From family backlash to insidious microaggressions, it’s important to understand how racism affects interracial dating, and a new report is highlighting issues.
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Sarah Wikotu (right) embraces her friend Kerrie Dick when the surprise podium party is revealed. Dick organised a “podium finish” for Wikotu after a scoring error put her in second place at the Fittest Mum Competition and denied her the podium in Auckland.
Sarah Wikotu spent a year sweating out her grief with hard training to win the Fittest Mum Competition in honour of her murdered friend, only to be denied her podium victory through a scoring error. Not prepared to let it slide, her best friends secretly rallied the Blenheim Crossfit community together to give Wikotu the podium finish she deserved.
By Thursday evening, the bulldozer blade was gone.
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A truck tries to hide the bulldozer blade on Thursday. Tineka Smith, who informed police, the Marlborough District Council and the Human Rights Commission about the sign, said on Friday to see it gone was “such a sense of relief lifted off my shoulders”. It was not until the sign had gone that she realised just how heavily it had impacted her, Smith said. “It felt like it was quite a hard fight. To have the outcome that we weren’t actually sure we were going to get, it’s just awesome.