Is New Zealand a White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy?
One of my favourite authors, a black American writer and academic, bell hooks, in describing America, claims that social hierarchy is not only based on the subordination of women, it is also white supremacist and capitalist. This results in a society in which theoretically men are the powerful, women the powerless; capitalists the powerful, workers the powerless; white people the powerful, non-white people the powerless. Gender, class and race shape society. But in reality it is more complex than theory. Not all brothers are equally powerful and not all sisters are equally oppressed. At times, class or racial status trumps the rule of the brothers. Bell hooks has shown me how to understand the challenges to tino rangatiratanga for indigenous and minority peoples at a global level. For me, she has inspired my thinking and given voice to my frustrations with social, political, and racial issues. I read her books and essays about sexism, racism, class issues, capitalism and find myself no
