We lost as Aucklanders are racist!!

The Spinoff reports:

In his first public appearance since losing the Auckland mayoral election to Wayne Brown, Efeso Collins has spoken about the campaign and the uphill battle created by a swathe of racism in the electorate – as identified in research that he commissioned. 

Collins was appearing as one of a group of speakers in a session yesterday on diversity in democracy at He Whenua Taurikura Hui, the annual conference on countering terrorism and violent extremism. He was relieved to make an appearance after “three weeks locked in my house” since the campaign ended, he joked. 

At the outset of his campaign, an independent consultant’s assessment of the electoral landscape and perceptions of the two-term south Auckland councillor’s candidacy returned some bleak findings, he said. “The biggest challenge for Efeso [stated] in the report was: the colour of his skin.”

“We are a diverse, egalitarian society, I’d been taught at university,” said Collins, “Except when you get research groups that tell you what the challenge is. Somebody even put a number on it. They said, ‘Efeso, this will cost you between 20,000 and 30,000 votes’. You think about that for a minute. Brown boy, Ōtara born and raised, standing for the highest office in the city – and I can talk about it now – I had to find 30-odd thousand voters who are at least going to be kind to me given that I’m brown. That’s what diversity and democracy looks like in our city, perhaps in our nation today.”

I’m puzzled. When John Tamihere lost to Phil Goff, did anyone claim that was because John has brown skin?

Collins lost because he was perceived as the status quo candidate at a time when dissatisfaction with the status quo was very high. And it wasn’t close – he lost by almost 60,000 votes.

Collins is confident, however, that his own run for the mayor will have made some positive impact. Speaking to media at his election day event in Ōtara, he said: “I hope that young people and young brown kids in particular look at my candidacy and go, ‘Wow, it’s normal now.’” 

Again, did he miss the Tamihere candidacy?

Or are you only a role model for young people when you stand for Labour, rather than against Labour?