After reading Paul Lewis' column in the Herald on Sunday, in which he repeated the falsehood that nobody knows who the abusive racists are, I sent him the following letter. So far, he has not deigned to reply....
From: morriss...@gmail.com
To: paul....@hos.co.nz
Paul, please stop pretending the abusers are all "faceless morons"
Dear Mr Lewis,
I am disturbed to see you join in the pretence that we don't know the identities of the people responsible for the racial abuse of Auckland Blues coach Pat Lam and of Pasifika and Māori footballers. In your column on Sunday, you claim that the abusers are "brainless sheep", "faceless morons", a "lunatic fringe" who hide behind their "cowardly anonymity" to "trot out old prejudices sprinkled with racial nastiness, favoured with bile."
I am troubled that you have not dealt with the fact that these
"faceless morons" are merely repeating what they have heard on talkback radio and read in the sporting press. As long ago as 2001, John Matheson wrote a long, incendiary article in New Zealand Rugby World, bewailing what he insisted was the Polynesianization of New Zealand football. At about the same time David Kirk wrote in the Sunday Star-Times of his "concern" about the likelihood of the All Blacks having more brown faces than white---"not a future I want for the game", he wrote, in apparent high seriousness.
And of course there is the ongoing campaign of belittlement and vilification of Pacific Islanders by certain talk radio hosts,
particularly (though not solely) Murray Deaker, Paul Holmes, Leighton Smith and Tony Veitch. Over many years, Deaker has claimed Pacific Islanders are "dumb", "boofheads", "violent", "lazy" and "lacking in concentration."
The "faceless morons" who wrote their vile messages on Facebook in the last week didn't just get their ideas out of nothing; they merely repeated what they had been hearing for the last twenty years on Radio Sport/NewstalkZB and read in the columns of some rugby pundits---in many cases using the same phrases.
I wonder why you have chosen to remain silent about these people, and pretended that the vileness comes from only the "faceless morons".
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
From: morriss...@gmail.com
To: paul....@hos.co.nz
Paul, please stop pretending the abusers are all "faceless morons"
Dear Mr Lewis,
I am disturbed to see you join in the pretence that we don't know the identities of the people responsible for the racial abuse of Auckland Blues coach Pat Lam and of Pasifika and Māori footballers. In your column on Sunday, you claim that the abusers are "brainless sheep", "faceless morons", a "lunatic fringe" who hide behind their "cowardly anonymity" to "trot out old prejudices sprinkled with racial nastiness, favoured with bile."
I am troubled that you have not dealt with the fact that these
"faceless morons" are merely repeating what they have heard on talkback radio and read in the sporting press. As long ago as 2001, John Matheson wrote a long, incendiary article in New Zealand Rugby World, bewailing what he insisted was the Polynesianization of New Zealand football. At about the same time David Kirk wrote in the Sunday Star-Times of his "concern" about the likelihood of the All Blacks having more brown faces than white---"not a future I want for the game", he wrote, in apparent high seriousness.
And of course there is the ongoing campaign of belittlement and vilification of Pacific Islanders by certain talk radio hosts,
particularly (though not solely) Murray Deaker, Paul Holmes, Leighton Smith and Tony Veitch. Over many years, Deaker has claimed Pacific Islanders are "dumb", "boofheads", "violent", "lazy" and "lacking in concentration."
The "faceless morons" who wrote their vile messages on Facebook in the last week didn't just get their ideas out of nothing; they merely repeated what they had been hearing for the last twenty years on Radio Sport/NewstalkZB and read in the columns of some rugby pundits---in many cases using the same phrases.
I wonder why you have chosen to remain silent about these people, and pretended that the vileness comes from only the "faceless morons".
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
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On Apr 18, 1:36 pm, Morrissey Breen <morrisseybr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> After reading Paul Lewis' column in the Herald on Sunday, in which he
> repeated the falsehood that nobody knows who the abusive racists are,
> I sent him the following letter. So far, he has not deigned to
> reply....
>
> From: morrisseybr...@gmail.com> After reading Paul Lewis' column in the Herald on Sunday, in which he
> repeated the falsehood that nobody knows who the abusive racists are,
> I sent him the following letter. So far, he has not deigned to
> reply....
>
> To: paul.le...@hos.co.nz
- show quoted text -
Stex
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