Taika Waititi Says New Zealand is Racist

Acclaimed Hollywood director and filmmaker Taika Waititi said New Zealand is “racist as fuck” in a recent interview where he recalled being racially profiled as a teenager.
In a recent interview with Dazed and Confused magazine, the excellent director of Thor Ragnarok, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Boy said although he loves New Zealand, a strong vein of racism towards Maori and Polynesian people permeates society.
“I think New Zealand is the best place on the planet, but it’s a racist place,” Waititi said.
“People just flat-out refuse to pronounce Maori names properly. There’s still profiling when it comes to Polynesians. It’s not even a colour thing – like, ‘Oh, there’s a black person.’ It’s, ‘If you’re Poly then you’re getting profiled.”
Waititi says as a young boy of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui descent, he was employed by a small grocery store dairy, but was not allowed to work at the cash register.
As a young boy of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui descent, Waititi was employed by a small grocery store dairy, but was not allowed to work at the cash register. He says:
“I really cherish the memories of how I grew up, [but] it was actually pretty shit, growing up poor in the country,” said Waititi.
“I remember getting a job at a dairy and they would never give me a job at the till, I was always at the back washing vegetables. And then one day one of the owners asked me if I sniffed glue – like, ‘Are you a glue-sniffer?’ In my head I was like, ‘Motherfucker, you grew up with my mum!’ And I knew for sure that he didn’t ask other kids in the store if they were glue-sniffers.”
Instances of racism are on the rise in New Zealand, with a third of all complaints to the commission regarding racist discrimination, According to the Human Rights Commission. It is thought the vast majority of racial abuse still remains unreported.
> Shiuly Akter