Minor breakouts of major gripes
I’d long ago realised that part of the reason I post cussy rants about things that seem like just small issues, not a huge deal, isn’t there something more important to worry about – is because those “small issues” just tap into much bigger problems.
Today, two such small issues reared their annoying heads.
The continuing saga of Oh Noes The Brown Man Said A Mean Word broke out on Red Alert, with Hon Trevor insert-duck-to-water-metaphor-here Mallard chipping in to the debate:
If a Pakeha used the term brown mofos it would be racist. That standard should apply both ways.
Which actually hits several big Pisses Me Right The Fuck Off buttons. But to summarise: using the argument of “the same standard” is so close to “one law for all” they couldn’t legally marry in all 50 states of the US. It’s “special rights”, it’s “level playing field”, and it’s bullshit.
There isn’t a fucking level playing field when one group of people has been historically shat on by another from orbit. There isn’t a tabula rasa of race relations where such lovely “can’t we all just be equals and ignore skin colour and historical disenfranchisement and oh we tried to destroy your language and culture” ideas can be writ large.
There is a basic reason why a person of Maori descent can refer to “white motherfuckers stealing our land” which does not hold true for a person of European descent saying “brown motherfuckers stealing our car”. That reason is privilege. Learn you some.
Second small issue: in the continuing if-they-wrote-this-for-TV-no-one-would-believe-it tale of Doug Schmuck and some possibly-dodgy legislative drafting, one quote nicely put its thumb directly on my White Middle Class Bastards Who Just Love Law And Order Until It Applies To Them button.
The 15-year fight for the Opua boat ramp had taken “a hell of a lot of time” and cost Mr Schmuck close to $200,000. “A few objectors can run the costs up so high that it makes things like the Resource Management Act untenable,” he said.
Ah, yes. You can always spot a WMCBWJLL&OUIATT, by the way they seem completely oblivious of the fact that the law still counts even when it might stop them from doing something they want to do.
The classic example is provided every time there’s a Police crackdown on speeding, possibly by, oh the horrors, using hidden speed cameras. Now, you might think “well if people don’t want to get speeding tickets they could try not speeding”, but such thoughts do not pass through the brains of White Middle-Class Bastards. No no no, this is just a revenue gathering exercise.
It’s not like their own speeding could cause accidents or cost people their lives or anything. We all know that speed only kills when it’s those bloody Asian homestay students whose rich daddies send them thirty grand a month to buy Ferraris and meth with, obviously. The laws of physics are very specific on this.
The other classic, of course, is the killing of Pihema Cameron – where the Your Sensible Is Not Like Our Earth Sensible Sentencing Trust decided that actually, that whole “tough punishment for violent crims is the way to save society” line didn’t so much count when the stabber was a rich white guy and the victim was [insert stereotype about Maori teenage boys here].
And so we have (oh Gods it makes me giggle every time) Doug Schmuck. Who has been nearly bankrupted, dear readers, by busybodies and that bane of the WMCB, the Resource Management Act. All because he built a private fucking boat ramp on a fucking public reserve.
It’s almost like some people expect Good Hardworking [White Male] Businessmen to obey the law or something. Don’t they understand the law is for the little people?
Ideologically Impure 
This post is beautiful.
Aw, thanks, Helen!