Brown Brother

Brown Brother
Speech
Joshua Iosefa

Brown Brother is about a young pacific islander Joshua Iosefa a prefect from Mount Roskill Grammar School who talks about how proud he is to be an islander and explains why his culture is really important to him as a young Pacific Islander. He talks about the Polynesians and Maori's coming together as one to keep moving forward instead of staying behind. He talks about the lifestyle of a Pacific Islander where most people don't fancy maths, english and science than p.e or music because they love that more than the other subjects they take in school. Other than that this speech is very strong, it explains a lot about describing everything that's brown to himself also the people from his community as Pacific Islanders.

One idea in this speech was the perseverance he has toward his kind because him joining the 1st XV and expecting himself to not make it in the team without motivating himself, although he has support from his family and friends to help him strive for the best in what he can do in the school also in the team. An example of which he says he cannot play rugby is when he quotes "who needs to be able to quote Shakespeare when they can play rugby", meaning that you do not need to be intelligent or smart to be able to play rugby, it does not matter if your white or brown, because everyone is equal.

A word that Intrigued me in this speech was Heritage. Because everything that is brown around him describes his heritage for instance he says "Brown like the bark of the palm tree that supports my heritage. Brown like the table of which my family sits and eats upon. Brown like the paper bag containing burgers and fries by which my people consume etc" this means that everything that he is compose to and what his people inherit in the form of their culture that has a meaning to it. His background is based on stereotypes given by individuals of society, therefore they live in a life of discrimination by the opposite race. "Whenever someone tries to breach my comfort zone or whenever I don't have anything else to say in defence and an argument im going to say that "you're a racist", that your words are a mockery in my skin tone and my color." this means that if the opposite race dares to breach our comfort zone we are gonna say what we think about the situation in hand.

A message or one thing I learnt after reading this text was where he says "For where you go, you take us with you. Brown Brother, do not be afraid to be the first, the first to graduate, the first to climb, the first prime minister, or the first good wife-brown brother, do not be afraid to be the change. Not in skin tone or color, but a change in mindset. From one brown brother to another." he has the mindset to change everything around him and the society he lives in. We live in a world where racism occurs where the opposite race claims to be superior than the rest.