Asian Woman Racially Harassed by Protesters in New Zealand for Erasing ‘It’s Okay to Be White’ Slogan

The Outdoors Party, a registered political party in New Zealand, organized a rally on June 6 at Aotea Square to establish views on matters like 5G mobile networks, the use of rodent poison 1080, and vaccinations, among other issues, according to Newshub.

 

However, the altercation between supporters and the young Asian woman stemmed from chalk writing that said “all lives matter” and “it’s okay to be white.” The latter slogan was popularized in 2017 on 4Chan and is widely used by White supremacists, ADL reported.

The young Asian woman reportedly rubbed the phrases off from the pavement, which angered some supporters in the rally.

In the video, the man behind the camera can be seen chasing the young woman along with another female supporter. After catching up to the Asian woman, the female supporter repeatedly yelled at her to “get out” and told her “go back to your own country.”

The young Asian woman, who is visibly calm in the midst of the racial bullying, told the woman she’s a racist and paranoid.

“You are racist! You are racist against us New Zealanders, now get out! Look at you rubbing out all of our words – go back to your own country,” the supporter yelled.

Alan Simmons, who co-leads the political party, also briefly appeared in the video and called the younger woman “nasty” for her language, adding, “You shouldn’t be using language like that, a little girl like you.”

At one point in the altercation, a woman said she would “kingpin” the young Asian woman, which means to hit her, and calls her a “smart little b****,” NZ Herald reported.

The supporter in the video spoke to Newshub and said she regretted what she did, but stood by what she said when she described the young woman as “racist” and how she should “go back to her own country.”

“We don’t want people like that here,” the woman added. “We need to unite not divide – my partner is brown – all life matters.”

When asked why he focused on calling the young woman out for her language instead of helping her, Simmons said he tried to break up the argument and that he was trying to protect the woman.

“I was standing between them trying to break the parties up. It was a very hostile situation,” Simmons told NZ Herald. “It could have been very, very bad and I protected the girl.”

In an interview with Newshub, he said the video was edited and did not show the entirety of the altercation, but when asked about the edited part, the supporter and Simmons gave different explanations.

The supporter said the part where the young woman allegedly told the older woman she “hated her because she’s white” was removed.

Simmons, on the other hand, claimed there were two more violent confrontations between the person taking the video and the young woman that prompted him to step in to stop in the unedited footage.

Unfortunately, both Simmons and the supporter declined to show and give the aforementioned clips with the former saying he would “deal with [the story] after it was published.”

After seeing the video, Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon called the racist verbal attack “appalling.”

“Intimidation, such as that shown toward the young woman in Aotea Square is appalling and unacceptable,” he said. “I would recommend that any person on the receiving end of violent threats contact the police. Racist bullying must be rejected by all people in New Zealand.”

He also condemned the use of the slogan “all lives matter” as this slogan, as well as the other mentioned was “known to be associated with groups who deny that racism exists or who would minimize its impact.”

“Such statements are often intended to convey a message of intolerance, racism and division. There is no place for that in New Zealand,” Meng added.

He also encouraged those who witness such incident to “intervene, record the interaction, and to report” what happened to the police.

“Racist behavior, use of racist stereotypes, making people feel like they don’t belong in Aotearoa is unacceptable,” he said. “Not only are such actions inconsistent with our values, they infringe on human rights and damage efforts to build inclusive communities.”

Sue Grey, who also co-leads the political party, spoke to NZ Herald to condemn the actions of the people in the video and to clarify they are not members of the party.

“As the Outdoors Party we are very much in favor of freedom of speech and democracy … it’s very disappointing that there was an interaction at all of the type that was seen in the video,” she said.

Feature Image Screenshot via Brett Paton