Today I visited a secondary school in Wellington and the topic of race was front and center. (Actually, ethnicity was the word used, so I guess I'll go with that here.) The teacher had the students look at a list of ethnic groups in New Zealand and estimate what percentage of the population each group made up. The students were in year 9 (13 year olds) and it was clear they had NO idea. Interestingly, the groups listed were:
Middle Eastern
Asian
African
Pacific peoples
Maori
European
Latin American
other:
other:
other:
(The teacher had taken the groups from a NZ census document and the "other" was to allow for students to name any other ethnic group they wanted on the list. The activity was to make a guess, then compare that with actual data and then answer some questions about perception versus reality.)
Student guesses were all over the place, with some not even guessing that Europeans were the largest group in New Zealand (and these were mostly white students, going to a mostly white school, who presumably live in mostly white neighborhoods). But even with most managing to guess that Europeans made up the majority of New Zealanders, the next biggest group mentioned was mostly Asians. Most students didn't even list Maori in the top 3. Most had Asian, European, and Pacific peoples in their top three.
Yesterday I watched a class discuss the meaning of these pictures:
Middle Eastern
Asian
African
Pacific peoples
Maori
European
Latin American
other:
other:
other:
(The teacher had taken the groups from a NZ census document and the "other" was to allow for students to name any other ethnic group they wanted on the list. The activity was to make a guess, then compare that with actual data and then answer some questions about perception versus reality.)
Student guesses were all over the place, with some not even guessing that Europeans were the largest group in New Zealand (and these were mostly white students, going to a mostly white school, who presumably live in mostly white neighborhoods). But even with most managing to guess that Europeans made up the majority of New Zealanders, the next biggest group mentioned was mostly Asians. Most students didn't even list Maori in the top 3. Most had Asian, European, and Pacific peoples in their top three.
Yesterday I watched a class discuss the meaning of these pictures:
Listening in as they identified the social issue in each picture, the conversations I overheard were very similar to what students of the same age would say in the US... with the exception maybe of the "Honor the Treaty" photo. One student told me, "John Key is breaking the treaty. He wants TPPA." The kid said it with such conviction and it was clearly something he was upset about.
Setting aside the obvious differences between the US and New Zealand, a few unexpected things I've noticed in regards to conversations about race and culture:
For the record, NZ demographics from the 2013 census:
European: 74%
Maori 15%
Asian 12%
Pacific Peoples 7%
Middle Eastern/Latin American/African 1%
Setting aside the obvious differences between the US and New Zealand, a few unexpected things I've noticed in regards to conversations about race and culture:
- There's a big push to celebrate New Zealand as a bi-cultural society. But I have yet to talk to anyone who has explained how "bi" even comes close to making sense in what is clearly a multi-cultural society. I know a class I'll be observing is learning about this, so I'm curious to go and learn for myself. I honestly don't get it.
- Most students who appear (to me) to be white refer to themselves as European, not Pakeha. The cultural feel of Wellington does feel so rooted in British-ness, I guess it doesn't surprise me that European is the preferred term. When students were asking what they should put for "other" I used myself as an example, saying, "I don't call myself European, so what group should I go in?" They didn't know what to do with that. I think to them it was pretty obvious that I was European.
- There are a fair number of international students (i.e. foreign exchange students), far more than in the US.
- It seems like there is a fear of Asian immigrants. So many of student conversations seemed rooted in the idea that the Asian population is big and growing bigger. Asians were often assigned a high percentage of the population (during the initial activity) and they were often referred to in examples during conversation about immigration.
- There are also seem to be a number of kids who appear to be middle-class, white, and from the UK or former British colonies. They say things like, "Back when I lived in London..." In theory this should complicate conversations around immigration a bit, but not shockingly when I've heard students talking about immigrants it seems pretty clear that they are not referring to these people.
- For a country that appears to be many steps ahead of the US when it comes to recognizing and taking action to support indigenous culture, the students I've observed are not any steps ahead when it comes to conversations about race. In classes I've observed, students of color have said some really insightful things about ethnicity and culture and the vast majority of the "European" students say the typical things like "I don't have a culture" and "I don't know my ethnic group." Classic. To be fair I've only been observing for a week. I'm really interested to see what I comes up over the next few months.
For the record, NZ demographics from the 2013 census:
European: 74%
Maori 15%
Asian 12%
Pacific Peoples 7%
Middle Eastern/Latin American/African 1%