(Apoligies for the incoming wall of text)
This is great, and for those who don’t know I’ll note the same thing happened across the country - we did the same at our local mosques.
But now comes the hard part, because this has to be just the beginning. Because the shock, grief and unity is already fading. The casual racists of “middle New Zealand” are already reverting to form; golliwog dolls are going on sale.
People are complaining about the Crusaders rugby team putting it to their fans that maybe being named after a series of military campaigns aimed at killing or driving off Muslims isn’t the best look and asking “should we change our name?,”
People are taking to social media to complain that holding a call to prayer in honour of the victims is “shoving religion down their throats”,
Some are accusing Jacinda Ardern of being “emotional and mentally unstable” for pushing for gun law reform, while others are saying “the terrorist wins” if we even consider making any changes to law or how we live our lives in order to try and prevent attacks like this and spreading hate.
The Muslim community, and others, maybe talking about nominating Ardern for the Nobel Peace Prize after her brilliant and compassionate leadership over the past week, but she and police officials are also getting death threats saying “You’re next.”
Make no mistake, when Ardern and so many others say “This is not us,” it is aspirational. Because as Muslims, migrants and other minorities are coming forward to say - and have been saying for a long time - as long as there are there are even a minority of people comfortable enough to spout racist and bigoted talking points in the news, in political campaigns, and in our pubs, this is absolutely us.
The Chirstchurch attack is a wake-up call for every privileged Kiwi, like myself, who thought it was enough to just not be racist themselves. Who at most quietly cut-out anyone in our circles who expressed racism. It was not enough, and it will not be enough going forward.
I don’t know how exactly, yet, but we all need to change in our day to day lives. Or all the support and unity we’ve shown towards the Muslim community for the past week is just empty symbolism.
