* (REEL CLICKS) Titiro, whanau! Log out of Facebook and turn off Twitter. Time to take a break from throwing online stones and tackle one of the most taboo subjects in modern life. (RHYTHMIC DRUMBEATS) (DRUMBEATS CONTINUE) Fuck off, Nazi scum! LOUDHAILER: Fuck off, Nazi scum! They're not us; we're not them. (DRUMBEATS) I reckon we're just the same. (DRUMBEATS) I think they should be in their own countries. (DRUMBEATS) We're going downhill. (RHYTHMIC DRUMBEATS) (PUMPING ROCK MUSIC) Go back to your fuckin' own country! (BLEEP). (WOMAN CALLS IN TE REO MAORI) (PUMPING ROCK MUSIC CONTINUES) PAUL HOLMES: He's been a very cheeky darkie. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) Congratulations, Aotearoa. Being up for round two on racism is a win. If we want to deal with racism in this country, we need to start telling the truth. They say, 'Oh, what's it like in New Zealand?' 'Uh, it's racist.' You can't ignore racism. If you ignore racism, it just multiplies. Sheila Dikshit. (CACKLES) (HORN HONKS) Humour and cartooning is one way opinions get aired. They're about instant enlightenment. That's how you can tell if a cartoon works is that you get it straight away. Nothing's left to chance in a cartoon, which makes sense, cos this little frame, everything in it is there for a reason. Cartoons are very subjective in terms of how people read them. We're all gonna have a different take on it, depending on the cultural baggage we bring to it. So if you ask people about the cartoon that was in the daily paper this morning in the tearoom, they'll probably all have a different kind of take on it, a different meaning from it. The pen is mightier than the sword when it comes to racism, and shooting from the lip is pretty effective too. I'll talk a bit about myself. Obviously a bit on the darker side of the meat aisle. (LAUGHTER) But, yeah, there's pros and cons to looking like myself, obviously. Bit of a pro is no one tries to sell me anything on the streets, eh. (LAUGHTER) Not a single thing. I figured it out, though. I think what it is is I think Amnesty International, they'll see me walk past and they'll go, 'Aw, that is who we're doin' it for.' (LAUGHTER) You know what? You're not even meant to laugh at that. That's, uh, that's what hurts. Humour can take the heat out of this topic. Another way is to look back so we can congratulate ourselves on how far we have come. (STATIC HISSES, CLICKING) Let's try this Old Skool style. (HARP GLISSANDO) Today we're looking at what makes a real New Zealander. What do you think it is that makes you a real Kiwi? BOTH: # Were you born here? # Tell us, were you? Were you born here? If so, well, how do you do? # But if you weren't born here, well, that just won't do # because you're not a real Kiwi. # Big Ted was born here, and Jemima was too. # Yes, they were born here, Kiwis through and through. # Jemima just said that she was born in Australia, and Big Ted was born in England. But we can call them Kiwis because they pretty much look like New Zealanders, don't they? But Rajeev and Ming, well, they're a little bit different, aren't they? # Ming wasn't born here, and neither was he. # So we shouldn't really call them Kiwis. # Although they want to make New Zealand their own, # we'd like them to go home. Yes, go home! Let's have a look at other New Zealanders who were born here. Through the... (HARP GLISSANDO) ...square window. Many of those who will have been directly affected by this shooting may be migrants to New Zealand, they may even be refugees here. They have chosen to make New Zealand their home, and it is their home. The 'new school' approach shows promise, yet slurs and taunts are a daily downer for some. You know, like, I would get those comments, 'Oh, you're an Oreo ` 'white on the inside, black on the outside.' And I'm just like, 'Wow.' There are some people ` in my school, at least ` who actually call some people niggers. I don't think the N-word should be said at all, to be honest. Some will have suffered to be here and experienced that abuse. I think migration is difficult for any person. Suddenly you leave your home and you entered in a country that you don't` in a strange country, with lots of anxieties of, 'How will I settle in?' It took us some time to feel safe in the country. I think that rewiring in the brain took some time. I remember after a few days the person that we were living with, I asked, 'Is it safe to walk outside the gate?' And looked at me strangely. She said, 'Of course it's safe.' But for me that was, like, a normal question, you know? That's how I was used to it. Many young women who wear hijab find that extremely difficult to manage. They are harassed, they are bullied, people try to take it off them. And then they're questioned ` 'Why are you wearing that? Are you oppressed?' 'Is your father a terrorist?' And they feel like they have to defend their culture. Things I've heard, like, a Muslim woman who had to go to university, and every time she sit for exam, somebody would come and check inside her scarf... if she had` you know, if she had anything inside. But it wasn't once, it was every single day that she was going for exam. Ni hao. Ni hao ma. Mera naam Jo hai. Mabuhay. BOTH: Mabuhay! (CHUCKLES) Do we look like we're just soliciting? (LAUGHS) You do. I don't. (LAUGHS) So, how do you feel when people are ignoring you? You're reaching out, you're saying hello. I feel really bummed out, but it makes you realise, if English isn't your first language, how hard it must be in everyday life just to communicate with people, eh. 100%. Ni hao! Hi. Mabuhay! Mera naam Jo hai. Hi. - MEN: Mabuhay! - Yeah! BOTH: Ni hao ma! Wow! I've never been so ignored in my life. So, how big a deal are differences in race, culture and language? Meet our test audience of multicultural Kiwis. We put real-life questions to them to see how different things are for those born here versus those born elsewhere. (ELECTRONIC MUSIC) (DING!) (DING!) (DING!) (DING!) (SCATTERED APPLAUSE) * (REEL WHIRRS) (MUNCHING) I'm leaving Christchurch; I'm going through airport security. There's a group of young boys ` they look like they're on a sports team, going to some kind of tournament in another part of the country. The airport security guard says to one of them, 'Excuse me, young man. Can I just check what's in your bag?' And the kid ` the white kid with all his white friends ` goes, 'Don't worry, man. It's just a bomb. (LAUGHS)' (LAUGHTER) And all the young white boys start cackling along with him. (IMITATES GOOFY LAUGHTER) Do you know who else starts having a giggle with them as well? The fuckin' airport security guard! (SCATTERED LAUGHTER) Just... (IMITATES GOOFY LAUGHTER) And in that moment, while he's laughing, I swear to God I'm standing there staring at this, going, 'This is unbelievable, 'what's happening before me.' While the airport security guard is laughing, he just turns to me slowly and locks eyes with me, as if to say, 'This joke's not for you, buddy.' (LAUGHTER) Our group The Naked Samoans, I can remember our last show in Christchurch, where we used to do shows as part of the Laugh festival. And they didn't let us into the changing room. And we were like, 'What?' And they went, 'Oh, but the other performer's on stage, 'and all their stuff's in there.' (LAUGHS) We're like, 'But we're on stage after her, 'and we're performing and we have to get ready.' We were like, 'Far out, stuff this.' And then the next night, I think the stage manager, she'd apologised, and there was a little polystyrene cup of lollies. And actually, that night we were really upset, and are going out, and then we walked into a bar that very same night, and ordered a drink. And there was three of us, and the barman's like, 'Do you have money?' We were like, 'What?! (SCOFFS) Yeah, you make a drink and then we'll give you the money.' He wanted to see our money first. We never performed in Christchurch after that. (REFLECTIVE ELECTRONIC MUSIC) With the benefit of hindsight, warning signs seem obvious. The far right are firmly in the sights of Sydney's Western University Challenging Racism Project. We draw attention to the far right and the followers of the far right, and the threat that they pose to community relations, to public order in this country. This is based on a theory called consensus theory, which says that if people with really negative views are given any sense that their view is the consensus or the majority view, we know they will be more likely, therefore, to actually take action based on their views, to say more racist things, and to do harmful, racist things. (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC) With the Christchurch mosque attacks, some took solace in the shooter being Australian. It's easy to blame others, but not helpful. Of course Australia is racist. We shouldn't be asking that question any more. I think most countries in the world have moved beyond that question, right? Yes, we're racist; what can we do about it? And because we're stuck at that, 'Are we racist?' we don't get to move into the next phase of that, which is ` what do we do about it? Right now we are, in Australia, seeing what we refer to as Islamophobia. And we are in a period in Australia in which we're seeing a flourishing of racism, an inculcation and encouragement of racism for political short-term ends. Australia's Challenging Racism Project puts them light years ahead of Aotearoa. Our Islamic Women's Council has begged several governments for help dealing with discrimination. We have yet to fund anything like these public awareness campaigns. (PEOPLE LAUGH) Hey. Hey, where'd you get your scarf from? Pardon? Oh, bye-bye. You know, in Australia we use tea towels for washing the dishes. A documentary on racism filmed a woman being racially abused for wearing a burka. People stopped and watched. The media has a fundamental role in regard to racism. It carries the images and the pictures of different groups that inform people's perspectives on those groups. MAN: ...that we are facing an enemy who is fierce, who is relentless. (GUNFIRE) ...the attackers screaming, 'Allahu akbar' and 'Syria'. Many Kiwis may feel the quality and integrity of our media means we don't get that kind of bias. We took that theory to the street. We asked people to show us where on a world map they associate with Islam. If I give you a word, can you show me on the map what first springs to mind? Islam. Haven't a clue. Somewhere around the Middle East somewhere. Middle East? Around there. Around here somewhere. Around... Yeah, in here. Iran, Iraq, Islam. Why do you pick that area? That's what they show me on TV. Probably from on telly. Just, uh, how you see a lot of things online talking about Islam, and usually they go there. Did you know that actually about 62% of Muslims are based in this area here? And Indonesia has the most population ` about 13%. Wow. We found that about a third of Australians say that they have a pretty good understanding of Islam and its followers. And we asked them what they knew, then. And actually, they didn't know much at all. What they had was stereotypes and prejudices and misinformation. (STATIC, CLICK!) Asking people about how racist they are doesn't work. So Harvard University developed a test based on how the brain processes tasks with a racial element to them. How quickly we do these tasks reveals hidden preferences. We asked Kiwis to do things designed to test bias. The results ranged from neutral to slightly preferring one race through to strongly preferring one race. This, Aotearoa, is the hard-wired prejudice in our country. * (STATIC, CLICK!) (STATIC CRACKLES) (HARP GLISSANDO) This morning, we thought we'd take a drive, so we built a pretend car. Is everyone ready back there? Hope you've got your seat belts on. It's fun and easy to make a car like this. You can make yourself one at home. We just got some boxes from Raj's dairy and a cardboard tube and a paper plate like this, and there you have your steering wheel. (CHUCKLES) Perhaps we can all have a turn at driving today. That's a great idea, Lynette. Raj, how would you like to be our driver today? Big Ted said Raj couldn't drive the car cos it isn't a Prius. Huh! He said that people who wear silly hats and talk funny are normally Uber drivers. (CHUCKLES) How about you, Lynette? Would you like to be our driver today? I would love that. Why the funny sound, Big Ted? (LAUGHS) Big Ted said that we won't live long if I drive. And he's right. Have you seen how people who look like me drive around Auckland? That's so true. Well, it looks like I'll be driving us today. What's wrong? Won't the car start? No, it's not that. I just remembered that people who look like me often get pulled over by the police for no reason at all, so we might not get very far today. (LAUGHS) Oh, Big Ted! He's always finding funny names to describe people who look like you. Isn't he funny? (CHUCKLES) I'm sorry, I knew it would be an Asian person; it was an Asian person. That's just the way it is. They do not know how to follow the road. Either that or they're too arrogant` No, you can't generalise. I am generalising, and I'm admitting I'm generalising, but it's what I see with these eyes. These eyes are not lying, are they? They're just not lying. If you're slightly prejudice, a tiny little itty bit of racism within you, you might notice the Asian who ran the yellow light more than you notice a young Pakeha hoon who just did the same thing. (SIREN WAILS) So I'll reverse that stereotype. My stereotype is there's a lot more New Zealand European young hoons than there are Asian hoons in this country. Hm? Based on an accurate base rate? I don't know. It's just my stereotype. So it's going to be based slightly on your experience. But also, human experience is very inaccurate for noticing the facts, as Donald Trump is the most expert purveyor of in recent history. As they say in Beijing, two Wongs don't make a white. (LAUGHTER) Immigration's become an issue in this country particularly since we changed the rules and regulations in the late 1980s. That moral panic dates from here on the North Shore and the North Shore Times and Pat Booth writing about the 'inv-Asian', I-N-V- Asian, and asking questions about what this country was becoming. You're talking to someone who rejected her Chinese culture and refused to learn Chinese. Because of how I never fitted in, growing up in a white world, I rejected my Chinese culture. I associate with the word 'Asian'. Like, I do feel that relates to me, but I'm also aware that I feel like the word 'Asian' has kind of morphed to only include East Asians. Personally, I don't really like it that much, just because it, like, groups a whole bunch of different ethnicities together into something that people can use very, like, blatantly and very rudely. I kind of prefer being a lot more specific, such as, 'I'm a Kiwi Singaporean' kind of thing, rather than just saying that I'm Asian in general. Take a step in so we're a bit closer to each other. I think for Chinese people living in New Zealand today, some of the issues that we face, which is a sense of identity and belonging in a country that perhaps doesn't traditionally see us as being from here, and there's that challenge of retaining the culture you had but accepting the new culture that you've come into. Hi, everyone. My name is Julian. My Chinese name is Liu Yaolong. And I'm a Hakka, but, uh` Same! Yeah? All right! I came here at the age of 3. I am still on a Singaporean passport, very proudly on a Singaporean passport. I am a New Zealander that happens to be Chinese and from Chinese origins. On my mum's side, there's five generations in New Zealand, so, like, I'm very proud of that. And, um, even though I'm exploring my Chinese-ness, um, I always consider New Zealand home. I'm more than a Chinese ` I'm an old Chinese. (LAUGHTER) I'm the oldest one here. So I expect, as the Chinese do, you will all respect me. (LAUGHTER) I am the newcomer to New Zealand, maybe. I just came here from this year. Well, I've been in New Zealand only for two years now. But whenever I apply for a job, I always get asked what kind of race do I identify myself as. And people do treat you differently. Hiya, my name's Melinda, and I was born and I grew up here, and my parents are both from China. And, um, I'm 100% Chinese, and when my friends talk about being mixed race, I'm just in the corner, like, 'I can't relate.' (CHUCKLING) For a long time I have not been proud of my own heritage because, 'Oh, you're Chinese.' And everybody ` everybody looks down. Depend on their skin colour. So when you get to know your own heritage, then of course you are proud of your heritage. And then, jeez, I can be just as racist, unfortunately. There's been as strong rise of real xenophobia, yeah, and racism. And it's because of the fear of the unknown, and with the resources not being well split and the divide in wealth, someone needs to blame someone. But also, look, I'm to blame for the housing crisis, all right? So, like, I'll totally take that, apparently. So every time I walk into a room, there's an awkward silence. And, um, I sort of, like, think about it like an invisible glass wall. And as soon as I'm able to communicate, they sort of relax, knowing that I can speak in English. However, that doesn't mean that I understand Kiwi English. (CHUCKLES) The very first day I was taken to the pub, the lady in the counter offered me a beer, my very first beer. And almost instantly she said, 'Would you like some tea with your beer?' I thought, 'Oh, that's strange. They drink tea here with their beer.' And I said, 'No, I don't want any tea. I want food.' (CHUCKLES) So that's the first time I learned that there's morning tea, there's afternoon tea, and... which means a meal. I do genuinely feel very accepted and loved here in New Zealand. But there is a handful of times when I feel like an immigrant, you know? And I'd say one of those handfuls of times is whenever I'm on Facebook and I read an article about immigration, and for some reason a voice in my head's like, 'Read the comments. Read the comments. 'Read the comments.' (LAUGHTER) And I read the comments, and there's always a guy in the comments section who's like, 'We wouldn't be having any problems with all of these immigrants 'if they just assimilated to New Zealand straight away, 100% of the time.' Right? 100%. It really annoyed me. Cos the idea of assimilating to a new country is way more nuanced than that shit. It doesn't happen overnight. Not every family is like, boom, Kiwi. For instance, my family was sometimes very Filipino, which is, duh, no shit, look at this. But then sometimes we were Kiwi as fuck. Like, my dad loved the All Blacks. A little too much, you know, as if Immigration was watching. (LAUGHTER) He'd be like, 'Oh, ref, what was that? Open your eyes and see the wonderful country that we have. 'Kia ora, New Zealand.' (LAUGHTER) (CLICK!) Taika Waititi asked New Zealanders to give a little to racism. Some stepped up more than others. Harvard tested levels of bias toward Maori. Just 18% of North Islanders favoured Maori, and only 10% of South Islanders. (CLICK! STATIC HISSES) (HARP GLISSANDO) We're having an auction to sell my tricycle. And I'm gonna help Shimpal by really pressuring people who've come from overseas and still learning English. That's great, Lynette. Why don't you sit next to her? Oh! I'll sit next to Ming. Ni hao ma, Ming. Now, is everyone ready? Big Ted, you don't look very happy. What's wrong, Big Ted? Big Ted just said that he won't be able to afford the trike now that she's here. He said her kind come to this country with all their money and push up prices. Big Ted sounds a bit grumpy, doesn't he? What about Manu, Big Ted? She might win the trike. No, he's not worried about Manu. He said she won't have much money. (CHUCKLES) Just look at her. (CHUCKLES UNCOMFORTABLY) Oh well, shall we just get along with the bidding, shall we? (GASPS) Ming just bet $1000. Oh wow, that's a lot! Is anyone else gonna bid for my tricycle? What was that, Big Ted? Have you got a bid? No, Big Ted doesn't wanna bid. Instead, he just found another funny name to describe her. (BOTH LAUGH) * (FUNKY MUSIC) It all started with an observation that one of my colleagues, Rob Sparrow, had. He was looking for an image of a brown robot, and he couldn't find any. ROBOT: That is a bit racist. One of the problems that you have when you study racism is that you cannot directly ask the question that you're most interested in. If you go to a person and ask him, 'Hey, are you a racist?' most likely they will say, 'No, of course not. 'I'm not a racist.' What you have to do instead is that you have to use implicit tests. And these implicit tests don't give people the opportunity to rationalise about their choices. We use the very well-established shooter bias study as a way to investigate these kind of racial biases. And the way it works is that you put the participant of these experiments in the role of a police officer. And this participant then gets to see an image for a fraction of a second. And this would either be a person that has a gun in his or her hand or a benign object, such as a remote control or candy bar or soda can. And then the participant has to make the choice between either shoot or not shoot. When the person displayed was Caucasian, it took people less time to make a decision. And therefore this was called shooter bias. So we replicated this original study exactly, but we added robots to the mix. We racialized the robot ` we made them look like they were black robot or Caucasian white robots. And what we looked at is ` does the shooter bias occur there as well? And it turns out it does. This is quite surprising because, after all, a robot is a machine, it's not a human. But it's surprising that it happens with robots as well. Studying human behaviour and statistics helps explain how we react to change or new things. One brave Kaitaia man is putting himself on the line for a live experiment. Oh, live experiment. This'll be good. Meet Paul. He admits being uneasy about seeing different faces in the street, but wants to challenge himself to change that. Coming to Kaitaia 25 years ago, it's a pretty even mix, 50/50 with Maori and Europeans. And for the last few years I've noticed that that mix is starting to change, with especially Indians. I was born in Huntly, that's my claim to fame, but I was actually brought up in Brown's Bay. When I go and visit my mum, totally changed. It seems more than 50% immigrants, mainly Orientals. I am a little bit apprehensive of perhaps a flood changing my lifestyle. It might be our grandchildren that have to live with whatever's coming. They're the ones that are gonna have to adapt more than the person like me that's gonna ride it out. ) and his family are putting on dinner. It's a warm-up for Paul because he's gonna be eating Indian in India soon. I haven't interacted with Indians, unless they own a takeaway bar that I... go to. How are ya, JJ? Good, how are you? Yeah, good. 'I expected them to be lined up with all smiles on their faces 'in their costumes, the ones that wanted to be, and be accepted.' This is called appam. Traditional Keralan. How do you eat that? In Kerala it's our tradition to eat with our hands. But if you wanna have it with your spoon... No, I love eating with my hands. (LAUGHS) Oh, you just... Can't do that? No, you don't do that. (LAUGHTER) So you just take small piece, you know. You dip and... Oh, OK. Mmm! Nice. JJ's a perfect example of somebody that's wanting to fit and wanting to stay here. They all think this is permanent now. They realise that what we've got's so good. (CLICK!) Part of the background for our Harvard bias test included asking Kiwis about levels of immigration. That's right, whanau, titiro, because this is how you see it. 72% of Kiwis are actually happy with current immigration levels. (CLICK! STATIC HISSES) Today we're having Story Time. This is a very famous story, or rongonui. It's an Indian story written by a Scottish lady. This is the story of Little Black Sambo. That's a colourful title, isn't it? Uh, perhaps we should call it` Once upon a time there was a little black boy, and his name was Little Black Sambo. Certainly is an old-fashioned book, isn't it, Shimpal? Perhaps we should change the name of the boy to, um... ...Little Black Boy? Or maybe we should call him a name that's more commonly used today. What shall we call him, Jemima? That's a great name, Jemima. Well done. Certainly is. And very modern too. And his name was Little Cheeky Darkie. And his mother's name was Black Mambo. Ooh, that's a bit old-fashioned too, isn't it? Can you think of another name we could call Little Cheeky Darkie's mother? What was that, Big Ted? Yes, Curry-Muncher. Perfect! Raj said that he gets called that all the time by people at school. Well done, Big Ted. And his father was called Black Jumbo. Oh, that's a bit old-fashioned too, isn't it? Can you think of a name we could call Little Cheeky Darkie's father? There are lots of modern ways to describe people who look different from us. Let's hear some through... (HARP GLISSANDO) ...the round window. (MAN SPEAKS INDIAN LANGUAGE) (SPEAKS GIBBERISH) Go back to your fuckin' own country. (BLEEP). This is another racist guy here. Now they know they're on the Facebook. Yeah, you Punjabi (BLEEP). Youse are all faggots. (REFLECTIVE MUSIC) Fearing what is different is part of our DNA. But it's something that we change with contact, as Paul from Kaitaia is finding out. I thought that people were going to be basically a different colour, the fact that everybody was not European, everybody was brown. Research has shown contact can be the antidote to prejudice. Paul had never left New Zealand. After a meal with JJ in Kaitaia, he got an invite to visit the family in Kerala. Namaste. Namaste. This is Jacob, JJ's father. This is JJ's mother, Harmony. Yeah. JJ's brother. Dejan. Dejan? New Zealand, we heard that it is a very peaceful country, everything is open, and there is no crime there. That is why we are very happy to send the child to... Probably not as good as you think, but, um, a great place for children. The only worry is the family traditions we keep a lot. Yeah. We don't Westernise much. (CHUCKLES) JJ invited us to his place, made me feel very special, and I quite honestly have never felt like that with my own people` my own friends. I've never felt like that before. (SPEAKS INDIAN LANGUAGE) (LAUGHTER) Sorry? They are saying it is because of our children, our culture. Of course. That is our culture. (CHUCKLES) Youse can do it much better than us. (GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC) JJ gave me a couple of photos. It's nice. Yeah. I will warn you, he's turning into a little Kiwi. And he's gonna have a little Kiwi, too, isn't he? And we are so proud that he is there now. This place showed me how you can live in that close proximity to one another. I've been busily being aggressively protecting my space. I'm going to try and be much more tolerant of others because I've had a life lesson out there of how it should be done. I almost can't understand JJ's enthusiasm for Kaitaia, you know, after this. It seems so ordinary now and so... Everywhere you look here now is a new scene, whereas in Kaitaia you can drive for 5 or 6 K and it won't change much. Ah, change. What a magic word. * (REEL WHIRRS, JINGLING MUSIC) (CRUNCHING) I think New Zealand is a mostly open-minded, forward-thinking country, right? It's a cool place to grow up as a young brown person, genuinely. 90% of the time I felt like I was part of the club, right? 90% of the time I felt like a New Zealander, I felt accepted. The reason I say 90% is because there is a 10% where I felt like an outsider. Right? A foreigner. I say 10% cos it doesn't happen often, which is a good thing, but it's still enough for me to notice it. Right? Still enough for me to notice it. Like is it unfair to say that it is always elderly white women? No, because it's always elderly white women. (LAUGHTER) Elderly white women are like your guys' Isis ` it's just a few people fucking it up for everybody else. Here's an elderly white woman we prepared earlier. What do I think I am? Yes. I was born here. What are you talkin' about? Does it matter where I was born? Why does it matter? New Zealand. Hang on, an old white guy has something to say about this. The lead-up to the game was awesome. I mean, I've never seen so many red flags in my life. Houses were painted red and white, and the hype in the Tongan community was awesome. When the incident happened, during half time, we had, um, what was called the dance cam zooming in on all the characters on all the people, all the fans in the crowd. But then there was a gentleman behind me who was an official of some sort, who started making the remark, 'Dance, monkey, dance.' Whilst in that production booth, I felt like I was frozen, frozen in time, whereas there were 26,000 people outside of... of my ethnicity waving flags, having the time of their life, and I felt like I was... helpless. So sharing the post and sharing my thoughts on social media was really just me... just letting people know these scenarios and these situations happen all the time. I've seen it happen to one of my family members out in town before, yeah. She's been subjected to, like, a lot of racial slurs, like, 'Go back to your country,' you know, 'You don't belong here,' stuff like that. The racism I, kind of, experience is sort of like... wrapped around, like` almost like a joke, really. They joke about racism. And, yeah, we... I go through that at least on, like, a pretty daily basis, pretty much. Those people have allowed stereotypes to be instilled in them rather than seeing themselves as human beings first and really understand who they are as a person, rather than as a background. We didn't ask any questions about racism with the children and young people. Yet, completely unprompted, children and young people told us about their experiences of racism. So, one young person said, 'Racism exists. We feel little and bad... 'because we're Maori and the teacher might think we're dumb.' 'The negative statistics are always reminders of how we fail. 'Why do we constantly get reminded of how we fail?' So research shows racism in our schools. What does that add up to? By 15 years of age, Maori and Pasifika students have reading levels below most OECD nations. We hope that young stars get an equal crack at life, but the writing on the wall says otherwise. With very premature babies, medical teams decide whether to resuscitate. A recent report found 95% of Pakeha babies were resuscitated,... The Harvard test designed to quantify unconscious bias for this project was uncomfortable to create. But what unconscious bias does in the real world is heartbreaking. But guess what ` racism and bias can be smacked down. Take it from one man who did it. So, the players were getting verbally abused and being called 'fucking black (BLEEP)' and 'dirty fuckin' niggers', 'Go home to your own country, you fucking nigger.' And after one particular game, we had players in tears saying, 'We need to do something about this.' I was looking around the sidelines and there was young children and family there, and thinking, 'We don't need this in our game ` or any sport in New Zealand.' And that's when we decided, right, if somebody didn't stand up to it, it wasn't going to get any better. ALL: Bula! Chris' stand led to Canterbury Rugby developing the We All Bleed Red campaign to tackle abusive culture. What I've seen with the Pacific Islanders coming into our community here is they've added another way of life into our community. Specially the cultural side of it has made our community a better place. (SLOW HAND-CLAPS) My experience through taking a stand was tough. It was tough on myself, it was tough on my children and my family. I didn't feel comfortable going out to the places I'd normally go out after rugby or being involved in functions. I thought, 'What did I do this for? Why have I put myself through this?' But then I kept thinking back to what actually happened and how the people didn't deserve to be talked to like that. But I'm actually proud of what I did, and if I've changed one person's life, I think I've achieved something. (RHYTHMIC PERCUSSIVE MUSIC) (CLICK!) Time for one last look at the Harvard bias test results. 72% of Kiwis felt they were neutral and had no racial bias. But when tested, Harvard found only 24% of Kiwis were genuinely neutral. (CLICK!) I am hopeful. I'm very hopeful. I believe that at the moment there is change. And it's still a long way to go, but I believe that New Zealand is working on making change. I don't think anyone loves change, and so I think it's going to be quite painful. But my hope would be that Aotearoa New Zealand would be at the forefront of trying to work out a new social contract between all these different people and different ways of being. The most important thing all of us can do are treat people with respect and kindness, and to treat others as we would like to be treated. So welcome people. Go and say hello. If there's a new person in your street, make a connection. Don't leave them out. Don't walk past. I think as soon as we can build those bridges, we're gonna make a difference. One of my children is part Chinese. None of my children have Maori ancestry. I want them all to be equal as New Zealanders. What would be more helpful than trying to look for the worst examples of racism and pinning blame on those places would be, I think, trying to imagine what we want for our nation and working towards that. And we don't want racism at all, no matter how big or small of an issue we think that might be. What we do now ` and everyone I know that is engaged in trying to make really major, transformative change in this country is in it for life. This is a lifelong struggle. It's lifelong work. And it's all about making a future that is better for our tamariki and mokopuna, and is more just. And one of the whakatauki that I use a lot is from Te Puea Herangi. And she talks about the need for us all to dream and have a vision together. So she says... So what she's saying is ` if I have a singular dream myself, then it will only make change in my context. But if we have a vision and a dream together, that we can actually accomplish that. In those words there's some guidance to us for this whole country that actually we need to envisage a future that is different to what we currently experience. When I was a kid, someone told me racism was when you didn't like someone for the colour of their skin. So I assumed the only reason Sarah's dad didn't like me was because of my delicious chocolate-coloured coating, and if I didn't have this delicious chocolate-coloured coating, if I didn't have this skin, Sarah's dad would like me. Which is weird, cos if I didn't have this skin, I'd be a skeleton. And quite frankly, that's where I draw the line. (LAUGHTER) Like, if my daughter was hangin' out with a skeleton kid, I'd be like, 'Listen up, Sarah, 'you stay away from that skeleton boy. Our kinds don't mix.' She'd be like, 'Oh, but he's my friend.' 'He ain't your friend, 'Sarah, he's a numbskull.' 'Dad, you can't say that word! That's their word!' 'I'll say whatever I want, Sarah. In fact, this used to be a good neighbourhood 'before the skeletons moved in!' (LAUGHTER) 'This place is a graveyard!' 'Dad, why do you have to be such a bigot? Don't you know we're all the same on the inside?' 'Oh really, Sarah? You know how stupid you sound? 'You're trying to say that I'm like a skeleton on the inside? 'You know what that sounds like, Sarah? That sounds like the words of a skull-lover. 'Do you love the boy, Sarah? Do you love the skeleton boy?' See, what I'm trying to do here is I'm trying to lighten up racism by being mean to skeletons. (LAUGHTER) It's OK to be, like, mean to skeletons. You can't be racist to them, you know? Cos they're white. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2019