ELLIOT IKILEI: When 87% say 'no' and the media calls them the problem

Every now and then, the media produces something so out-of-touch that I have to stop, take a breath, and ask: Do they actually hear themselves? Yesterday was one of those days.

The NZ Herald released polling showing that only 13% of NZ Europeans want to be called “Pākehā.” An overwhelming example of consensus. And how does the Herald frame this story up? That the 87% (the vast, ordinary majority) are scared, racist, or uncomfortable with their identity. Not “Maybe we should respect people’s preferences.” Nope. They choose to view the majority in the worst light. Apparently, the only acceptable answer was the one most people didn’t give.

Does this racist nonsense rark you off too?

The accompanying podcast, The Elephant, was pretty much just a white guilt circus.

They invited Doctor Don Brash (yes, journo, your disrespectful omission was noted immediately after introducing "Doctor Ella Henry") Hobson's Pledge founder and someone who has spent decades arguing, calmly, for racial equality, and then gave him a fraction of the airtime while a panel of white saviours monopolised the conversation, explaining to the public why they know better than the 87% of New Zealanders who simply prefer not to be labelled by others racially. The tone was smug, patronising, and dripping with the moral superiority.

If you listened, you would have heard Don stoically making points, only to be responded to with barely hinged control and triggered responses, as if the very idea of “one law for all” is now too dangerous to let a full sentence land.

Well done, Dr Brash. A lesson in humble stoicism.

As if the framing wasn’t bad enough, the Herald wheels out former New Plymouth Mayor Andrew Judd. A self-described “recovering racist” Judd's favourite pastime is publicly flogging himself to earn applause from the elitists in the media and the Koru Lounge.

In the article, Judd declares that those who don’t want to be called Pākehā are driven by discomfort and insists that every white person in New Zealand is "broken"! He says:

“I’m a Pākehā, a recovering racist ... we are broken. We are wrong. And we must change.”

Uh, what?? Judd's simpering behaviour shows a sycophantic side I have not seen in many years. According to Judd, “our ancestors came here, we took over, we murdered and plundered, we set up an agreement to try and work together and then ignored that."

Someone get this guy a history book! There was plenty of murdering and plundering going on pre-European arrival. This is the logic of the white-guilt cult. Judd has cast himself as a 'White Saviour'.

A 'White Saviour' is the sort of person who genuinely believes they’ve been appointed, by culture, by conscience, by some inner moral GPS, to rescue everyone who isn't white from all their oppression. They’re usually the loudest voice in the room, lecturing everyone (even the people they say they are rescuing from oppression) on what they should feel, should call themselves, and should believe.

They wrap it all in the language of compassion, but it’s really about control: elevating themselves as the enlightened while treating the rest of us as wayward children who need their approval to think correctly.

Whether they’re telling 87% of white New Zealanders that they’re “fearful” for not embracing a racial label, or deciding they’re the unofficial spokespeople for every minority in the country, the 'White Saviour' mindset always comes back to the same thing: self-importance dressed up as virtue.

These people are patronising and think they are smarter than everyone else. I'm sure you've met at least one or two of these people in your own life. More if you work in the public service, media, or academia.

And this is why Hobson’s Pledge exists. Because the people pushing racial division have institutional backing. They've got the major media platforms, government funding, and a cultural elite that treats ordinary New Zealanders with contempt.

Hobson's Pledge does not think that most New Zealanders are awful racists. We reckon that most of us are just doing our best for our families and hoping that everyone gets a fair go. We have friends of other races and cultures and don't want to be divided by ancestry.

When 87% of New Zealanders of European descent express a preference and the media still finds a way to demonise them, it proves just how tilted the playing field has become.

We need to push back. Hard. Especially going into an election year. We are not the fringe. It is time we stopped allowing others to treat us like we are!

We’re the 87% and the many Kiwis of other races who hold similar views. We’re the New Zealanders who believe that unity beats division and who refuse to be belittled by racial ideologues who think they know better than the rest of us.

Elliot Ikilei is spokesperson for Hobson's Pledge