So the guy who advocated for public burning and beheading feels offended because someone called him a racist!Perhaps Bob Jones hasn't heard of the very old saying; Live by the sword, die by the sword?
I mean for someone who often writes opinionated nonsense about Maori; this is a ridiculous case to take and a complete waste of court time.
Yesterday, 1 News reported:
Debate about what constitutes racism as Sir Bob Jones defamation case continues
Debate about what constitutes racism has been at the centre of day three of Sir Bob Jones’ defamation case in the Hight Court in Wellington.
Sir Bob, one of the country’s richest people, is suing filmmaker Renae Maihi for defamation, accusing her of calling him a racist, the author of hate speech and saying he was unfit to hold a knighthood.
Ms Maihi started an online petition in 2018 calling for Sir Bob to be stripped of his knighthood after he wrote a controversial National Business Review column.
In it, he called for Waitangi Day to be replaced with ‘Māori Gratitude Day’, arguing that without British immigration Māori would not be alive today. The property tycoon said the column was harmless joking and the start of a satirical series about gratitude days.
I’m not sure why 1 News cut Jones’ racist rant short. Here’s a small excerpt of his prejudicial drivel that was published by the National Business Review:
I have in mind a public holiday where Maoris bring us breakfast in bed or weed our gardens, wash & polish our cars & so on, out of gratitude for existing. And if any Maori tries arguing that if he/she didn't have a slight infection of Irish blood or whatever, they might be better for it, the answer is no sunshine."
So just to clarify, Bob Jones wants a return to slavery. It pains me to have to point this out but what Jones is saying isn’t satire. In reality his offensive idea is an attack on indigenous people from all around the world. Only a truly intolerant fool would promote a return to the bad old days of slavery and only an equally racist editor would put such decrepit ideas to print.
But now that someone has called Jones out on his racism, he doesn’t like free speech?
Clearly Renae Maihi was just saying and acting on what everybody else was thinking. Jones is a racist and racists simply shouldn’t be knighted in the first place. If by some idiocy, like the size of their bank accounts, they are knighted and continue to promote bigoted ideas, they should lose their award without any further ceremony.
That’s why at time of writing nearly 90,000 people have signed the Revoke racist "Sir" Bob Jones of his Knighthood petition. Over a thousand people have donated more than $40,000 to help Maihi’s considerable court costs as well.
One thing that racists often do is disregard indigenous people’s rights, culture and identity. Jones does this all the time and should therefore be considered a racist. If he’s not mocking Maori for their circumstances or appearance, he’s belittling Maori culture in some of the most widely read syndications in New Zealand.
Jones knows that the controversy he creates by claiming things like Maori are blackmailing the Crown with the Treaty of Waitangi, which is in fact a signed contract, ensures his articles attain significant readership. He also knows that having his divisive views appear as relevant commentary emboldens other racists.
Acrimonious old fools like Jones shouldn’t be promoted as being relevant. Their hatred simply shouldn't be published in the first place. If they are then it's the publics right to treat them with the contempt they deserve. But until such divisiveness ends New Zealand cannot hope to create a more inclusive and equal society.
