Harawira is at it again. The Herald reports that he has written a column repeating his view that inter-racial relationships are not desirable.
In his regular column in the Northland Age this week, Mr Harawira says it seems “some boorish redneck wants to shove his boot right down my throat” every time he speaks.
“And so it was again last week when I made a comment about how I wouldn’t feel comfortable if one of my kids came home with a Pakeha for a date. But what was wrong with that?
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Before declaring this comment on its own to be racist I do think you need to read the full interview:
DC: What if one of your kids came home with a Pakeha, how would you feel about that?
HH: I wouldn’t feel comfortable.
DC: Why not?
HH: I just wouldn’t feel comfortable. That person will come into my house and not have a Maori expectation of how we operate. Do you know what I mean?
DC: Couldn’t you teach them that?
HH: Christ, like I have time for that. I don’t have time to be teaching people about that sort of stuff. We had this old Pakeha chap who died in our local community, and we brought him to our marae, and his mother came. She was really really old. And she stands up in the marae and she says,’this is wonderful. It’s the first marae I’ve ever been to’. She must have been 80-something. I think to myself,’for God’s sake’. You know what I mean?
I really don’t have time to be trying to teach people, aye. I’ve got [barely] enough time to teach my own, to teach myself. There’re some people who enjoy and are good at teaching non-Maori about Maori things. I’m not, so I don’t try. And I don’t try to bullshit anybody that I am, either.
Yes – he is a racist. Nothing to do with “Red Necks” (which is a derogatory term used against white people in its own right).
It shames me that a person who spews such racial hatred should ever be allowed in Parliament. He is no better than the scum white power people – although sadly just because he is Maori he gets away with it more.
Seems to me that Hone is the boorish redneck…
I have two daughters. In the future they will start dating. It is not the race that I would be concerned about but the ambition and education and values and personality that I am concerned about. Hone is a racist – he always has been. Until he get the chip off his shoulder he will hold Maori back.
It’s not just Hone Monty, there are many more like him with the same views. That’s why we have all the present (and past) claims and a multi million dollar industry built around Maori issues.
Hone wouldn’t even be on this earth if it weren’t for interracial marriage
Someone should point out that he’s part whitey 
I think he means someone who is predominately of a race darker than caucasian – how would he know if even an Indian didn’t have some whitey in him?
What if a dude looked white but had Maori ancestry?
The whole thing is ridiculous – people should be able to date whoever they want – how boring to just stick to your own kind. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
When Hone starts coming up with ideas for reducing unemployment and lowering prison numbers among Maori, or indeed the general population, then I’ll bother reading something he says…
Re racism: Hone has been taught by experts up here in the Far North. When I arrived in the mid 90s my son was invited to a Guy Fawkes night with other 6 year olds. The white dad explained to us that the ‘guy’ on the bonfire was none other than Hone Harawiria!-a “bad Maori”.
I wasn’t having that, and gave my opinion to the dad. I stood with Hone on the 81 Tour and in union matters for a short time too. I am still known as a n****r lover by a certain unpleasant group of pakeha in these parts as a consequence of that night and my subsequent support for certain iwi issues.
Hone appears to talk before engaging his brain, and he usually does mean what he says. I don’t like his uneven voting record in Parliament either, best of a bad bunch perhaps, but he is the one MP in the Maori party who is not totally a tory in disguise. He did manage to help organise a whole group of Maori into political activity, which Dover Samuels never managed.
It’s a waste of time taking Hone seriously.
The guy had potential, but can’t control his bigotry.
Everything history has dumped upon mighty NgaPuhiland, and then all we get is this adolescent MP who’s all hoha korero, no mahi.
Luckily, there’s a promising, inclusive alternative for my people, Mr Kelvin Davis.
Dr Scott Hamilton had a very good post on this: http://readingthemaps.blogspot.com/2010/08/hones-racism-was-made-in-europe.html
Why do we even have a party based on race, I don’t think I could come up with one example of a pakeha politician making a policy that is only meant to benefit pakeha, when policies are made by labour or national they effect all NZers maori pakeha or asia. If you have a party that is based on policies just to do with one race of course it will be full of racists what do you expect.
Hone ( birth name John Hatfield) thinks non Maoris in his house will ‘lower the standards’ by not knowing how to behave .
Funny that was the reason they had separate schools in the US and more recently SA.
balanced deleted – don’t be like him Trevor
Hone and HonKey don’t rhyme…
@Trev – I can’t remember what I wrote but I hope it wasn’t offensive I meant no offense.
not so much a racist as an idiot considering his own Pakeha ancestry. It is “natural to prefer your own kind” in the same way it is “natural” to be racist. But his remarks are too stupid to take seriously.
To be honest, It strikes me that with a Mother like his, could the poor sod say anything sensible anyway ??
i can’t believe i’m about to say this… hone has turned out to be a racist, true, but i must say that he, at least, has shown himself to be true to his principals. what you see is what you get, which is more than can be said for a large proportion of the people bagging him at any opportunity. his commitment to advocating for the average joe is there for all to see if they choose to look.
i won’t defend his bigotry, but two wrongs don’t make a right. racism, no matter which side you stand on is unacceptable.
Agreed
Firtly I don’t like at all the attitude behind Mr Harawira’s statements, but then I come from a multicultural family.
It seems the Harawiras are trying to create a Maori dynasty.
But imagine the look on the Queen’s face if Prince William brought home a black British girl? In a society where there is an unspoken understanding that will never happen, how can we then look at Mr Harawira a different way? But for the record, I don’t support a republic as that raises other equality issues.
“I don’t support a republic as that raises other equality issues.”
Like everyone being equal you mean..? That’s the equality I like…
i wouldn’t feel comfortable if one of my daughters came home with some types of pakeha either…
…if hone is guilty of anything, it’s not qualifying the type of pakeha
and please lets not confuse racism with cultural elitism.
“I don’t support a republic as that raises other equality issues.” – you’re on a loser there mate, good luck arguing that point.
Republicanism is about equality, but only on paper. It will create a bunch of Karori/Parnell aristocrats. We have seen it with our local judiciary, a self-perpetuating oligarchy as someone has described it. And this is particularly relevant as Parliament will probably seek to have a Parliament-appointed Head of State, which will most likely be a lawyer.
At least with the monarchy, they are isolated and overseas, and not swanning about NZ talking about how aspirational we are as they can’t say anything of substance as they are ‘apolitical’.
Republicanism in NZ = more cocktail parties for the guys and gals of the domestic elite. A republic debate will only encourage them and put SUBSTANTIVE equality issues like child poverty etc on the backburner.
Is Hone really the sort of company Key & Hide want to keep? I can easily see a sequel to the Tight 5.
@Random Student, you said: “But imagine the look on the Queen’s face if Prince William brought home a black British girl?” Given that unlike in the 80s, everyone now calls women of 18-25 “girls” I am going to be charitable and assume you mean a grown woman, and not a 6 year old (although it’s sad how society has regressed in that respect.)
However, as far as our Queer Old Dean is concerned, I’d be surprised if she would be at all bothered by her grandson bringing home a black woman. You’re making assumptions there, and stupid ones at that!
polly..! thank you. i had no idea that you could compartmentalise your racism. not that i’m calling you a racist. i just didn’t know you were allowed to hate some whites and not others. can you give me some examples? that would help to clear that up. i’d hate to think i was the kind of whitey that it is good to hate. i always thought i was a good bloke….
random s.. not sure you have the right page. interesting stream of consciousness stuff, but a tad irrelevant.
I think you’re a good bloke
A lot of parents do not feel comfortable with whoever
their kids come home with for a date.
Parents always check out prospective dates.
I know quite a few non maori parents who would fret about their young ones turning up with a maori date.
Given that pakeha parents view pakeha dates suspiciously, and that maori parents view maori dates suspiciously, (very especially if the the date is from a different tribe) what is the problem with Hone’s statement?
Mind you, anyone wanting to date a Harawira might raise questions, given that family’s notoriety.
Given the increasing diversity of the NZ cultural mix Hone’s statement is quite understandable.
We all feel uneasy about our children’s dates.
Hone, like the taliban, christian fundamentalists, zionists etc has fixed views on right and proper behaviour.
He is entitled to them.
His kids have to put up with it.
The rest of us can just get enjoying life.
I don’t think the Maori Party is racist. But Harawira certainly is, and unfortunately the Maori Party appears to condone him and his comments. Pity.
i had no idea that you could compartmentalise your racism. not that i’m calling you a racist. i just didn’t know you were allowed to hate some whites. can you give me some examples?
I love my lady. Shes white, jamaican/english/panamanian and loves me unconditionally.
I loved my Dad and Mum. He was in the air force, palagi, and married my mum, a Samoan nurse of royal blood in Christchurch in the 60′s.
I loved my nana. She looked after us during hard times growing up in Sth otago.
I hated the man she married, my step grandfather. He’d sit in front of the TV and say ‘bloody niggers’ whenever he saw a person of colour standing up for their rights and treat us like shit while fawning over my white cousins.
I hated some of my white cousins. They’d side with their white farmer mates in letting them verbally abuse us at school for being non white in small town sth otago in the 80′s.
I hated the skinheads who stabbed my Samoan cousin to death in Christchurch for standing up to them when they were abusing a Pasifikan girl.
Would i want my half maori daughters to bring home dates like a skinhead, a small minded rural bigot or some old school entrenched racist ?…would you ? does Hone ?
For me, race is a false construct i don’t really buy into, thus making racism a total crock. Issues where people cry racism are rarely about race, it’s usually about cultural elitism, intolerance and maintaining cultural dominance, but as soon as the ‘R’ word crops up, all the bullshit associated with it blinds any further meaningful discussion as everyone adopts their pre-conditioned responses.
Cultural elitism and a percieved superiority is what Hone practises at home and what traditionally, white colonial gov’ts have done right up to the present one.
You can’t choose your rellies/ancestors but you can choose which culture you wish to identify with and initially, which you want your kids to hang around with.
i personally don’t trust anyone wearing a suit no matter what race/culture/ethnicity they are, because clothes/costume are as much an identifier of culture as language.
and if you’re wearing a suit, then you’re down with ‘the man’ and are willing to, if you haven’t already, sold out your native culture to corporate culture and capitalist greed.
I like to think of myself as one of those no ‘sell out’ by any means necessary type of guys. It hasn’t and won’t get me materially far in life but i can look in a mirror and love myself for what i do and who i am. I’m sure there’s a lot of people who can’t.
here’s a link worth checking out…or not
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/race/
and this guy’s blog is ummmm..interesting
http://guywhite.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/how-small-genetic-differences-give-racial-divergency/
and if thats too taxing here’s a pretty picture
http://www.mathiole.com/unicverse/
Why is anyone still paying attention to the Maori equivalent to a redneck nutter from the other extreme.
Sorry to hear that Pollywog, some fine words though.
If, and when we have an equal, fair, society, comments like Hone’s should be taken at face value, but all over the world we get this type of attitude because it isn’t fair or equal.I think we are lucky in NZ where we don’t have a racist ingrained society and efforts are made to have an equal society. We still have bigotry no matter the colour of one’s skin or ethnicity but there is a concerted effort to right the wrongs of the past of which I applaud.
Who said Parliament has to be agreeable? I think Hone’s comment raised questions as to why he was right or wrong to utter such thoughts/.words. All good in my book
@ pollywog, (hows the estuary) Don’t love the suits either.
Cheers spud, but i reckon it’s still gonna take at least another 2 generations to breed/instill a widespread culture of success and even the playing field for us. looking forward to the day we get our first Pasifikan prime minister
and yeah, estuary’s great Sofie…only i can see an oil rig off in the distance, somewhere off the marlborugh sounds. dunno what that’s all about, doesn’t seem to be much mention of it on-line ?