Korean Job Discussion Forums

[julian_w]

Minuit singer stands up to skinheads
VICKI ANDERSON - The Press

A singer in Christchurch for Saturday's Band Together concert says an earlier altercation with a group of skinheads left her badly shaken.

Minuit's Ruth Carr, from Wellington, said she was having lunch at an outdoor cafe in the inner city when the incident occurred.

"To be fair to the skinheads, I started it," Carr said.

"Me and a mate were having lunch when eight to 10 skinheads walked past. They had vicious-looking dogs and were carrying rolled up banners.

"I don't know what the banners said, but they were all wearing sweatshirts that said 'Skin Heads New Zealand'. It shocked me.

"I haven't seen a group of people like that before walking down the street like what they were doing was normal."

Carr said she did not want to be silent or let them intimidate her.

"I yelled out, 'What are you doing?'

"'You guys are morons'.

"They yelled obscenities back. I know that yelling something at them isn't going to change what they think, but I needed to stand up to that behaviour."

She said two police officers were trailing the skinheads and she believed if they had not been there, the situation could have been more serious.

"No-one else around me said anything. I think they thought I was a bit of a fool, I could have been a fool with a broken nose.

"Sometimes it's cool to be a fool.

"If you stay silent does it mean you agree with that behaviour?"

The encounter left her "shook up", and Carr felt her performance at Band Together was less than her best.

"I felt like I screwed up the Band Together performance. Friends who watched it on TV said they thought that something was wrong with me. I didn't feel like I was singing at all."

A police southern communications spokesman was not aware of any incident.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/4270729/Minuit-singer-stands-up-to-skinheads

On her band's facebook site, Carr adds:

"to be fair to the skinheads, (ha ha), i did start it and it was more of a slanging match than a punch-up. but if you are going to walk down the street carrying lame-o banners intimidating kids at a korean family day, i'm gonna to yell at you. fools rush in"

http://www.facebook.com/minuittheband?v=app_178091127385#!/minuittheband/posts/161868943835928

[BaldTeacher]

She's so courageous. I'm also glad that she let us know all about it too. It's obvious that her moral standing must be very high for her to be so shaken up.

Seriously, it's insignificant. They swore at her? She didn't have to pat herself on the back at a concert like that, because she knows it will get approval.

These people who make it a point to express how tolerant they are are just doing what will gain them social approval in this day and age. If they were living in the 1930's American South, they'd be part of the god damn lynch mob. F' em.

[Easy Rider]

Well, at least she still has her own hair!

how many of us can say that - BALD Teacher?

Those who cast the first stone....

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Leon]

she sounds like an idiot. Why yell at people you don't know who are not even doing something because of the way that they look? Ohh they had scary dogs and hair cuts they must be up to no good. Sounds to me she was equally intolerant. It would have been one thing if they were in the act of doing something, but no.

[geldedgoat]

So someone yelled at a group of skinheads and the skinheads yelled back... how exactly is this newsworthy?

[recessiontime]

[julian_w]

@ geldedgoat: This is newsworthy precisely because it is an example of what other posters here have pointed out, it is an example of someone who has found it within herself - and that it's a 'her' is also noteworthy - to be less tolerant of those who are less tolerant of cultural diversity within the modern population in urban Aotearoa - New Zealand.

It is relevant to us here in Korea on two counts: it was a Korean family day event that the skinheads were either going to or more likely and hopefully leaving (which seems unclear); and also 'we' as most likely obviously foreign minorities in this land (if you're here in South Korea) are also able to be clearly and easily pointed out from a crowd, just as the skinheads were obviously about to do, or had just done to the Koreans at their event, as as the singer-woman then did in turn to them.

To return to the first point on tolerance: this word is somehow finding a renaissance of twisted sorts recently, what with the upcoming elections in the US, and the bizarre happenings at many political rallies and events seeing people there physically attacked. (I sincerely hope people there can chill out and see beyonnd the divisive rhetoric of 'us' and 'them' and 'left' and 'right.') To return to what may be a cliche of an example but retains its power as a great example nonetheless: if Rosa Parks (BTW, it was the anniversary of her death last Saturday, bless her) had shown 'tolerance' for her society's racial bigotry preventing her from taking her rightful place anywhere she wanted on a bus, perhaps the entire nation and many others besides would have been less challenged to think deeply and respond accordingly about this very basic way of relating to those who at first seem like 'other' people.

To put it in a more local context for you: how do you feel about being 'HI'd'..?! I mean, about how random Korean kids of any age greet you on the street less for the sake of recognising you personally and more for the sake of getting a rude giggle out of their mates, or getting a rise out of you? Perhaps you've noticed that some Korean kids are actually completely genuine, and really are recognising you as being a different person, and are being polite. I've had young primary school kids (elementary school) greet me politely in Korean and in English, and bow. They're not all like that though, right? Tone is everything, and you don't need great language skills to pick up on it. And if the kids have that tone to your face, don't you wonder how far that tone resonates throughout the rest of society?

I guess that singer-woman in NZ felt bad about the tone, let's say, of the T-shirts and flags and the expressions or vibes from the individuals within that group, and decided to do some basic communicating on the subject. To avoid dealing with the issue when the opportunity arises is to avoid the opportunity of getting through to at least one of those kids that not every (white/'same' as distinct from the 'other') person either thinks it's the right thing to do, or tacitly approves of it even if they're not walking beside them.

To provide you with some background here: Christchurch is fairly notorious for being a breeding ground of intolerance and social discrimination. It's very old English with all the classism such entails, and that does extend to snobbishness and distinction against 'otherness' in the obvious other way of racism. Two examples for you: it's a New Zealander's in-joke that the first question a person from Christchurch will ask someone else from there is 'What school did you go to?' as this allows an instant social class distinction. People from other parts of the country, and other countries might do this too, but nowhere near the same extent. Secondly, a couple of skinheads from nearby there actually killed a young Korean hitchhiker out in the countryside a few years ago. Frankly, I completely applaud anyone with the nuts to stand up and tell them the take off their swastika t-shirts, or words to that effect.

[nero]

But why should they take off their swastika t shirts?
While I disagree about their sentiment, they have the right in NZ to express how they feel. Just because you don't agree or that singer doesn't agree is neither here nor there.
You can't have everything one way. As soon as you cut off freedom of expression in one way, you will lose out in another way.

As another poster said - they weren't actually doing anything.