Would Māori Television executives have considered broadcasting a show based on a Pākehā man in brown face paint and afro wig, lampooning a barely literate, violent yet comical Māori teen?
Probably not.
However, they did want to broadcast a show that did all of this, but instead of Māori, the teenager was Tongan.
When we were asked for comment, we urged the broadcaster to consult with Tongan Kiwis: their voices matter when we’re talking about a show that mocks and stereotypes their own.
Māori Television staffers felt that there was a local market for this show and they probably weren’t wrong. You just need to read the social media comments to see there are plenty of Pasifika Kiwis who think Jonah from Tonga is okay, and that anyone who disagrees is PC Gone Mad.
But just because some people think it’s funny doesn’t make it okay, and thankfully there are many more who argue that this kind of show is stereotyping blackface: which it is.
This is an important conversation for New Zealanders but particularly for Pasifika Kiwis (young and old) to have: is it okay for Tongan people — or any people — to be portrayed like this in 2017?
My friends went to a movie about a clown last week and they didn’t laugh once.
Chocolat, or Rafael Padilla, was Afro Cuban, a former slave who started out playing a cannibal savage in a French country circus.
He found fame performing as a clown, portraying racist stereotypes of African people: silly, childish, friendly, violent.
Most of the act saw the cunning, intelligent white clown attacking simple, smiley Chocolat. Padilla was the most renowned black comedian of his time and yet my friends found it hard to sit through the bigoted buffoonery.
In the movie, when Chocolat visited a zoo he was horrified to find African people on show like animals.
Closer to home, we know Samoans and other Pasifika people were also exhibited like wildlife at “expositions” in Europe and North America.
New Zealanders will ultimately decide whether or not shows like Jonah of Tonga belong on our state funded broadcasters: it’s up to us to let broadcasters know.
And for now it seems like this show won’t be broadcast here.
Progress is about leaving behind us those things that no longer reflect the kind of people we are. But if and when we make mistakes, having the humility to apologise and the courage to sort it out is what matters.
We saw this play out recently in our capital after a council-sponsored musical production of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat tried to replace “Children of Israel” with “Children of Kindness.”
The Wellington City Council apologised unreservedly to Jewish New Zealanders and they were right to do so. Erasing or replacing references to Jewish history is not new but it has no place in our country in 2017.
It’s been just over two weeks since we launched our campaign encouraging Kiwis to #GiveNothingtoRacism.
We’ve reached millions of people here and around the world and our corporate leaders are joining us, too, because they know that talking about racism is something we need to get better at.
The important thing is to be brave enough to have those awkward, difficult conversations.
It’s worth it. We’re worth it.
Susan Devoy is the Race Relations Commissioner.
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I’m using this in an English assessment and I just realized how much this show is stereotyping us and portraying us in such a terrible way. This is not our people and it’s amazing that your writing this and showing society that this is not us!
I had never heard of this
I had never heard of this until I saw it on Netflix. I thought “NZ content” awesome and started watching. I actually thought it would be about a Tongan boy going back to his homeland.
After 2 seconds I realised it was standard ‘blackface’ australian racism or stereotyping so turned it off. Even the Tongans in the show seemed to be annoyed more than finding it funny.
I get that comedy pokes fun at anything but like one of the previous posters said, surely in this day and age, having to repeat racist stereotypes is the lowest form of comedy and it certainly doesn’t show any deep comedic ability at all.
Thumbs down and bad form Maori TV…..
This is cultural Marxism gone
This is cultural Marxism gone mad. Stereotypes are the very essence of comedy and being able to laugh at ourselves and poke fun at others is normal human behaviour.
I resent being told what I can and can’t laugh at. If I don’t mind my race or culture or religion or lack of religion being mocked who is Susan Devoy to tell me that it is unacceptable just because a few people are ” offended” I am offended by PC policing of comedy yet Susan Devoy is unlikely to care about my feelings.
Poking fun at other cultures
Poking fun at other cultures WAS considered to be okay. However our society has evolved and most of us have realized that it can significantly hurt people, especially the young, to see their culture being mocked by another. Just because YOU are not hurt by it does not mean it is okay to knowingly hurt others. Go to as many un-PC comedy shows as you like but TV has always been censored to protect kids and I’m glad of it.
This is about people’s
This is about people’s feelings being hurt , or whatever you think “cultural marxism” is. This is about standing up to the hang-over Colonial mindset that fuels brown-face and “punching down” comedy that lambastes stereotypes. That type of comedy is lazy and out-dated. Sorry that the world is changing on you, but it’s for the better of the majority, not because of a few ppl with their feelings hurt. Minstrelsy pre-dates the US context and comes from Imperial Nationalist ideals of European = height of civilisation & indigenous person = bumbling idiot. There’s no room for this in the world now.
This needs to be said and
This needs to be said and repeated. Our communities also need education about the impact of stereotypes; the problem is they are only ever part of a group’s story. Reducing anyone to a one dimensional character robs everyone.