Paul Henry lost his job for promoting the wrong sort of racism

Controversial TV host Paul Henry played a useful roll prior to his resignation last week, not in keeping ratings high- as they seem to be staying up since his departure from the publicly owned broadcaster- but in providing the state with a cheerleader for its policies dressed up as an anti-establishment figure. Henry was known for the blatantly offensive remarks he made routinely on his morning news show, such as referring to Scottish signer Susan Boyle as “retarded” and persistently making fun of a female guest based on her appearance (“that was a moustache on a lady!”). While there were complaints abound in these instances, other New Zealanders flocked to support him, seeing him as a one-man juggernaut against "political correctness" (albeit a one-man juggernaut given a daily TV show and paid $300,000 a year by Television New Zealand).

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Once a week, the former National Party parliamentary candidate would be joined by Prime Minister John Key, and pitch him a few easy questions- nothing controversial in this segment, contrary to Henry's usual behaviour. Its only in the past few weeks that Henry went, not so much “too far”, but “too far in the wrong direction.” Asking if Governor General Sir Anand Satyanand- born in New Zealand to Fijian Indian migrants, was "even a New Zealander" and whether his successor would "look and sound like a New Zealander" was probably a little embarrassing for Key, but Henry's big faux pas was mocking the name of New Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, calling her “Dick Shit” and saying the name was "so appropriate because she's Indian." (whatever he meant by that). The incident saw India's Ministry of External Affairs issue a statement and summon the New Zealand envoy in New Delhi to lodge its protest.

Henry resigned on Sunday, with rumours circulating that he would have been sacked if he hadn't. But why just now? Henry has made a racist remarks in the past, such as suggesting tomatoes carry disease because of “those Hispanic people who pick them” and asserting that women in the developing world don't care when their new born babies die because “they have so many children over there”. Surely that is of greater offence than his infantile comparison of a foreign surname to English profanity, which is indeed offensive, but the sort of thing we should expect from a man who once had an on air fit of laughter over his own comment that “old people need to go to the toilet a lot”. After Henry's mocking of Shelia Dikshit a high profile Indian politician (and a member of the Brahmin caste, the only ones who can use the name “Dikshit” which means "one who has received religious initiation") Raga D'silva, deputy chairman of the India New Zealand Business Council said, in reference to negotiations for a NZ-India free trade agreement; "Our diplomatic leaders need to start looking at ways of rectifying this matter with immediate effect...Considering India is all about relationships - a slur like this will not be taken lightly."

This sort of racism, is the kind that's bad for New Zealand's elite. The New Zealand business class want access for their products to the emerging markets in India (and elsewhere) and Paul Henry is no longer the type of public face they want New Zealand to have on the international stage. The remarks about infant mortality however, are a more “business friendly” sort of racism. Those comments reinforce ideas about poverty being related to population, rather than economic relations within and between nations, and they reinforce ideas that people from the developing world are different, people without values who couldn't possibly integrate into New Zealand society. Whether Paul Henry agrees with those sentiments or not, a mainstream airing of racist views justifies further racism in the general population, a prime example of which is the abusive comments left on the Facebook page for an anti-racism protest organised by Fijian Indian students Narita Chandra and Niki Singh, who were told to “go back to their own country”.

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Usha Rani, an Indian immigrant to New Zealand, is facing deportation.

This kind of racism is useful for the ruling class when the state wants to deport people like Usha Rani and Sital Ram Mall, Indian migrants to New Zealand who have been in the country illegally since their permit expired in 2003. The couple come from the dalit or "untouchable" caste. If deported, they would live with relatives in a village in the Punjab, sharing a house with no sanitation or cooking facilities with two other families. They would also have to leave their three New Zealand born children behind. Paul Henry's outdated white chauvinism is out of step with the modern world where the elite want good relationships with the non-white world, for reaching the goal of unrestricted movement of goods and money, but silently look the other way when it comes to racist views that keep in place the increasingly restrictive movement of people, who are held in place or moved around to keep wages low everywhere and keep the poor and oppressed of the world divided against each other. Paul Henry didn't lose his job because he's a racist- its been known that he's held racist views for a long time now- he lost his job because he is the wrong sort of racist.