#BlackLivesMatter

Last week we had a writing assessment. I did mine on racism. Surprisingly I didn't find writing this speech hard; I normally find them really hard. I made sure I also researched my topic beforehand so I had some facts to back up my argument and also made sure to include the sentence styles we have been learning more the past year and a half and the paragraph styles I have recently began to learn. On the other hand I enjoyed having my say in this problem that is affecting the whole world at the moment. I personally think it's a really big problem and we really need to start acting on it. 

Have you ever been affected by racism? If so, are you still affected by racism?

Racism is a quiet, but big problem in New Zealand. Everyday people are being punished for the colour of their skin or the place they were born in. It is not acceptable. One in three complaints to the Human Rights Commission are about racism; most people normally do not report racism. Which means this number is most likely even higher. I strongly agree that racism is a big problem in New Zealand, and as a country we need to do something about it.

Unfortunately, casual racism is a big but not talked about topic. Quite often we let small comments, thoughts and actions into our life without doing anything about it. It is not doing anything about racism that is making it flourish. We are suddenly making it alright to say racist things, until eventually someone gets killed. Thinking they are doing their bit, the people who said nothing changed their profile picture to anti racist one, when really that does nothing to help.

On March the 15, an attack on a muslim mosque killed around 50 people. Since then racism for muslims has only gotten worse. A young muslim woman exclaimed that the racism after the mosque attacks there was not less hate—there was more. Another woman said that when at a bus stop she was sworn at and told to go back to her own country. This is not acceptable anymore.

Racist comments happen to everyone. African, european, asian, indian, chinese, pacific people all suffer from racism. You may be thinking, no white people do not suffer racism, but we do. At my school I sometimes am afraid to walk past one of the classes as they have called me names for my white skin. Recently I have tried to learn maori, but I feel as if I should give up as someone told me that I'll never be able to learn maori because I am white. No one should ever be scared to walk past a group of people because they are scared of what they might say.

I am confident that racism is a problem in New Zealand. People get attacked verbally and physically because of their ethnicity. It is time to stop. Stop all the racist comments, people being scared to walk around; in a country they should feel safe in. In a country they should feel loved, supported and accepted. It is time for New Zealand to step up and take the lead in racism all around the world, we were the first country to let women vote. So let's be the first country with zero racism