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An Auckland University researcher says a study of Maori home ownership provides a challenge to those who would deny that Maori are affected by institutional racism.
The study which is part of the wider New Zealand Attitudes and Values Survey found that those people who rated themselves as looking more Maori are less likely to own their own homes.
Dr Carla Houkamau from the university's Business School says the question on appearance was recently added to a wider survey on Maori identity, after the research found statistically significant differences in a number of areas between people with one or two Maori parents.
She says tackling racism starts with accepting it exists.
"What we can do is support those arguments by demonstrating that if you have a look at a population of 560 and they rate themselves on the scale we have got, if they have differential outcomes and you can't relegate that outcome to any other thing rather than how they look," Dr Houkamau says.
The nature of the survey means it's hard to pin down the extend of the problem today, and a longtitudinal study many be needed which returns to the same group over a number of years,
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