Racism or Cultural Insensitivity?

Earlier this week this video was put up by CNN:





Personally I don't think it's Racist - I'd say it was more Culturally Insensitive and more than a little ignorant. There's no doubt that it perpetuates some racial stereotypes with the various sound effects they use throughout it.

That being said, I think the most offensive thing (and that's saying something!) to me is the vitriol seen in the comments section! Seriously, if you find something offensive and ignorant do you have to demonstrate how enlightened you are by responding in exactly the same way?
I almost feel like NZ should apologise to CNN now!

On a side note, hats off yet again to the British papers. They really set the bar for clever newspaper headlines time and time again!

What racial stereotypes did it perpetuate?

The fact that my culture lacks an actual language and basically consists of guttural grunts and shrieks. For a people with no written language, speech and song are far more indicative than This soundtrack would suggest.

nzlockie: To be honest the clip seemed to show too many people with different genetic backgrounds grunting and shrieking (your words not mine) to give any kind of racist impression.

I certainly got a vibe "look at all this PC gone wild the leaders of the free world have to hang out with barbarians."

I would really like to know what you meant by 'speech and song are far more indicative than this soundtrack would suggest' indicative of what?

ADreamOfLiberty: Yeah sorry, typing on phone. Better word would have been representative. I meant "indicative of the culture".

nzlockie: So you're saying the dancing and the song are more important than the clip implied? (although I didn't hear much implied other than "haha that guys got a butt tattoo")

ADreamOfLiberty: The dancing yes sure, but also especially the speech and song. The shrieking and grunting is a small part of the whole thing, really only used in the dance.

The warrior pictured is a small part of the powhiri. The Royal family is VERY aware of it, and always treat it with tremendous respect. I get that it might look strange to the CNN lady, and i even get that she may have poked a little fun at it but I would have thought that she could have been a little more respectful than she was, knowing that the customs she was witnessing were pretty important to both the parties involved.

My main point though was the bordering on hypocritical response in the comment section. Not a very classy response.

nzlockie: *checks most upvoted comments*

> "What a ignorant ****"
> "This is extremely ignorant and low."
> "CNN is irrelevant"
> "CNN showing amazing cultural sensitivity. Oh not really."
> "**** you CNN"
> "There seriously must be monkeys working in that place."
> "Mocking other cultures just for being different, oh how very clever."

You know, I actually totally agree with all of this. I don't think it's ignorant of the issue or offensive. Some commenters do look like they went too far, but you've got to remember that about 80% of people can't tell the difference between "the reporter was uninformed" and "what a ignorant ****". People rarely adopt a classy register for youtube comments of all things.

My view - reporter should apologize. I mean, she wasn't just mocking Maoris here, she was mocking "natives", including some who weren't Maori. This kind of colonialist thinking belongs in the 1700s. America is really the last great colonizer and it should stop.

nzlockie: In fairness, how many intelligent people read the Daily Mail? :v

admin: America has not colonies.

"CNN is irrelevant" is something I heartily agree with, I honestly don't care enough about CNN to care if this is insensitive; it would be the least of CNN's failures in my view.

SteveHawkins: Only you.