Meme exposing New Zealand’s racist past is exposed amid Black Lives Matter protests

A historical photograph of the Ku Klux Klan riding down the streets of Auckland has been used to caution New Zealanders against being too judgmental about racism they perceive in America.

That image and others have been circulated online to remind New Zealanders that their country was not always as ‘woke’ as they like to think.

‘Don’t get on too high a horse New Zealand, we have work to do,’ the post is captioned. 

It comes amid protests by the Black Lives Matter movement in response to last month’s death of George Floyd, an African American, soon after an officer knelt on his neck for nine minutes while making an arrest.

The first image in the montage is of a group of students on horseback dressed in the white robes and hoods of the KKK.

The students rode down an Auckland street in 1923 as part of the University of Auckland’s Capping Parade.

Months later, four shops in nearby Mt Eden were burnt down, with the Klan taking responsibility.

In another parade in the town of Gisborne, one person is seen strolling down the street dressed as a member of the Klan during the 1950s.

The man was carrying a noose, and had the letters K.K.K. across his gown.

Students from the Auckland University feature again in a photo taken in the late 1970s showing some dressed up in blackface, mocking a Māori tribe.

The university’s engineering students had been dressing up in grass skirts, drawing penises on themselves and mimicking the Māori people for years in what many found offensive. 

The online meme features the moment a Māori activist, Hilda Halkyard, confronts the students who were in the midst of performing an offensive parody of the haka. 

The last photo in the meme shows members from the Hawera Mt View Lions Club riding on a float in a parade while wearing blackface during November, 2018

The last photo in the montage showed members of the Hawera Mt View Lions Club in black face while riding on a parade float in November, 2018.

Six people including one child were seen with face paint on and were even awarded second place in the parade, and gifted $600 by the mayor.

At the time the club’s chair defended the decision and denied any accusations of racism.

‘For goodness sake, we’re a Lions club, we put a float in every year, we didn’t have a theme this year, so we decided to go black and white, and they had face paint because they were painting kids faces and the rest of it, so we painted our faces,’ Jo Babington told Stuff.

‘What’s wrong with that? Some small-minded, bigoted person has called us racist, threatened to bash us up; it’s not worth replying to.’

The club later issued an apology after facing backlash online.

The post comes amid a global Black Lives Matter movement after the death of unarmed African American, George Floyd (pictured: protestors in Sydney)

‘It was never our intention to offend anyone. We got this wrong. We were naive. We are really disappointed in ourselves. We are a voluntary organisation that is involved in many projects that help people make our community better,’ the club said.

Several other incidents of New Zealanders wearing blackface have surfaced in recent years.

The former Bachelor star Art Green, attended a Bollywood themed party in blackface in 2015.

A bar in Hamilton was condemned after hosting a jungle university party where some women dressed as Aboriginals.

In 2013, an Auckland Burgerfuel staff member painted his face black while handing out fliers to promote the restaurant’s new Jamaican burger.

The head office later apologised for the PR stunt.