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Mahuta slams 'keyboard warrior' after 'N-word' slur

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Mon, 30 May 2022, 4:03PM
 Photo / Mark Mitchell
Photo / Mark Mitchell

Mahuta slams 'keyboard warrior' after 'N-word' slur

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Mon, 30 May 2022, 4:03PM

Senior Cabinet Minister Nanaia Mahuta has dobbed in a keyboard warrior who called her the "N word". 

Mahuta is frequently the subject of racially-charged abuse, though she rarely comments on it. 

Last week, Mahuta was sent a Facebook message which contained a number of slurs. 

The message read: "F**K off out of Parliament you overpaid useless f*****g n****r". 

Mahuta posted a screenshot of the message to her followers on Instagram, with the caption: "This is The rubbish type of stuff faceless keyboard warrior are sending to me - [SIC]". 

When contacted by the Herald, the sender said he did not regret using that language. 

"Not at all." he said. 

Instead, he appeared to defend his attack on Mahuta. 

"Tell me this. If she was pakeha or nz European do you think she would still be in Parliament after how she's perfomed [SIC]," he said. 

"So is she trying to get herself out of the spotlight by cry's of racism? [SIC]," he said. 

Mahuta's language echoed that of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's Harvard Commencement speech from earlier in the week which decried the "keyboard warrior". 

"It's used to refer to someone who makes aggressive or abusive posts online, often anonymously. I like the name. In my mind, when I read something especially horrific on my feed, I imagine it's written by a lone person unacquainted with personal hygiene practices, dressed in a poorly fitted superhero costume – one that is baggy in all the wrong places," Ardern said. 

"Keyboard warrior or not though, it's still something that has been written by a human, and it's something that has been read by one too," she said. 

Mahuta was offered the opportunity to comment further on this story, but declined. 

Anti-Māori abuse is being copped by many members of Parliament. It has become so widespread that even non-Māori MPs using Te Reo Māori cops criticism. 

A Facebook tribute from Christopher Luxon to Joe Hawke, a former Labour MP and leader of the Bastion Point occupation, was roundly attacked for using Te Reo Māori. 

Facebook users asked Luxon, "Chris why are you also trying to placate the minority by talking Māori? Joe Hawke was not in any way great to a lot of New Zealanders." 

Another asked him to "Stop talking and pandering to a minority, you just lost my vote." 

- by Thomas Coughlan, NZ Herald

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