ANGELA STRATTON
Whanganui
Is ignorance racist?
I think that some of the items that Dr Rawiri Tinirau described as racist are a little far-fetched (Research reveals Māori sadness, News, March 23). To say that mispronunciation is racist is a step too far, as is calling ignorance racist.
These things are simply a lack of knowledge or an inability in this area. There are a lot of differing races and cultures that I cannot pronounce the names of, such as the Chinese names, and I do not know anything much about the Chinese culture and many others. Does this make me a racist towards the Chinese or the Welsh or the Tongans? No one can be expected to have the ability to know everything.
That we have a racism problem is very clear and it is clear to me that racism is a state of mind that often starts with a person's upbringing. All races and cultures, to some degree, have some racism towards other races and cultures and Dr Tinirau, by adding marginal items to a debate in an attempt to strengthen it, has in fact weakened it.
If we are to make headway with this problem we must simplify and concentrate on the major issues or we run the risk of over-complicating it to the point nothing is done. We must also avoid calling the differences between cultures racist as again this will also lead to an impasse.
It is clear to me that a large sector of our social problems, including racism, crime and violence, in part can be blamed on how we bring up our children and we must be tolerant towards other cultures' practices which are different from our own and not expect them to necessarily be up to speed with our culture and this applies to all cultures. To expect otherwise is a form of racism.
Making sure our children are brought up to face the modern world and all of its challenges will be a step in the right direction to solving our social problems, which is a lot harder than it sounds, but if we do not start down this track we will never solve these problems.
ROBERT CONDER
Marton
