It is OK to be Pakeha: to be descended from the British who colonized New Zealand after the treaty. To be part of this nation. To bring the heritage of the West to the Antipodes. It is far better to take pride in such than be Australian, and mourn the existence of the British colonies, in a false, virtue seeking, sentimentality that sweetly nauseates as it destroys anything that makes that nation good or great. There are many who are afraid to say it lest they are considered racist, such as the numpties in Napier.

For an American visitor to Napier last Saturday it caused bemusement and then a chuckle — but for several locals, the mayor and tourism folk it was anything but a joke.

It was a printed sign, in black ink on an A3-size sheet of paper, and in large capital letters featured the words “ITS OKAY TO BE WHITE”.

Three posters were pasted together on a specially built sign pillar directly opposite the Sound Shell and just a short walk from the Napier i-Site Centre where hundreds of visitors from two visiting cruise ships came and went during the day.

The local spotted them during the morning but he had missed them at first passing and it was only after the tourist approached him that he took them in.

“He was African-American and he asked ‘are you folks racists?” the local man, who asked not to be named, said.

“But he thought it was a bit of a joke and just laughed and walked on.”

The man said he told the visitor that like the US and most other countries “we too have the odd political miscreant in the community”.

The visitor laughed, and then asked for directions to the Art Deco Centre and got on with enjoying his stay in the Bay.

The local man said he was angry and embarrassed and tore down the three signs.

He asked volunteers from the newly instigated Napier Ambassadors teams to keep an eye out for any others, but had not heard of any other sightings.

It is not racism to love your own people and nation and tribe. Loving your own does not mean you hate the stranger, you just know that he is a guest, and it is your house, so your rules apply. When you visit his land, his rules apply. The sensitivities of Black Americans may be appropriate somewhere — but they are not appropriate in NZ.

It is provincial. It is OK to be Kiwi, a white Kiwi, a Pakeha. I’m quoting a local regional councilor here, from Facebook.

I don’t link to facebook.

I really like being a member of western European civilisation transplanted to the relatively new country of New Zealand. I like our continuous line of civilisation from the ancient Greeks, I like our desire for freedom and democracy, I like the tolerance that we generally practise today. I don’t regret the distant past: it happened. There were no perfect peoples and it was the nature of humankind for the strong to prevail and the weak to succumb. But I am glad that our thoughts, our language, our world concept generally triumphed and genuinely created most of the great institutions of humanity. I guess that’s, in part, why I’m proud to be Pakeha. I can trace our culture back thousands of years, I can point to the advancements that spring from our civilisation. I like that our culture is generally a force for good, for acceptance, for humanity.