White, middle-class men are privileged? Get off the grass, as Don Brash might say.

OPINION: There's never been a more dangerous time in history to be a white, middle-class man in New Zealand.

This is a group living in fear of arriving home to find the land under their house has been reclaimed by Maori, a refugee family has moved in, and in any case, they can't afford the mortgage because feminists' demands for "equal pay" mean there's less available in the company's budget.

Don Brash and his new support group for white people, the Hobson's Pledge Trust, might be just the hero that the white, middle-class Kiwi man needs.

Pakeha have been crying out (in internet forums and casually racist watercooler banter) for an organisation to lobby on their behalf, to give white folks a fairer go in Aotearoa. I mean, New Zealand.

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A week ago, when Stuff published an analysis of New Zealand's most and least diverse regions, as part of our local government series, many readers were outraged.

"2016 - the year it's a crime to be white," one marginalised commenter said.

That's right. In this year of Black Lives Matter, when more than four black people have been shot dead by US police every week, it's the white people of the world who are having the worst time.

Folks of European origin might still dominate nearly every region of New Zealand, but slowly, that territory is slipping out from under their feet. Some parts of the country are now only 95 per cent European!

"Imagine living in Auckland. You'd feel like a stranger in your own land. Only 60% European! That is shocking," wrote one proud opponent of New Zealand's creeping diversity.

Others accused councils of "discriminating against white people" by encouraging ethnic diversity in their own hiring practices, and deemed "Pakeha" a "racist label ... as derogatory as the 'N-word'".

Another questioned: "Why don't white people have organisations to stand up for them as brown people do to protect them?"

Why, indeed.

Beyond white pride groups like the National Front and its spinoff Right Wing Resistance, there's not much in the way of choice for non-skinheads.

Enter Don Brash and friends, standing up for what is white, against the "Treaty Gravy train" and the "shrill cries of Maori".

Among those sympathetic to the group is Perry Spiller, who was a founding member of the failed political party 1Law4All. Spiller's name and face don't appear on the Hobson's Pledge website, although he did register it on the group's behalf.

In a blog post that some people might deem rather racist, Spiller said the groups aren't the same, but both are aimed at ending "racist privilege" against white people (not to be confused with ending white privilege among racists).

Rather than remedying inconvenient issues like Maori over-representation in crime and prison statistics, Hobson's Pledge instead moots a path to equality by throwing out the Treaty of Waitangi.

Skipping past Maori underachievement in schools, it focuses on the big issues: why do all schoolchildren have to learn the national anthem in te reo Maori?

The group's unveiling comes in a week when an academic suggested renaming Massey University because its prime ministerial namesake was racist.

The public response was near unequivocal: quit picking on Pakeha men!

For too long, white people have been kept in their place: the corridors of power, the bench, law enforcement and academia; over-represented in NCEA results and sunburn rates.

Without Brash's intervention, just imagine what the New Zealand of the future might look like.

* This story previously stated that Perry Spiller is the leader of 1Law4All, which is incorrect. He is a co-founder of the party.

* Comments on this article have now closed.