Are we becoming less willing to call out bad behaviour?

The useful part

People standing back and watching racist abuse on Auckland's Queen St, Winston Peters telling Lawrence Xu-Nan to go back to his own country. One weekday recently, my wife was on Auckland's Queen St, waiting to cross at an intersection, when she witnessed a racist verbal attack. The perpetrator was an elderly Pākehā man, the victim a young NZ-Chinese man.

How it works

• It reminded me of a situation a few years ago when my wife and I were verbally harassed on a late night Waiheke ferry for being gay, for daring to show affection by cuddling after a long day.
• The racist abuse, sadly, didn't surprise me, but the reaction of the other people standing at the lights did, because they did nothing.
• She told the elderly man, in no uncertain terms, that he could not say that, and that this young man has just as much right to be in this country as he does.
• A young drunk guy tormented us good and proper, for pretty much the whole ferry ride.

Details worth keeping

The only person to step in and call out this bullshit out was my wife. Still no-one else chimed in, not even just to back her up. No one stepped in to defend us or tell him to shut it.