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?

God of Nations at Thy feet, In the bonds of love we meet

By Rebekah Dangerfield

I’ve always felt like a Kiwi until the moment where I heard someone shout go back to your country and realized they were talking to me. From that I gather you think that I’m not  Pākehā or from New Zealand. You see, my name is Rebekah Dangerfield. My full name though is Rebekah Eliza Ching Ting Dangerfield. I was born in Hong Kong and was adopted by a New Zealand family. I grew up in New Zealand, did the majority of my schooling in New Zealand, I have a New Zealand accent and when people hear me on the phone before they’ve met me in person, they’re surprised to see that I’m Asian. So now you can see why I’ve never really seen myself as anything other than being a Kiwi. Yes, I’ve been exposed to racism before, the most common being where people have stretched the skin by their eyes to create the Asian eyes effect and called me Ching Chong. I’ve had people asking me whether I play the violin or piano and if I’m good at math because I’m Asian – only one of those things are true.