NZ racism hits different: ‘I’m not even going to try to pronounce the next name’:
Come exam time every year, an external supervisor would take the roll. And every year, without fail, he’d stop when he reached my name. “I’m not even going to try to pronounce the next name,” he would say, surveying us.
About 55 years ago, when I was in school in Christchurch, a girl in our class was named Christine Yagodzenski. Without fail teachers would either stutter over her last name and give up, or just call her Christine Yag.
It was shameful then and I'm horrified to hear things still haven't changed.