ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the issue of race discrimination in the New Zealand workplace from the narratives of 31 migrant and New Zealand-born Samoans as part of a broader research study of the ‘brown glass ceiling’. Using an Indigenous Samoan Teu le va approach that acknowledges unique relationships between people from a Samoan context, this chapter examines this discrimination's historical precedents, particularly the occupational segregation within which Pacific workers are concentrated. This chapter highlights that Samoans experience institutional racism in exclusion, hurtful jokes, racial slurs and tokenism. Furthermore, Samoans manifested signs of internalised racial oppression traced back to the Dawn Raids and other events where the New Zealand administration governed Samoa. These forms of discrimination heightened feelings of mistrust, anger and ‘differentness’ and were perceived as career barriers. Samoans coped by ‘acting white’, worked ‘twice as hard’ or suffered in silence, succumbed to negative stereotypes, exacted justice, quit their jobs and, more importantly, avoided seeking top managerial positions. Such responses reinforce the over-representation of Samoans in low-paid, low-skilled occupations. This chapter has important implications for our theoretical and practical understanding of how racism contributes to stalled careers, hurt and humiliation, racial oppression and low rates of Samoans and Pacific people in managerial positions in the New Zealand workplace.
