Moral panics on the precipice of a revolution

By Mackenzie

Imagine you own a home, ambitious I know, and it catches fire. This is a regular occurrence, your house catching fire, but it seems to be the only house on the street that does this. You often borrow your neighbours garden hose to snuff the inferno and think to yourself, “when will this city invest in a fire brigade?”. You are not known for having the house that spontaneously combusts, but rather for being a garden hose thief.

Modern day Islamophobia

By Ruby

Imagine waiting for an elevator alone, and you see two women approaching you. One is wearing a burka, and the other is wearing a hijab. They push the button for the 3rd floor and wait with you to enter the elevator. How do you feel? What’s going through your head? Do you feel as though she is oppressed and has no freedom of her own? That she has no control and decisions over her body? Or do you panic and immediately become instilled with fear? Are you afraid that she’ll bomb the elevator?

Moral panic and Pasifika issues in Aotearoa New Zealand

By Tino Manea

 

“I mean, it’s the Pacific Islands. What are we going to get out of them? They are nothing but leeches on us. I mean, the Pacific Islands want money from us. We don’t need money from them.” (Heather du Plessis-Alan, 2018)

Could it be that if Pasifika people are not scoring tries for the All Blacks, have non-association with crime, become more motivated to contribute to a capitalist agenda, or not become overly dependent on Palagi support, they’re entitled to being labelled a ‘Kiwi’? Pasifika people have been migrating to New Zealand (NZ) since the 1960s and have faced discrimination since migration. Being brought over as labour mercenaries, the ‘othering’ of Polynesians has subordinately positioned them, like the Māori natives, as the ‘minority groups’.