Accounts of blatant racism against Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand

Authors

  • Sylvia Pack School of Psychology Massey University PO Box 756 Mt Cook Wellington 6140 http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5619-8210
  • Keith Tuffin School of Psychology Massey University PO Box 756 Mt Cook Wellington 6140
  • Antonia Lyons School of Psychology Massey University PO Box 756 Mt Cook Wellington 6140

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11157/sites-vol13iss2id326

Keywords:

Māori, Pākehā, subtle, racism, Aotearoa, New Zealand

Abstract

Racism in Aotearoa New Zealand has been shown to be modern, subtle, symbolic and understated, yet also powerfully prevalent and functional in maintaining Pākehā societal structures. These significant findings arise from a large corpus of studies of Pākehā media representation and Pākehā talk and text. In contrast, this study examines racism as recounted by Māori targets. Nineteen Māori participants were asked to describe their experiences. The data were analysed using thematic analysis informed by social constructionism, which facilitated attention to language patterns and context. Key themes in the accounts were: phenotypical identity markers, negative stereotypes, public racism, and the significant emotional impacts involved in being a target of racism. The overt nature of racist incidents challenge findings which show modern racism to be subtle, and counter the view that offensive overt racism is out dated.

Author Biographies

  • Sylvia Pack, School of Psychology Massey University PO Box 756 Mt Cook Wellington 6140
    Dr Sylvia Pack PhD. Sylvia’s research interests focus on the behavioural, psycho-social and cultural effects of racism against Maori in Aotearoa New Zealand. Discourse analysis and other qualitative methods are used to study racism, context, marginalisation and privilege.
  • Keith Tuffin, School of Psychology Massey University PO Box 756 Mt Cook Wellington 6140
    Keith Tuffin’s research interests include social constructionism, discursive psychology, critical psychology and the language of racism.
  • Antonia Lyons, School of Psychology Massey University PO Box 756 Mt Cook Wellington 6140
    Antonia is Professor of Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand. Her research interests are on the social and cultural contexts of behaviours related to health and wellbeing, and implications for subjectivities, gendered identities and embodied experiences.

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Published

30-11-2016

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 2 (2016)

Section

Articles

License

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How to Cite

Accounts of blatant racism against Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand. (2016). Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, 13(2), 85-110. https://doi.org/10.11157/sites-vol13iss2id326