Unrecognised racism ‘fascinating’

Press, 30 April 1981, Page 1

Unrecognised racism ‘fascinating’

By

PETER COMER

Professor Linda Gordon Howard, expert on race and sex, discrimination, and a former White House aide, finds it “fascinating” that New Zealanders refuse to recognise that they have any racial problem. To an observer it was obvious that the Maori people were suffering the effects of discrimination, said Ms Howard in Christchurch yesterday. • “Look at the Maoris’ conditions of housing in the main, their educational attainment, and their representation in the profes- ; sions. They are very much [below those of pakehas,” [she said. I Ms Howard, a successful lawyer and defender of the rights of women and minority groups, served as consultant on women’s issues in the White House under the Carter Administration. She came to New Zealand to address the 1981 law conference in Dunedin, but said that she had yet to meet a Maori lawyer. .’ “It is fascinating that New Zealanders believe ithey have none of the (problems which exist in the United States. ‘No dis-'-crimination here. That’s

Australia and America,’ they- tell me,” said Ms Howard. She has found that white New Zealanders are convinced that equal opportunities are available to the Maori. All the Maori had to do, the pakeha believed, was “pull himself, up by his bootstraps” and take the opportunities. “Then the pakeha says that Maoris don’t want the opportunities, instead of looking for the real reasons,” said Ms Howard. For example, most lawyers came from white, professional, middle-class families. Many had been earmarked for the profession at an early age, and encouraged to follow in the footsteps of their fathers.

“How would you feel if all the. doctors, ■ lawyers and engineers in New Zealand were Maoris. This is the effect of racism,” said Ms Howard. T o combat discrimination and racism in this country, the Human Rights Commission and tribunal needed more power, more money, more staff, and more facilities. Parti of the job of human rights organisations was to publicise theplight of minority groups,

thus encouraging feedback from those groups. Whatever happened, said Ms Howard, it was “absolutely essential” that Maoris clung to their language and culture. “Contact with your heritage is probably the most important thing to any race. There is nothing more depressing than an Englishman who can’t speak English,” she said.

. Ms Howard said that having their own language put the Maoris in a much better position than the blacks in the United States. “Blacks have no African language. It would probably take me 10 years and a lot of research to find out what place inAfrica I came from,” she said. Ms Howard said that as a black she felt the stark reality of racism at an early age. She attended segregated schools in Virginia- until her parents sent her to an integrated boarding school in the North. She never rode on a public bus until she was aged 20. She has been denied employment on -the basis of her colour, and has been paid lower wages than- men and whites. Even so, Ms Howard counts herself lucky to be among the few black women who got as far as law school because of President Johnson’s programmes. She is now convinced that the way to rid the world of racial discrimination lies not in attacking the individual for his racist behaviour, but in “sitting down and taking a very critical look at how a society works.” “No-one feels that they practise racism. They find the idea abhorrent,” said Ms Howard.

“It is not the personal acts that are the most important. The only thing the law can do, really, is to get the full force of the Government chasing one unfortunate individual,” she'said. This was called “blame fixing.” It achieved nothing, except to embarrass an employer who was labelled racist or sexist, and to make the human rights body unpopular. Ms Howard said the racial situation had improved considerably in the

United States. There were black lawyers in southern states where there had been none before. Blacks now accounted for about 2 per cent of the legal population, 2 per cent of doctors, and 1 per cent of engineers. Ms Howard said that apart from taking a new and objective look at statistics involving the Maori, New Zealand could learn three important things from the United States ex-

perience: —“lgnore a problem for long enough, and :it will explode in your face.

—“The race and sex question are not completely separate. Discrimination is discrimination. I would like to see minorities working with women to evaluate, the way in which society treats people who are not white males. —“There should be a political base to the achievement of equality which in-

eludes businessmen and Government officials.” Ms Howard said that it was not only women and minority, groups who felt society’s pressures. “White males have about three ways of dealing with stress: ulcers, heart attacks, and alcoholism, and that’s not good,” said Ms Howard.

“Society is giving us all a hard time. I am looking for a system that is kinder to us all,” she said.