In case you missed it: a photo has been doing the rounds on social media this week.
To have a room where only people of certain races are welcome is incredibly divisive, very racist, and shows just how dysfunctional our universities have become.
The way I see it, segregation like this says two things:
1. That the university thinks brown people are weak and are unable to handle interacting in the real world.
2. That the university is holding certain races as special or higher up than the rest.
What makes this worse is that our taxes go toward funding the University of Auckland and policies like this.
I find this offensive.
I stand with New Zealanders of any race in defending democracy and equality.
We have to return to the words of Martin Luther King Jr. That famous saying that came to encapsulate the civil rights movement in America:
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Hobson's Pledge will be writing to the University of Auckland to express our opposition to this regressive racist policy. If you would like to do the same you can email the media manager for the University of Auckland here.
Universities should be places where people of all races and backgrounds come together to share and debate ideas. They should not be places of racism and divisiveness.
He iwi tahi tatou. We are one people.
Elliot Ikilei is a spokesman for Hobon's Pledge. You can watch his short video addressing this issue here.