderful Maori servicemen both in NZ and Malaysia my inbuilt racism died a natural death, thank God and today I support the Black Lives Matter movement fully.
And I hope you do too!
One last comment: The British slave trader statue in London being removed in London...even the British are waking up...
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-52977088
Have a good weekend and stay safe....
