Maoris and Black Americans: members of the fourth world

Tu Tangata, Issue 17, 1 April 1984, Page 24

Maoris and Black Americans: members of the fourth world

By Robert Staples, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California.

As a black American I knew little about the South Pacific and even less about the native groups occupying the white settler countries of Australia and New Zealand.

By chance I was invited to be a visiting research fellow at the Institute of Family Studies in Melbourne, Australia, during the summer and spring of 1982. Although allowed to work on projects of my choice, I elected to study and work with Australian aboriginals. Whereas I developed a fraternal bond with the aborigines and still maintain strong ties to that community, there were great differences between their situation and ours. They were a rural, land based group that comprised less than one per cent of Australia’s population. Hence, I journeyed to Auckland to seek out the maoris with whom black americans share a greater commonality.

Having obtained the names of a few maoris from my aboriginal friends, I flew to Auckland for a brief visit. As soon as I called Mr Colin Reeder, an urban planner for the Auckland City Council, he immediately came to get me and I was introduced to other members of the maori community. At once I was struck by the degeee to which we shared a similar situation in our respective white settler countries. Both the maori and black american groups constitute 12 per cent of the total population of their respective countries, and each group is an urban, working class population. Those salient characteristics, coupled with their existence in a country settled by anglo saxons has led to an incredibly surprising resemblance between the two groups.

Before pointing out those likenesses, it is incumbent upon me to note some variations between the two groups, Maoris are the original inhabitants of their land, an indigenous group which has retained much of its language and culture. Black americans were brought to the United States as slaves and stripped of their names, language and culture. An interesting distinction between the two groups is that maoris were not allowed to claim maori membership, until recently, unless they were of more than half maori origin. Conversely, black americans had no choice in their racial membership: any degree of black ancestry classified them as Black. Because of their native status, the maoris have a special relationship to their white settler government that black americans do not. There is a special political roll for

maoris, and other governmental units devoted entirely to them. While black americans receive some special governmental assistance, it is generally assistance available to all economically disadvantaged groups in the United States. That assistance targeted toward special groups has to be shared with other racial minorities (indians and hispanics) and occasionally with women of european descent.

An interesting similarity between the two groups is the role of women. In my encounters with maori women I observed that many of them were strong and independent but retained their femininity. I found out that maori women held leadership posts in many maori organisations. Some of them had organised what might be called a maori feminist movement to deal with women’s issues. Those patterns parallel similar tendencies among black american women. A disparity between the two groups is the sex ratio. The 1981 New Zealand census reports that there were approximately 567 more maori men than women, a sex ratio of 99.6 females to every 100 males. In the marriageable years, 20-44, there are slightly more maori women than men. In the United States, there are approximately one million and a half more black women than men, a sex ratio of 87 males to every 100 females. Such an imbalance in the sex ratio makes it difficult for many black

women to form a monogamous family and contributes to the high proportion of female headed households.

Because maori and black american men are both physically aggressive groups, they play a dominant role in their nation’s athletic teams. While the sports played in the two countries differ (U.S. football, N.Z. rugby) the two groups bring to their sports a special style of speed and aggressiveness that makes them much sought after for these activities. The two groups are also over-represented in their respective nation’s military, partly due to a high unemployment rate among their youth and because they are physically aggressive.

Of course, some of the maori/black american differences are traceable to diversities in the two countries. New Zealand is a small country of four million inhabitants with a gross national product based on agricultural activity whereas the United States is an industrialised society with more than 235 million people. Hence, persons of maori descent numbered 385,524 at the 1981 census in comparison to 27 million blacks in America. Nevertheless, the statistical evidence is cogent proof that non-whites do not fare well in white settler societies. While there has been much progress in the last twenty years, it is clear that due to differences in skin colour, cultural values and life styles, non-whites do not have equal access to opportunity structures in countries dominated by anglo-saxons.

Beginning with the right to earn a living, the United States and New Zealand census shows an unemployment rate of 21 per cent for black americans and 27 per cent for adult maoris, a rate much higher than that of anglo-saxons (8 per cent, U.S.A.; 6 per cent, N.Z.) in 1983. Similarly, and even worse, is the unemployment rates of black and maori youths. The rate of unemployment for Maori youths was 49 per cent and for black american youths 53 per cent in 1981. Both maori and black american families earn about 55 per cent of the income of anglo-saxon families. In terms of occupational distribution, the main occupations of maoris were labourers, food and beverage processors and transportation equipment operators. Black americans were in three summary occupational groupings: operators, fabricators and labourers. Anglo-saxons were more heavily concentrated in managerial, farming and techical occupations. Educational differences between the

groups are harder to measure as are the school qualifications for certain occupations. The educational differences between black americans and anglo-saxons have narrowed in the last

decade, with anglos having a median educational attainment of 12.3 years of schooling compared to 12.0 for black americans in 1982. In that same year, the percentage of anglo-saxons be-

tween the ages of 25-34, who had completed at least one year of university training was 46 per cent, whereas 36 per cent of black americans had attained the same level (9). The comparable figures for New Zealand show that in 1981 the highest school qualification held for 18.5 per cent of the anglosaxons was university entrance or equivalent and that only 3.7 per cent of Maoris had reached the same level.

Because black americans and maoris have higher rates of unemployment and less income than anglo-saxons, they are also over-represented among those arrested and imprisoned for violations of the law. Again, the statistics show the remarkable affinity of the two groups. In 1982, maoris made up 33.1 per cent of all New Zealanders arrested and brought to trial while black americans composed 36 per cent of all arrests, much higher than their percentage in the general population. Another factor contributing to their higher arrest rate is the younger ages of the maori and black american population. Chronic offenders are often under the age of 25. The median age for the maori population was 18.3 years compared to a median age of 28.9 years for the anglosaxon population. In the United States, black americans have a median age of 24.3 years; Anglo-Saxons had a midpoint age distribution of 30 years.

Because non-whites in white settler societies share a common situation and a shared fate, I have used the term “The Fourth World” to conceptualise their commonalities. The fourth world is composed of those non-white groups living in white settler societies, generally defined as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Such societies share the following characteristics: (1) nonwhites are not in the social system voluntarily, but have it imposed on them; (2) their native culture is modified or destroyed; (3) control is in the hands of people outside their community and (4) racism prevails, i.e. a group seen as different or inferior in terms of alleged biological traits is exploited, controlled, and oppressed socially and psychologically by a group that defines itself as superior.

However, the fourth world need not be defined solely by the negative effects of its status. It is also a world community of people that place people above property in their value schemes, that possesses a spirituality that puts them in touch with nature and their feelings, a world culture that believes in mutual aid and compassion for the downtrodden, where the kinship group is still strong and the elderly receive respect. These are all aspects of tribally organised group life that have not been destroyed by European conquest and settlement. And, it is this bond that connects us across oceans and epochs.

Professor Staples, a black american, wrote this article exclusively for Tu Tangata Magazine after spending some time late last year in New Zealand.

Comparisons of anglo-saxon and black/maori value orientations

Value Orientations Anglo-Saxons Black and Maori Time An element in society by which Flexible abherence to schedules. the individual compulsively What is happening now is importregulates his life. Punctuality is of ant and one must adapt to ranges highest priority. in time rather than fixed periods. Emotions To be under rigid control in order Expression of natural feelings in to maintain discipline and not re- all settings, public and private, veal emotional weakness. To be Spontaneity in response to very guarded in public settings events and gestures is common, and never to be fully released. Be uninhibited and loose in reactions to verbal and physical stimuli. Let your inner feelings show and exude warmth. Money To be frugal in its use, saved for Is to be used to further cornfuture purposes. To be accumu- munalism. Money per se is not lated even when not needed in important, not the measure of order to possess the value it has. human value. Wealth is consumpOften used to control persons tive rather than exploitative. How who have little of it and limited money is used is more important access to its acquisition. than its acquisition. Property is a collective asset, no an individual one. Morals Strongest ones related to per- How you treat people is of sonal morals such as sexual be- highest priority. Helping people in havior, belief in God, cleanliness, need is an important moral. Abmoderation in use of alcohol, staining from harm to people or tobacco, etc. groups. A belief in the dignity of your fellow humans.

Value Orientations Anglo-Saxons Black and Maori Status Based on your income, family Stems from personal qualities background, cultural skills, such as courtesy, compassion, amount of power over others, friendliness, and naturalness. Inrace, religion, sex, etc. novatier and adaptability also admired. Children Are often extensions of the Are seen as as a value in themparents. Expected to achieve a selves, to be nurtured as a depenstatus similar to or higher than dent being and loved throughout the parents. Will be loved and life regardless of their achievesupported if they conform to ments. Creativity and free exparental values. Love is with- pression are encouraged. Often drawn if they deviate from certain regarded as equal member of the social norms. Obedience to family structure, parental authority highly valued. Individualism In human society each individual The concept of the individual is must make his own mark through usually subordinate to a group competition for the prestige goals orientation. It is the group that is of his culture. The rewards of his important and the Black self is an victory in the competition are his incorporated part of the social alone, to be shared only with cer- group. Cooperation through coltain prescribed people (e.g., wife, lective efforts is the accepted children) over whom he has con- means of achieving culturally pretrol. Those who have not scribed goals, achieved success or are without sufficient resources have only themselves to blame because of their inability to compete.