OPINION: You may be aware of the anger over John Banks, a MagicTalk fill-in host until Wednesday, and the caller who claimed Māori were from the stone age.
I want to make my position clear and the position of The AM Show: The caller was a sad, uneducated extremist. They're dangerous. But these people exist more than we know actually. Sadly.
They are usually dismissed by the majority of decent Kiwis and yap from the sidelines into empty space because no one can be bothered listening.
Banks entertained the idiot when he should have gassed him, set him straight, then sent him packing. The mic stayed on for too long. Free speech has responsibilities too.
Banks knows that but he provided oxygen to this idiot when he should have used his position more wisely. It's our job. Banks is a veteran. He knows better.
Banks has now rightly been shown the door. It's 2021, not the stone age.
As an aside, but central to me, is that my children are Māori. They are whakapapa Māori and korero Māori. And proudly so. They attended the separate Māori education system.
I see the Māori World view which is more about the collective, the group, the gathering, the spirit, wairua and those who have come before. It's not stone age. It's unique.
As a family, we are well aware of the two New Zealands.
Māori are still locked out of many opportunities. Institutional racism exists but, equally, huge progress has been made and platforms for Māori by Māori emerge on a regular basis.
There is good and bad in every race and Māori, like everyone else, have challenges as much as they have increasing wealth and brilliant opportunities which they are seizing.
The only stone age thinking on Tuesday came from a total nincompoop and a show man who failed to do his job.
I don't support this view and approach. The AM Show has never stood for this nonsense and I've worked for MediaWorks for 19 years, they have never held these views or stood for this.
Duncan Garner hosts The AM Show.
