Racial taunts: the real NZ

The tempting smell of samosas is wafting into my nose. I can hear the anklets' jingling as girls in saris dance.

Am I in India? No, I am in New Zealand.

New Zealand is multicultural, harmonious, peaceful, perfect ... "Oi, curry muncher, get outta my way and go back to your own country!" The bully pushes me aside, delivering the cold, hard slap of reality.

New Zealand may be well known as multicultural, but we have become deluded into thinking we are perfect.

Are we so blind that we do not even notice the racial stereotyping and prejudice breeding among today's youth?

As students a great proportion of us experience racism directly or indirectly on an everyday basis, in schools and within our communities. This is why I believe New Zealanders need to stop being oblivious to this issue and take a real step towards changing it.

We need to make our youth _ and even some of the older generation _ more accepting of the different races, ethnicities and cultures around them.

Mass globalisation is occurring and we are not used to people praying in a different temple or church, eating different foods or wearing different clothes.

These changes can make a person uncomfortable, which is understandable.
However, this leads to racism when people cannot accept others. We must work within our communities to help today's youth accept other people.

But how? Well, with greater knowledge comes greater understanding. With greater understanding comes greater acceptance.

So we must educate the people surrounding us about the diversity which is surrounding them. I am sure that many of us have spent our weekends at a festival, have we not?

We have possibly been to the Diwali festival or the lantern festival? We go not because we have nothing better to do but because we are genuinely interested in seeing and experiencing something new.

If we were to encourage more events in our local communities then we could really achieve something. A one-off event in Aotea Square once a year is a poor attempt at improving race relations, though the event itself is not.

I think our communities need to set up more events such as a Holi festival in our local neighbourhoods, or as fundraisers at our schools.
Whether it is eating a steamed pork money bag at the lantern festival or lighting a diwa at Diwali, it is a memorable and worthwhile experience.

This is because when we get involved, and get others involved, we are making a real contribution.

We are teaching the young, our future grown-ups, to accept other races and diminish racism.

Too long have we let racism run rampant. It is a real issue and it affects all of us, in our workplaces and our schools. I wait for the day when people can wear their turbans, kilts and lava-lavas in public without fear of mockery.

All we need to do is work within our communities and take steps, be they small or not, towards our goal.

We all need to do our bit. The important thing is not that we achieve our goal but that we strive towards it.

Shilpan Patel, Year 12, Mt Roskill Grammar School